compaq armada 1540d problems

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.

What number?

the number is 81920 KB

So, the screen looks like this:

81920 KB
-

That's it?

yes it looked like that but now i fooled around with the keys and now on the screen it says invalid system disk replace disk and press any key so what can i do now none of the discs i put in work cd or floppy

also i tried holding down the purple button in the middle for a few seconds and sliding the slider button and it turned off the lapotp but cant turn off the laptop with just the slider button

the boot disks i made still dont work is there anything else i can try

When you turn computer on, is there any writing at the bottom of the screen, like:
Press "some key" to enter setup.

nothing else on the screen when i turn it on the laptop

i dont even know which windows was on the laptop before my boyfriend got it

Does computer make a beep when starting?

no i dont think it did it was only making that weird beeping noise when that number was on the screen remember its on old compaq laptop

Well, start with some tests:
1. memtest: http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic62524.html
2. HD test: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

okay it changed from invalid system disk to non system disk then it went back to just showing that number and the tiny white line pulsing hehe

Huh?