Black screen with solid white underscore in top left corner

[juliamariebug]

Hi! I am trying to turn on my old laptop, a compaq Altec Lansing. I believe the software it is running is Windows 7. Anyhow, after pressing the power button, it immediately displays a black screen with a solid, not blinking, white cursor at the top left corner of the screen. I have pressed the f buttons like 2,8, and 10, but nothing triggers any activity. Please help, I don't know what is wrong with it, let alone how to fix it.... Thanks in advance!!

 

[TerryLaze]

First thing would be to disassemble it to get the mobo battery out so that the bios get's reset to factory defaults,maybe there is an easier way for your laptop to achieve this,the manual usually helps with that.
Does the bios even show the hard disk?