Question : E-Machines EL1200 BSOD at Startup - Windows XP SP2

I have a friend's eMachine EL1200 PC that each time it boots it gives a BSOD and restarts.  Here are the steps I've tried so far:

 - Entered Repair Console and disabled unnecessary drivers and services
 - Did the XP Repair as suggested by Michael Stevenson's website
 - Added /SOS and /basevideo swtiches to the boot.ini file

all to no avail.  Here are my two questions:

 - What other options do I have left other than a clean install?
 - It looks like there is a separate partition for recovery, but eMachine's website doesn't tell how to access it.  How can I get to that partition at startup? ( Their website does say ALT + F10, but that doesn't work on the model I have ).

Answer : E-Machines EL1200 BSOD at Startup - Windows XP SP2

The dumps could also be located in>
%systemroot%\minidump\

Absence of a Minidump could also be due to deteriorating motherboard capacitors, or a flakey power supply.
See >>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

You may also be getting a total crash before Windows has a chance to produce a crash dump.  From the 2nd computer you may be able to scan the Hard disk for errors running the command chkdsk /r
....but you need first to backup any valuable data!

Then you could also try the appropriate HD diagnostic from here>
"Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities":
http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Normally if you see no minidump you could checkout the settings here>
Enable Minidump's in Windows XP:
http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/ProblemReporter/minidump.asp
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