PC won't start win xp home edition

I did a windows update download which required a re-start. When Pc re-starts,
it gets to point of opening win xp, it shuts down, re-boots and tries again.
This will continue indefinatly. I tried safe mode but, it won't open and does
the same thing. The pc is a Intel Pentium 4 , it is 3 years old and has 512
MB memory. If I do a system recovery I can get the pc up and running but I
then have to download the various window up dates and when I get to the
updates issued about 8 days ago, the pc crashes and I back to square one.
Does anyone have a solution to my problem?
Thank you,
--
tgwoodske

i'm having the exact same problem can anyone help as im at the end of my
tether with it?
RAY

"tgwoodske" wrote:

> I did a windows update download which required a re-start. When Pc re-starts,
> it gets to point of opening win xp, it shuts down, re-boots and tries again.
> This will continue indefinatly. I tried safe mode but, it won't open and does
> the same thing. The pc is a Intel Pentium 4 , it is 3 years old and has 512
> MB memory. If I do a system recovery I can get the pc up and running but I
> then have to download the various window up dates and when I get to the
> updates issued about 8 days ago, the pc crashes and I back to square one.
> Does anyone have a solution to my problem?
> Thank you,
> --
> tgwoodske