I have windows xp on my laptop and when i switch my laptop on it will not take me beyond the specs etc, I cannot get into windows xp or in fact anywhere beyond the first part of start up, sometimes when starting up I am met with blue screens. Any ideas of how to solve this? Because I can't get into my laptop it means i cannot download stuff or change settings etc.

Best thing to do is post what you see written on the first screen.

Pause-for-thought; could be that the bios has been changed and it's not set to boot from the hard disk (disk), ntdlr error, ram might be faulty or loose, hard disk might not be correctly connected, maybe you hear some beeps.

I would first try going to your bios and clicking F7 to load bios defaults (optimum) and saving it, going back to bios and checking boot sequence.

Usually boot sequence can be floppy, cd-rom, Hard Disk, where you can use a boot disk to run virus checks, hard drive diagnostics, restore images etc........

You might have to do a repair install, no biggy, sorts out a lot of problems.

Post back and tell us if it's still not working.

The first screen that appears is the screen where I have options for safe mode etc. The computer won't let me go anywhere with any of these options except reboot.
I put in the reboot CD-ROM to my cd drive and it said press R for repair. I tried this three times, each time pressing R and ended up with three seperate messages. These were
1, \i386\system32\ntkrnlmp.exe error code 14
2, This message said it could not do anything to repair
3, Please insert a windows xp professional CD-ROM into drive A.

The third message continues to appear each time I try this and the options are exit and proceed. However the problem is that I do not have the CD-ROM it is asking for.

I don't understand what is meant by bios and am not very technically minded so if anyone could talk me thru any help step by step that would be appreciated. I have seen ntdlr at some point but cannot remember where. It told me I had a problem with this.

PLEASE HELP!!!!! MY COMPUTER IS GOING SWIMMING SOON!

Was this install slipstreamed before?

Ya'll have to borrow someones xp pro and use your legit key.

You could on boot press F5 key till boot screen appears and select last known good configuration, settings that worked.

When you get the screen you need to press enter, 'set up windows now', option 1 of list of 3 not 'R'.

Then F8 to accept agreement.

Then 'R' to repair installation.

You need a legit cd rom/dvd of windows xp pro.

What is the exact make & model of the laptop?

I assume that you are using the laptop recovery CD?

Your manual will have detailed instructions on how to recover your factory set XP.

If you personally installed XP on this laptop, then as leesmithg mentions, you will need an XP CD & your Product Key.