My mate has handed me his Laptop to fix. It's got a pretty difficult situation to resolve. I'll try to explain the best I can.

It boots up to Windows XP loading screen. Then bums out just before the logon screen appears. I've tried Last Known Good and Safe Mode with no joy.

OK. So it needs re-installing or repairing.

He's giving it to me with the BIOS locked (removed the battery to reset the password). Done that.

Second, I then set it to 'Optical' to try and load the Recovery CD to re-install it. Sorted.

Now, when it comes to search for the CD, the drive spins up, but for some reason after a minuteor so, it trys to load XP from the HD again. CD Knackered I thought. OK, next try my copy of XP that loads fine in mine... STILL NO JOY!

Entered setup to find a 'Boot from USB' option. It doesnt exist. 'Boot From Network' does, but I'm sure I cannot use this option.

I'm guessing the CD is screwed. But dont know for sure. He ssems to think it worked fine before Windows wouldt load.

Any suggestions on getting this thing to boot from CD? My PC boots his Sony Recovery CD. The drive in this Viao IS a DVD RW so should be reading these disks fine.