My boyfriend got this laptop from someone and when he plugged it in and turned it on there was a blank screen and a number showing but the number wasnt doing anything and underneath the number was a tiny white line pulsing like a cursor. He tried turning it off but it wouldnt turn off.

He gave the laptop to me to see if I could get it going. I plugged it in and turned it on and got the same blank screen with the number and the tiny white line. I could hear a beeping noise that sounded like outerspace beeps or something like that.

I tried putting a windows 98 cd into the cd rom but nothing happened. Also tried a bootable floppy in the floppy drive and nothing happened. I tried the purple button in the middle above the keyboard and nothing happened. I tried the slider button beside it to turn it off but nothing happened. I dont know if any Windows program is on the laptop.

I don't want to waste money taking it to someone to try to figure out whats wrong with it. I want to see if I can get it going myself. Its a really old laptop.

I would greatly appreciate help with this. Thankyou.