I see alot of people have had this same problem with restart loops and the dreaded blue death screen! i have read through all advice and now know i need to use the recovery console on XP cd to repair the problem, the thing is i dont have the XP cd that came with the laptop(IBM Thinkpad)! i do howevever have an XP disk that came with my mums dell is this ok to use? if i can use it will i have to put in a product key? also if i do have to enter the product key do i use the one on the back of the dell or the IBM?

Hey there llettuob. Welcome to Geeks To Go!


Ye, you can use that XP disk. Just boot from it and follow the steps until you get to the screen giving you options. Either to press "Enter" to continue or "R", you must press "R" to bring up the recovery console.


No, you won't be asked for the product key unless you decide to install Windows again. But what you might be asked is your Administrator password, so make sure you have that handy!


If you do decide to re-install, use the computers original key (Eg. Re-installing DELL, use DELL Key) . When you buy Windows, you not really buying the disc. You are buying the license that comes with it!

Cool

Thanks for your help! Ran the recovery console and got a new error msg saying ' Set up did not find any hard disk drives installed on your computer'. I have looked this up and now belive that i need SATA/SCSI drivers to be able to fix the problem, does this sound right to you? Im thinking about taking the computer back to the guy i brought it from as he supposedly put the computer together and XP on it in the first place surely he has these drivers and the original XP disk?!