Hi guys,

My wife was using her Compaq V3000 (approx 18mths old), playing Tetris. It was minimised and then someone tripped over the power cord and it pulled out at the laptop. This caused Tetris to maximise and the laptop froze. My wife held down the power button to restart, but when it did, the following occured:

The laptop restarted and the black screen with "Press Esc to change the boot order, Press F10 to enter setup". Pressing either of these has no effect.

Next a screen appears saying:

We apologise for?the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this.
If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shut down to protect your files and folders, choose Last Known Good Configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked.
If a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or because the Power or Reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure what caused the problem, choose Start Windows Normally.

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Line

Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)

Start Windows Normally

Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice.
Seconds until Windows starts: (seconds count down)

No matter which option I choose of the latter two, the Windows XP logo comes up as normal, but then I get a split second of blue screen with white text, but it's too quick to see any of the text. The laptop then restarts, and the whole cycle goes round again.

Trying to use any of the safe mode options I get a screen of long filenames, then the same restart.

Can anybody please shed any light on what might be wrong, and how to fix it? Sad to say, when I tried to create a system restore disc back when the laptop was new, I couldn't get the disc to burn, so I don't have that as an option. Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Otherwise, where's the best place in Wellington to get a laptop repaired?