xp goes black after splash screen

It does it in safe mode too. Right after the xp splash screen all thats left is black screen and the mouse cursor that still works.
I tried all the check disk from the recovery council and last good configuration. I even tried a restore from backup from a run from disk program I have.
The odd part is Ive been seeing quite a few like this come in for repairs. I normally just wipe them and reinstall but they want to keep there data on this dell laptop.