F10 system recovery blank blue screen

[Mayfaire]

Hi i hope someone can help. My Moms computer froze up today so she manual shut it down. When she turned it back on she got the "unexpected shutdown" page but none of the options would work. The computer always takes her back to the "unexpected shutdown" screen. So i told her to try to get into safe mode using the function key, nothing happened. So then I told her to hit the F10 key to enter system recovery. When she does it just gives her a blank blue screen. Is it just really slow in loading or is it also not working? If so any other ideas on how she can recover her system?
She has a  Compaq presario (not sure which version she can't see it on her tower) and is running windows xp home edition

Thank you for your time!!!

[jason2074]

Did it have any previous issues leading to this problem? It could come from a serious virus infection, any recently installed hardware or software or a failing hard drive. If the computer is unusable, you should look into hooking the drive to another PC via special adapter and perform a complete system scan of any free antivirus, malware and spyware. Depending on the infection, hopefully you'll be able to recover atleast the HD and backup all important documents. You could also run a diagnostic test for your HD but you need to look for the HD description physically for this to perform.

[Mayfaire]

My Mom says it happened out of no where, she has had no trouble at all ever...i also asked her if she recently downloaded something or added new software, but she says no she did not.  I am with you on the virus thing but without being able to get on the computer i just don't know.  unfortunately we are not computer savvy enough for all your recommendations although i do appreciate them. 
Also my mom lost her job a year and a half ago, so money is tight. i am looking for the cheapest possible solution. That darn F10 starts....why won't it finish? Is there another way to force it to start? Or is there a way to load an anti virus and run it on the computer without actually starting windows?

Thanks for the reply, i need all the help i can get.

[Mayfaire]

i think my problem has stumped everyone...lol Does anyone have any ideas on where else i can go for help?

[jason2074]

Did you follow atleast some of my suggestions?

[Allan]

You can do a repair install with XP. It's very difficult to figure out what is happening third hand. It would be much better if your mother logged on here or if you have the computer in front of you.

[Mayfaire]

Jason unfortunately I don't live close to my Mom so i am unable to try these suggestions and she knows next to nothing about computers so I wouldn't be able to convince her to try. Also she only has the one computer. Since this is her only computer she cannot get online to get assistance.Thank you for your help though.