Computer Crashes after installing SP3 - Can no longer reboot.

Hi there guys! I am a complete newbie at this and hope someone can help me with my problem.

I successfully installed SP3 in my PC. Unfortunately, since this intallation, I am unable to reboot the machine. All I get is a brief blue screen, and then it loops back into rebooting.
The big problem is that I am not able to even reboot in safe mode.

Any advice regarding this situation? Can anything be done to reboot this system and at least bring it back to a previous date?

Thanks!

P.S. I have successfully installed SP3 in my laptop and in another computer with no glitches. This third installation though has been quite troublesome
mtalmaAsked:
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GeisrudConnect With a Mentor Systems AdministratorCommented:
I had similar situation, where SP3 broke my computer.  I had to do a repair install using the windows OS disk.

Put the OS disk in and boot from CD (you may need to press a key to choose which device to boot from, if CD is not your default boot device).

After a number of files are loaded into memory, you should get an option to do a repair installation.  This will overwrite corrupted system data, but should leave your data files intact.  This will also bring you back to SP2.
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skywalker39Connect With a Mentor Commented:
I have had the same problem happen to me as well, I would suggest doing what Geisrud says, how I got SP3 to work on my computer, I had to do a fresh install, and the first thing I did when XP was loaded, I installed SP3 and it worked.
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jordanrogConnect With a Mentor Commented:
make sure you select setup on existing drive then it will say repair don't go into recovery console its all command line and you can break your rig if you do this and don't get what all the commands really do

cheers

Jordan
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mtalmaAuthor Commented:
Thank you for your solutions - Geisrud, skywalker and Jordan!

To add to the situation...Unfortunately, I do not have an OS disk! What I have is a Gateway Computer that did not bring the Win XP disk, as the OS was pre-installed in the machine.

I did check all the disks, and the one that I thought might help was an "Applications" disk. However, this is not a bootable disk.

I suppose I could call Gateway, but my computer is out of warranty, and I am afraid I will get someone in India that does not know what they are talking about - which is usually the case. :-(   I will search Microsoft's and Gateway's sites though.
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jordanrogCommented:
for a minimal charge they will usually send you the disks that are supposed to come with it. It is a pain in the *** sometimes you have to haggle with them. I would say that its worth a shot.

cheers

Jordan
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GeisrudSystems AdministratorCommented:
As jordanrog just said, I recently had to purchase setup disks for my parents computer, which was out of warranty.  Something like $30 bucks and 5 days later I had them...  They will surely want the machine's serial number and perhaps the COA number from the colourful sticker on the machine
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mtalmaAuthor Commented:
I just wanted to thank all you that have offered suggestions. After searching everywhere, I finally found the infamous Win XP disc. I inserted it in the drive, clicked on the repair mode and after a few minutes it told me that it could not repair the Operating System. It suggested that I do a fresh install. :-(

The above option was not acceptable, as I did not want to "kill the patient yet". I then contacted a computer repair place, and they told me that all they could do was to reformat the drive and restore Win XP for only $300!  I figured, nope, it is not worth it, as the computer is 7 years old. For a few more hundred dollars, I just went ahead and purchased a new machine. I then pulled out the hard drive from the old machine, mounted it in a hard drive enclosure and loaded all my data in the new computer.

Obviously reinstalling the OS would have allowed me to restore my old machine. It is probably because it was so old that I suspect I had problems installing the SP3. I will split the points amongst all the three of you that have offered me assistance. Thank you for your suggestions!
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GeisrudSystems AdministratorCommented:
I'm glad you were able to save your data.  And now you have a nice new stable machine!
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