[Tievoli]

I have a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 600m, using Windows XP. When I turn it on, I get the Dell BIOS screen and then it goes to a black screen with a white cursor. I've been looking for solutions for several hours and here's what I've tried so far:

• Starting in Safe Mode - This is proving impossible. F8 key does nothing and after several hits the computer just starts beeping every time I press it
• Going into Setup with F2 - I can get into the 7 pages of setup (Bios Version A17, if that means anything to anyone), but I don't know what to do there and am concerned I'll only make matters worse.
• Going into One Time Boot menu with F12 - I get a list of 4 options but the only one that responds is the Pre-boot Assessment

And so I've hit a dead-end and am not sure what's wrong or how to fix it. My computer has been having issues with not charging the battery and not always wanting to start up easily, but I've at least been able to get the thing to function. I'm about ready to chuck the thing out the window.

Any suggestions?