Hi: Unfortunately I am (compared to all of you) a computer illiterate. I can't tell you off of the top of my head what my OS is or the CPU/Ram. I do have Windows XP and that apparently is my first problem. I have a Presario 5310US that is 2 yrs. old. It has worked "fine" this whole time, but suddently it has begun to give me fits. It seems to have started when my daughter installed the program Zoo Tycoon. It began locking up on her when I wasn't home and they had to do a bunch of hard restarts. When I did this the other night I got "the message." I didn't get a Windows Setup CD-ROM with the computer and so I cannot get to the 'r' screen it prompts me to. I've tried to use the recovery CD that did come w/ the computer, but that has only proven futile. It will appear to be runnig for 3-5 minutes and then it begins to give me error messages and then it tells me that there are too many errors and stops. From this point I have gotten no where. I am writing this to you from my work laptop. Does anyone have any ideas or am I going to have to do a factory reset and start all over?

You may want to get a hold off a Windows XP CD somehow, boot from it and try doing a repair. just a suggestion.... JTI

G'day Bruce, if you have a 98 boot disc or something to boot to the Dos prompt it may be possable [I emphasize "may'] to copy all the contents of the \Windows\Repair folder to the \Windows\system32\config folder. You could try one-at-a-time to see what happens too. I hope you know some Dos. This I believe is your first registry configuration after XP has been installed and the latter is your current one. This will mean of course that anything you have installed after the first setup will have to be re-installed again..devices, programs and personal settings etc.. I have never needed to try this but as it says 'repair' and as they are Registry files I figure this is what should be done. In the old 9x O/S's they had a 'system.1st' file which could be renamed to system.dat to help restore an original setup. If someone can confirm my theory on this for you that would be helpful.