crashes, restarts, pops and fizzles..help please!

machine: dell inspiron 5100 windows xp sp2 256 RAM 60GB HD

symptoms started last night. up till then, it was running flawlessly.

it has crashed randomly while:
-BIOS is loading
-welcome screen displayed
-during CHKDSK
-loading drivers etc. in safe mode

if i'm lucky enough to get to the desktop, it will crash hard shortly after.
(the BSOD will flash quickly (if at all), and the speakers will pop and sizzle)

one time on boot, it showed this message:

"Invalid configuration information - please run SETUP program.
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility."
(no keys worked, had to hard restart)

sometimes on power up, the screen remains black, and the caps lock light just flashes (?). i have the original os disk and was seriously considering a format, but it will freeze up and won't let me.

everything up to date, no malware whatsoever.
no recent software/hardware changes.

has anyone heard of this ever happening before?

 

Did you install any hardware/software or change any system setting prior to this happening?. If you are getting a BSOD then there must have been some change to the system in the recent past. Can you start up in safe mode?. If so, uninstall any drivers or software that you installed before the problems started. It may also be a BIOS problem so check there to make sure that all your devices are setup properly. BSOD's are usually associated with hardware/driver conflicts and incompatabilities.