First off:

Pentium 4, 2.4 ghz processor, 800 fsb.
1 gig of ram (2 512 sticks, corsair)
2 200 gb hard drives, maxtor
windows xp, home, sp2, (i'll explain UPDATES in a sec), real key, real disk

Alright, I had not used my computer for about three weeks, and I just hooked it up last night.  I just got internet at my new place, and so my computer was hooked up to the net for less than 3 hours. 

I was sitting at the computer and had just started a video on megavideo and the computer reset.  It went straight to bios. 
After that the computer would boot like normal, but the instant the splash SCREEN appears for windows the computer resets to bios again.

I tried to start in safemode. It would load all the way until the end (agp400, or w/e the file is) and then it would reset.  It was asking at the end of safemode load if i wanted to hit esc to cancel sptd.sys from loading, but I looked that up and it says that is a daemon-tools file and safe.

I know the computer was downloading updates, but I never saw a window appear to reset the computer, etc, and I don't know if any download actually occured.  Now the computer will not start in safe mode, normal mode, or with last working settings.  It's not even resetting anymore, it's just freezing at a black screen.

I know my system stats are vague, but I built the computer from scratch (a friend helped me) and that was about 5 year ago.  I don't remember what most of the stuff is any more.

Any help would be appreciated. update:

I was looking around and I think I FOUND some illuminating information.  Apparently the Daemon-Tool file is/was the problem.  I remember now that after turning the computer on YESTERDAY I did some cleanup and un-installed a few things.  Daemon was one of them.  I recall having an ERROR while it was uninstalling but it removed it from my list of programs (control panel and start menu) and the program folder was gone.

The other website suggested I go to the sys32 folder and delete the sptd.sys file, as it was interfering with start up.  I was able to get into safe-mode, normal, by hitting enter at the point where it asked to load the sptd.sys file.  I got in, deleted the file (actually, I moved it to my desktop incase i needed it or needed to restore it).  The computer crashed and reset.  Now I can't get safemode to work at all.

I would try moving the file from my desktop back to the sys32 folder, but I can't get to dos because safemode cmd prompt isn't working...

If anyone can think of a way for me to get to dos, it would help (I don't have a floppy drive).  Knoppix maybe?Hi sadpcpanda,

yes you can use Knoppix to delete this file. But usual the NTFS file system is mounted read only in linux. AFAIR from an older Knoppix live cd you can right click on the harddisk icon on the desktop and untick the "read only" option.

I hope that your hardware is not damaged.