Hhmm..sorry to drag this one up again BUT!
I did a rebuild again from the 'hidden partition' and again all was well and good for a week or so then the same failure occurred
So the next stage was a complete format and a new copy of xp pro loaded, all the updates appeared and the only other 'major' software was a firewall, AV, itunes and open office (zonealarm and Avast). All has been good until today when basically the same thing has happened. It gets to the Windows splash screen sits there for a while and then just a blank screen and nothing further! Switching the machine off and back on results in the same except it gets to the screen that shows everything loading and then the opportunity to select safe mode/last good config. etc etc. however none of these work
.
'Computor management' didn't show anything much.
I must add that it has never failed when up and running and I was told that it had been ok when left on for a couple of days!
Any ideas? TIA.