My laptop worked fine yesterday before i went to bed. I did not install any software or hardware but i was online and did download things. I sp2 windows xp. Today my laptop started up, and the screen went black saying that my laptop either did not shut down properly, crashed or something is wrong with either software or hardware. It gives me the options of 3 different kinds of safe mode, resume windows from when it was last okay, or resume startup as normal.

No matter which one i choose it goes to the windows xp startup screen, then resets back to the dell startup screen which is the first one you see when you turn on the laptop. It is in a continuous cycle like that.

Can anyone help me???

Welcome to PCHF Murdoness.

If you continually tap the F8 key when booting you will get to the "Safe-Mode" menu. From there, see if you can use the "Last known good configuration" method of booting into Windows.