good old Blue Screen Of Death

A laptop that always boots to a BSOD. Error message as follows:

Stop c000021a {Fatal System Error} - The session manager initialization system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000034 (0x00000000, 0x0000000) The system has been shut down.

I found an answer that fixed it on the interweb:

Dick White explains

I don't have an XP install disc any more but I do have a Windows 2000 install disc, which was happy to let me use the recovery console. Followed the instructions, rebooted and it worked! Nice one Mr. White.