The other day at the small business I work for, Windows seemed to freeze up and shut down on me. My boss is completely illiterate with Windows and is having me solve the problem. Windows won't start up, but when it gets to the XP logo with the scrolling "loading" bar, it just starts right back over to the beginning BIOS screen. Process repeats itself over and over. The machine does not have a CD drive to which I can reinstall the software. Someone please help me fast! Any ideas?When the computer Is Starting mash the F8 Button untill you see a Screen With Gray Text on a Blak Background kinda like dos

The useing the Arrow Keys go down to the option for Last know Good

If that dosent work Try Safe mode.
Use Safe mode with networking so you can Download Hijack this and post a log here , and we can have a look and see if we can se a problemI've tried every variation of start up, from Safe Mode to last known good configuration and everything in between. Literally nothing has worked. The computer doesnt have a CD rom OR a floppy drive (don't ask me why) and if it had either I could create a boot disk from another computer. I've never had to deal with a situation this tricky before.My boss seems to tell me that since the computer is networked, that if we can update it through the DOS prompt, then it will update itself and that should FIX the problem. Is there any validity to that? He said he doesnt know the command or what to type to get to the update prompt in a PC. Can anyone make any sense of this. I'm the only one at this office using a PC and I'm an intern who the computer crapped out on the other day...and for no reason I'm the one expected to clean up this awful mess.

 Thank you to all who help.Can you temporarily pull a CD-ROM drive and/or floppy drive from another computer and install it in this one?  How have you installed software in it in the past?

Tell us what you know about the hardware SPECS.  What processor, memory, hard drive, etc?  How old is it?  Any problems with it in the past?  Any hardware or software changes made to the computer just before this happened?  Is it on a surge protector?  Are you aware of any POWER surges or electrical storms in the area?  

Do you know how to access the BIOS?  Can you access it?  If so, can you find an option to reset defaults or load optimal settings or something similar?I can only GIVE you a limited info abou the size of the computer because once again, I have only been interning here this summer and havent really given the computer much thought. Its some generic brand, Main St. Computers, has a 120Gb hard drive, AMB athlon processor, dont know the RAM, sorry.

I know how to access the bios screen and i have been playing around on it, but dont really know alot of "tricks" so to speak while I'm there.

There is an extra floppy drive here that I could probably use over there, but my boss is animate in thinking that I can just access some sort of update from teh DOS prompt over there without the CD or Floppy disk. I'm trying to tell the guy that this isnt possible, and that Windows works with bootup disks for proper usage.

you guys are really helping. Thanks for the quick update. I have till 4 today to fix this or my [email protected]& is grass.Also, I have absolutely no idea how software was installed in the past, other than the OBVIOUS, that everything was downloaded from the Internet. To get a computer without some sort of internal drive is outrageous.Would it worked if I used an EXTERNAL floppy disk drive? I have very limited options with my situation here.You should be able to boot from an external USB floppy drive if the BIOS is set to recognize a USB drive as a bootable device.  Here's a discussion on this:  Can I use USB floppy drive to boot up my desktop ?

Here's a hit from a Google search on DOS networking: The DOS-Client for Microsoft NetworksSurely you can just borrow and install a CDROM drive from another PC?  Then you can use an XP CD to do a repair installation.Who there does the computer work at your business as it is obviously not your boss...

Someone had to have set those machines up at one time.

patio.   8-)