The last couple of days my pc has started to hang when it reaches the "hit Delete for bios" screen, it then take several goes at switching off then on again for it to be able to pass this point. I Don't know if this is a hardware or software problem. I'm running XP pro.

Check power and data cables and make sure all are fully "seated" and secure. If they are, then either your controller or your hard disk is starting to fail.

Thankyou for your reply, sorry for not saying so earlier, can you tell me what controller you are talking about?

I believed the controller is the HDD controller on the mainboard.

Your PC POST but cannot boot to the Windows, this seems the problem with the HDD and related parts.
Occasionally, mainboard with damaged capacitor(s) would also cause the similar issue as well.

Try, reseat the CPU, RAM and HDD data cables, reset the Bios default by removing the Bios battery for few minutes.

Hope this helps.
Bill
Tech manager