Also, don't overlook Windows XP support options Other users and technicians contribute to database of problems from all over the internet.
Tech Tv forums is another group of helpful people. There are many others, but these three are a good starting place.
In know how frustrating it is. But what seems major can sometimes be quite straightforward to fix, once you know what the problem is. And it seems that a lot of people devote many hours of personal time trying to help others overcome their computer problems. Good luck!
You know what else happens is once i do get the damn thing booted up, after a while I get the "Rundll32.exe error" messsage popping up again and again and again and again and then I re-boot to get rid of it and then I`m right back where I started, having to re-boot over and over and over and over. It drives me NUTS!