Xp will not boot

[mygale]

Hi
I've a dell machine that was working ok until nortons was installed, now only get blue screen after xp begins to load. Tried using repair disc but the cd is not recognised (cd spins).
Can anyone help
Thanks

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Might need to alter the boot sequence to get it to boot off your optical drive (or perhaps you aren't tapping a key when prompted to boot off the CD).

Try booting into Safe Mode and uninstalling Norton there. It's possible that you'll have to download a utility to remove it entirely, as it used to work that way. You will not have access to Network resources within Safe Mode so you will have to download the utility and toss it on another storage device (perhaps a flash drive or CD) and then yank it off there once in Safe Mode.

 

[raybay]

Depends on the Dell. Some of the Dell Optiplex and Dimension desktops had defective, or extremely high failure rates on optical drives, with the inability to read, or blue screens showing up after about 8 -10 months of use. So the problem may not be related to Norton. What is the model of your Dell with Service Tag? How old is it.
Replacing the drive can be done for $22 an a philips screwdriver.
Do you still bet the BIOS screen at startup when you depress <F12> See if the drive is detected in the BIOS. If you don't get that screen, then your problem may be more serious.