Boot up error on dinasaur PC

[DevilMayCry42]

Ehm.... my mums dinasaur PC is having problems booting up now...

Specs : CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2400+
Video: Matrox Dualhead AGP 4x display adapter
Mobo: ASUS V7V266

basically on bootup it says :"Windows/System32/config/system" is 'missing or corrupt. We I can't get it to boot up from the XP disc either, to fix the file. My mum reckons its the display driver, because it's set up to run with dual displays, but only one is plugged in at the moment. any help...?


Edit: forgot to mention that she recently ran windows update, with a HUGE backlog of updates that were installed

[MaddAussie]

what happens when you try to boot from the CD?

[DevilMayCry42]

it just said CD emulation isnt working or something...

[DevilMayCry42]

ah, it works now, when it said that, i just rammed the enter key, and it booted from the CD fine...

I guess it just wasn't saying "press any key to boot from CD"