Hello, D-A-L:

I unfortunately powered off my friend's Linux machine (has the penguin and somehow the name "Boingo" is in logon script) which was running Windows XP while the machine was booting.

To compound the error, I selected either "Safe Mode" or "restart Windows" normally and now it won't start up but endlessly runs the logon script.

Of course my friend won't let me touch it. Have I ruined the machine and if not, what can be done?

Thank you all for your input.

If your friend put customized script on his computer then it is really hard to know how to help because we don't know what that script is designed to do and how. Does that make sense? It would be best to hear it from him what is going on.