[Essexboy]

Yes from task manager stop everything except explorer and then try to run RogueKIller or OTL

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There are no applications in the Task Manager. The Processes are:
taskmgr.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
lsass.exe
services.exe
winlogon.exe
csrss.exe
smss.exe
System
System Idle Process SYSTEM

Does this help?

[Jan1959]

There are no applications in the Task Manager. The Processes are:
taskmgr.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
lsass.exe
services.exe
winlogon.exe
csrss.exe
smss.exe
System
System Idle Process SYSTEM

Does this help?

[Essexboy]

close the svchost ones and see if that will let you run OTL

[Jan1959]

I closed down 2 of them okay but on the third one I got a message box up saying that the NT authority\system was using a Remote procedure call with a countdown clock of 60 seconds to shut down the laptop. It also said that any changes that I had made wouldn't be saved. I did notice that the 2 svchost.exe's left in the performance box had SYSTEM and NETWORK SERVICE next to them where as the words were not there before.

[Essexboy]

Until I can get some data there is little I can do as I do not yet know where the problem lies

When you reboot can you press F10 and let me know if a menu appears

[Jan1959]

A load of info flashes up just for a second and then the boot menu comes up.

[Essexboy]

What options are available on that menu

[Jan1959]

CDROM/DVD
Main Hard Drive
Boot to LAN

<Enter Setup>

[Essexboy]

I was hoping that it would give some recovery options - I need to do a little research on this

[Jan1959]

okay thanks. I appreciate all the effort that all are putting into this problem.
I'll wait to hear from you.

Thanks again

[Essexboy]

The only method I have found is to remove the hard drive and place in an external USB caddy
Connect to another computer and run a Virus scan from there

[Jan1959]

I have been fiddling with the laptop and I have now made it worse. I now have the message 'Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM' every time I start up. I have tried to put in my Windows XP disk (which boots up fine) but when I press R to start the recovery console it says that Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed on my computer.

I'm guessing that it is now RIP?

[Essexboy]

It looks like a drive identification problem I did find this where someone got a result http://www.proposeds...rd-disk-drives/

Enter your BIOS/Setup Utility
Locate the Serial ATA or SATA configuration section
I’ve seen this section called ‘On Chip Config’ on some Phoenix Award BIOS
On Lenovo/IBM ThinkPads it’s in Config > Serial ATA (Sata)
Change the mode of the SATA controller from AHCI to IDE or Compatibility
Save & Exit
Reboot and begin the Windows Setup again.
If Windows Setup successfully detects your hard disk this time then go ahead and perform the Windows Setup.
When Windows setup completes change the mode back to AHCI in the BIOS
If your problem still exists after changing this option then change it back to AHCI and proceed to Solution 2 below.

[Jan1959]

Thanks for trying but it won't let me highlight any of the anything on the main setup apart from the time and date. I don't think that there is any other way to access it.

[Essexboy]

The only way that I can see is to run the drive as a slave/external on another computer and then run the virus scan

Or you could see if OTLPE will now work