HELP!!! XP boot up problem

I'm not sure where on the forum I should post this but thought I'd start here. Our Dell 8300 started acting up yesterday and a window comes up before it boots to the XP desktop and says something about sorry for the inconvenience but...... I'm given several options including starting in safe mode, safe mode with prompt, starting normally, etc. I've clicked "normal" startup and safe mode but when I do I get a blue screen that says the following:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time……


Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK/F to check for hard drive corruption, then restart your computer.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF789E524, 0x0c0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)


Just fyi, I did recently put a new (refurbished) SATA hard drive in with no problems. Its been in there for about 2 or 3 weeks without a glitch. I just disconnected it from the motherboard and psu and went into bios and turned it "off". I'm still getting this message and can't get to the desktop.

I did get a message yesterday about a problem but then it let me finish the boot. When I got in Window told me that it had detected the problem and it was with the Sonic program and that I needed to delete it and reinstall a new version or driver or something. I deleted it and downloaded whatever I needed but it wouldn't let me install it. I think it was my virus protection warning me about whatever I was trying to install so I tried to bypass it but it wouldn't let me so it was never installed. Does anyone have any ideas??? My kid has tons of homework and all his school stuff is on there. If anyone could please help us it would be greatly appreciated.