[ktot]

My several years old Averatec laptop (Windows XP) which I haven't used much the past few years totally died suddenly on it. The laptop was on when I was away, and when I came home, it had died, telling me to press any key to boot. Nothing works--no safe start, no debug start-up, etc. I can press F8 and get a few diagnostic screens, but nothing I set there helps. Also Del, as the Averatec start-up screen says to hit, gives me nothing that helps either. After the Windows start-up logo screen shows, a quick blue screen with about 1/2 page of text flashes on, but then quickly disappears.

First question: anyway to capture that fleeting screen? It does say something about the problem, but I can't read it in a micro-second.

Either F8 or the Del option as mentioned above does allow me to see three possible boot drives. All three, however, are in square brackets. Info. to the right says if the names are in parentheses (which I assume means square brackets here), the drives are not accessible.

I do not have the recovery CD at this location (if I can find one at all). I'm resigned to the files on the computer being gone forever (it wasn't a major computer but I wanted it active for one specific use now since it's a low-energy using computer), but is there anyway I can restore some OS so I can run the one program I need on this computer? Anything free I can download, for example? Or any suggestions on what else to try.

I did ensure the memory chip is secure in its slot, and F10 (which brings up restore on at least some computers) doesn't do anything. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks in advance.