different causes can you elaborate a bit on WHICH BSOD you are getting?
The screen should tell you the error and often the faulting file itself.
Can you describe how you are "telling" the laptop to attempt to boot from the CD? Some offer you a menu to select the boot device by pressing a function key when attempting to boot and others simply require you to enter the BIOS and select the first boot device then save and exit CMOS Setup.
Okay, I think I give up .. been working on this for hours and hours; trying to fix my wife's Compaq Presario P2500 laptop, running Windows XP Home edition.
All we've been getting is BSOD.
I cannot even get it to boot up in Safe Mode; and I cannot even get it to boot from the boot CD disk.
(It just keeps reverting to BSOD)
I figure I'll just go ahead and reformat the HD; nothing on it anymore we need; but I cannot even get into a setup or boot menu to do so.
Is my HD bad? Is that the problem?

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