Laptop wont load up

When I loaded my laptop I got an error message on the load up page:
'windows could not open because the following file is corrupt;
windows/system32/config/system, and when I try and enter safe mode my laptop just turns off. I have tried putting CDs into the drive which I think are the recovery/registry disks but the laptop just turns off. Can anybody offer any advice please?

go into your BIOS and make sure the boot select order includes the CD drive. or put it first.

Do you have a Windows XP CD? and can you boot from it? If yes, then get into the recovery console.

From the Setup CD

When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console. When prompted, type the Administrator password. At the system prompt, type fixboot (Writes a new partition boot sector onto the system partition).

Follow the rest of the prompts - like choosing the drive etc.

hope this helps