Repair Installation problems

To cut a moderately long story short I was having problems booting Windows XP
and was getting an error message saying that "load needed DLL's for kernel".
I searched for solutions to this and found that the recommended solution by
microsoft was a repair install which I am now trying to do. However after
booting from the CD and starting the repair install process booting windows
now takes several minutes which it didn't before and all that happens after
this period is the setup window appears, tells me that it will take 39
minutes to finish the installation but then quickly goes wrong saying that
"setup failed to install the product catalouges" and gives the error code of
3e7 which means nothing to me.

Is there anything that can be done to fix this?

Well, we are in the same boat. I'm guessing that by now, you have resolved
this problem.

May I ask how?

Thanks,
Wishing