I am trying to reformat a home xp system.

Computer will not boot from xp cd, but rather keeps restarting after I hit any key. Used F12 to highlight cd, then any key. Still restarts. Back to F12 shows it needs to be reset again. Redirect to cd, says hit any key. When done, it restarts again.

Any thoughts or help?

Did you change the primary boot drive to be from CD within the setup of the BIOS?

I thought that F12 did that, which I have tried. It takes the command, then asks me to hit any key. When I do that it simply restarts again.

Is there another location that needs to be tweaked too, besides F12?

F12 in most systems takes you to Setup. Check the order of boot disks and ensure that the CD is first, followed by floppy (if any) then boot disk. SAVE this list. Exit and reboot and ensure you have the XP disk ready to boot from.

RwR