Friends computer will not boot. Virus suspected

[jim.mar]

MY friends laptop will not boot.     Everytime he tries it gives a message that  "computer is shutting down to prevent possible damge" and it shuts off.   He is not even able to bring it up in "SAFE" mode and I have forgotten how to do that.  (My forgetterer is much stronger than my rememberer)        He is running XP (with Avast AV) while I am using windows 7. 
      He had AVG which expired some time ago.  Yet just before all this happened he got a message from AVG saying that he had several corrupted files and Trojans.   Does anyone have any suggestions?   
   I am going over to his house in a while to see if I can help him.   I am taking my laptop with me so, hopefullly, I will still be in contact with ComputerHope.   Thank you in advance for any help that yo can give,  JIM

[Allan]

Please follow the instructions in the following link and post your logs:
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,46313.0.html

[jim.mar]

Thank you for your reply.   I went to my friend's housse and tried to get the machine operational with no luck.  No way to boot up let alone access the net.  I was able top run a memtest but that was all.  We couldn't even re-install his OS (XP).    After three hours I gave up and He took it to a repair shop.    That was Friday, not sure what the status is now.   Anyway I wanted to thank you for your time and effort.    Hopefully I will be able to make better use of it next time.    JIM