At some point I had tried Last Known Good configuration, and that didn't work. I am now faced with a machine which won't even boot into safe mode - pressing F8 starts the process, and I can select "Start Safe Mode", but all that happens is the list of drivers etc appears, and then nothing else happens, even if left for 10 minutes. So this is obviously going to need a disc to either attempt a repair, or do a full reformat & reinstall. But like so many others the machine didn't come with one, just a shrink-wrapped bit of cardboard with a MS product key!
I have been looking on Google to try and find something to download, but all I can find is instructions for floppies (it doesn't have a floppy drive), or how to build one from a working machine, which is rather pointless now. Unless, that is, I could use the laptop I'm working on now? If some one can point me to a download link with the required files and instructions I can use to burn a CD I would be most grateful. I have "ImgBurn" on this one so it won't be a problem.