I have a friends eMachine W1640 here trying to fix it for him. This is what's going on...

Well, first I guess I should tell you the specifics of the computer - it is an eMachine W1640 and is in the original configuration from the factory - no parts have been changed or added nor have any upgrades been done to it that I know of. The owner is not computer savvy at all, and therefore I am pretty positive that he has not done anything to it without my knowledge.

When I turned the computer on, it would load just to the eMachine screen and stop loading and stay right there. I finally got it to go into setup via F8 key <after too many numerous tries to count> and I chose Last Known Good Configuration - to no avail - at all. Now the computer will go as far as starting to load Windows XP Home but then reboots over and over again.

I have the permission of the owner to reformat the hard drive and run the recovery disks to put the computer back at the same point it was when purchased, however I am not so sure that I can get it to do all of that, as number one I can't get into DOS mode, and number two it won't stop rebooting.

Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions, referral links, or whatever?

I am about to just tell him to trash it and buy a new one... LOL

Thanks in advance, for any and all help given.

On messenger as flash.sclmmons

You have the sequence of events in the reformat a bit backwards. A least the way you've written the post. The restore discs reformat the machine, not the operator.

Usually, the boot sequence displays instructions something like, "Press F11 for recovery". This is at the BIOS level, and doesn't require Windows to be usable.

Have you tried powering on the machine, inserting the recovery discs, then shutting the computer off and restarting it? Depending on how the "Boot Menu" is set up, it will try to boot from the CD drive. (If the CD drive is first in the boot menu, of course).

Some Emachines (my T-5026 for example) also give an "F" key direction to the boot menu. The big problem is that Emachines never exactly standardizes their methodology, and it varies from model to model, a bit unpredictably.

I was speaking of doing the reformatting from DOS - which it looks like will have to be the case as my friend can not locate his restore discs, all he has available is the Windows 95 CD that came with it.

The instructions cannot be read as it just flashes on and right back off and when it gets to the emachine screen the entire computer shuts down and restarts the process over again.

Any ideas?