To Repair Windows XP from your XP CD…..

1. If you have AVG Free, copy serial number to a file as you will lose it on repair. After repair a window will pop up asking how you want to treat AVG, Click repair and when prompted enter serial number.
2. Re-start PC with XP CD in drive (Have your serial number handy)
3. As your PC starts press “F12” for boot menu (Or what your PC may ask for)
4. Scroll to and select “boot from CD.”
5. At prompt “Press any key to boot from CD” Press “Any key”
6. In the Windows XP Setup window, Press “Enter” to set up windows XP, (Don’t worry, this is a repair only, not a fresh install.)
7. At next window, Press “F8” to accept license agreement
8. Wait until windows displays your current version of XP and asks “To repair the selected windows XP installation press R”
9. Press “R”
10. Enter serial number when prompted.
11. Wait for files to be copied (PC will indicate 39 mins, it will take a lot less.)
12. When asked to adjust Regional language options, click “Next” as it is still set.
13. PC will re-boot.

I have the same problem, but I am unable to get to the setup so it will boot to CD. I have tried the Delete and F12 suggestions offered, but to no avail. No matter what selection I choose, it automatically kicks me back to the black Safe Mode, etc. screen. Any other suggestions?

Are you saying that your PC will not react to pressing "Delete or F12"? If you have a USB keyboard it may not load until windows loads and therefore not work on boot up. Get a PS2 keyboard and try that. Other than that I can offer no idea as to why your PC would not go into set-up "Delete" Boot Mode "F12" . Yes there is, read your black screen at boot up, what is asked for there to enter both set-up and boot menu? If your PC is asking for something different, then use that command.

Boot menu F key varies....

F12 is supposed to be the boot menu key, but it doesn't respond. Once it gets to the black screen, the keyboard works, so I'm not sure why it would be unresponsive before that. Setup is supposed to be F1 on that computer, but it doesn't work either. I'll give the PS2 keyboard a try.

Get back with a result please

The keyboard I was using was a PS2, so no glory.

Could this be a hard drive problem?

my pc at home is having this problem. but xp was already installed when i bought this pc and didn't come with CD. what can i do?????

If none of those OS load options works then it means that you machine cannot recognise your hdd, otherwise I think you would see a different message? Use BIOS setup to check that your hdd is correctly represented in the boot order.