Thanks Shaun for your help, but sorry to say i have tried that and i still get to the same stage it still wouldnt load past the xp lights stage. I did wonder if it could be something to do with it being too low on power (not sure how else to phrase it). The original pc which is the main basis to this put together one sat around for about 2 years without being used at all (think this was why the CMOS battery fired up the once and then died on me), but the annoying thing is it did work fine for a short while and now this. Seriously thinking of binning the thing and getting a new one, but even if i do this i wouldnt mind knowing what could have been the cause of this head ache.
Thanks again Shaun, any more ideas please let me know ta
tauripip