Question Details:

XP nearly starts up and possibly could be starting to desktop but after 30 or 40 seconds after Windows XP comes up screen goes blank. Before this problem started I unwittingly unticked the ATI driver on the startup manager, hence no sceen at all. I have tried many things but I cant even get it to open in safe mode.

Answer:

You should be able to boot in Safe Mode, if when computer starts you start tapping F8 key until the boot option appears.

After you enter Safe Mode you must reinstall the driver for your video card, or enable the video card again.