My mother uses the Compa 2504 Presario, pretty much only for email, some Word, some digital pics...nothing complicated.  

Last year we think it suffered lightning/surge damage and the modem and speakers went fizzle.  We had that repaired under warranty and no further problems since.

However...she sent emails on the 5th June, then none again for 3 DAYS.  When she then tried to type the keyboard completely refused to function.  Everything on the face of the laptop stopped working - the mute speakers, the touchpad, the hotkeys.  The only exception was the Power button.

She went out and bought a new keyboard which we never got to test...because in the meantime I had had some other thoughts about Sticky Keys and the BIOS.  On Startup, the keyboard worked and it would acknowledge a KEY depression so I entered BIOS with F2 and selected Reset Defaults.

Immediately, following a restart, the thing will not boot at all.  It starts with a Compaq splash screen and does nothing further.

I removed the battery and the next morning, my mother slotted it back in, turned it on and it booted okay - still no keyboard, but she checked email and turned it off again.  Immediately tried again and no boot.

It has not booted since.

Repair man basically looked at it for a week, then rang lots of people, Compaq said send it to them...but that was going to cost 320euros so we said no.

Why did resetting bios kill it?
why did it boot that last time?
If I can't get it to BIOS what can I do?
How old is the laptop?  Does it have a CMOS battery (Euro 2) and has that been changed during the life of the machine?try banging the underneath of it.......near the battery ....your hard drive.....maybe sticking...Hi, thanks for the reply,

I believe it has a cmos realtime clock so presume there is a battery.

I will have a look to SEE if it is accessible thru any panels or whether i have to dismantle to check.

I take it you are reccommending changing it?

Would that cause the problems I am having?It is less than 2 years old by the way...

I will hit it with something.....likely to HAPPEN anyway in the long RUN so no reason not to start now...my toshiba.....does it sometimes.....and i tap the underneath of it while it booting up......lazy hardrive...