Pc Keeps Requiring Os Install Upon Bootup

XP Home
eMachine
2.6 GHz Intel Celeron Processor
80 GB HD [only 4 used]
256 MB Ram
Main Circuit Board: TriGem Computer Inc. Imperial 1.02
BIOS: Phoenix 6.00 10/2/2003

She said there was no OS so I went over there and reinstalled XP Home. Booted fine. Reinstalled Printer, etc. Dialed up, d/l Spybot and Adaware updates and ran them. Left running Windows updates.

She called and said the next time she booted up it said the same thing again, so she reinstalled OS again. Did her banking, various other things, shut down..... booted up again to the same message.

Does anyone have any idea why this keeps happening?

 

Has she run a virus scan? Is she using current virus definitions in her virus scanner?

 

Yes

left that off - I did that also

 

When you re-install XP, are you simply overwriting the current configuration with the CD? You really need to FDISK & FORMAT, then do a clean install.

 

oh no
Have never done that

now THERE'S an accident looking for a place to happen.
Ok.
Will do.
gulp.

 

Make sure it is set to boot from the HD in the BIOS.

 

Is there any way to check or change to boot to disk instead of CD FROM XP?
I can't access any dos or prompt and F12 or F10 or anything upon booting up.
Putting install disk in CD Tray and reinstalling is the only option
once I reinstall OS, if I reboot, it makes me reinstall OS again to get in

 

Do you know how to clear the CMOS settings and set up them up again? If not, find out.

If flushing the CMOS settings doesnt work, you might need to use the recovery console to try to fix the MBR, that could be the problem (since on the first boot, you're actually booting to the CD and then to the HDD, it could be the mbr that got corrupted).