Well I think I know what the problem is. There is a direct conflict between the latest Nvidia drivers and the latest XP security update. Between my last post and this one, XP updated and then restarted. When the computer rebooted the screen went wild with bizzar colors and the PC crashed. I tried to restart in safemod and that too crashed. One final restart set the computer to restore to last known good configuration and she started. I will bet money that once I reboot again, she will crash and I will have to do a complete system recovery again.
Leave it to Microsoft to screw everything up.