There are only two causes that pop up in a quick search of the Microsoft Knowledge Base for continual reboots when attempting to enter Safe Mode . One or two specific kinds of Radeon Video cards are cited as possibly causing this, and a corruption in a UMAX driver when WinXP SP2 is first installed can do it. The second one probably can be ruled out if SP2 wasn't recently installed, although it would take some digging about in the machine to be sure.

In both cases, I would recommend skilled assistance. I don't believe that someone who needs hand-holding is likely to be able to navigate finding and correcting the cause. It's likely to involve multiple trial and error steps, where each successive step depends on the result of the previous one.

In WinXP Professonal, there is a thing called the "Recovery Console" that can be used in place of a simple safe boot. It's immensely powerful, but can totally mess you up if the installation is not done correctly, and turning it off is almost as complicated as starting it in the first place. I don't believe it's available in WinXP Home. I don't recommend attempting to use it in any event except by fairly knowledgeable and experienced users, and then only by those willing and able to read and follow exactly the detailed instructions.

I will note that I did not find a "virus" by the name given when I searched for it, although I only looked at the first 500 or so Google returns for my search. Does someone have a source that confirms that this is a virus and not just a deviant/obnoxious program?

John