Boot Problem

This is a Compaq Presario R3000 laptop, Intel P4 2.8 G, 384 M RAM running XP Home. On start up, I get the Compaq BIOS screen, then just a blank screen after that. No error messages, no nothing. On the BIOS screen there is a selection for Boot Menu. I have changed the boot sequence for all devices with no luck. I set the cd rom as first device and then tried to boot with the XP cd, but still get nothing. I checked all the BIOS settings in Setup and didn't see anything that didn't appear correct. I found that if I go to the boot menu, then select a device (for instance HD 0) and hit the enter key, the computer will then boot fine. I can also boot to the XP cd this way. But that is the only way I can get it to boot at all, by going to the boot menu, selecting a device, then hitting the Enter key. It will not boot at all by just starting normally, just goes to a blank screen. I tried "fixboot" and "fixmbr" from the Recovery Console with no luck. I think this must be a BIOS issue but don't know where to go from here. Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks.

 

try updating your bios to version F45
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-30947-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=442914&os=228&lang=en

 

Thanks. That's going to be my next step, although I always get a bit queasy when flashing the BIOS, I've heard too many horror stories about computers not booting at all afterwards.

 

UPDATE:I tried to boot up today from the boot menu and got a warning message about an imminent hard drive failure, backup all data immediately, etc. So it looks like I need a new hard drive, but I guess my question is that a failing hard drive should not affect bootup, correct? In other words, shouldn't the computer boot to the cdrom with a bad hard drive, or even without a hard drive? So I suspect that even after replacing the hard drive I will have to correct the bootup problem. What do you think?

 

flash the bios , see if that fixes the problem boot up problem , if it fixes buy a new hard drive , it it dosnt fix or gets worse , buy a new laptop , no point in buying a new hard drive and it dosnt fix anything?

 

Update: I received and installed the new hard drive. The boot problem has been corrected, except now the problem is that the new drive is not recognized. I went into to the BIOS, there is no setting in there for auto detect or anything like that, there is only a self test, and under that it says: No IDE device. I tried reseating the drive and checked the jumpers. I booted with a DOS disk and it says no fixed disks present.
The drive is a Toshiba MK6034GAX, an exact replacement for the original drive.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

 

Did you fit the adaptor(for the pins) from the old HDD to the new one. The adaptor is necessary for the HD to make contact with the motherboard.

 

You hit it right on the head miner. Once I looked at the old hard drive I realized there was an adapter on there that had to be removed and installed on the new one.
Thanks. All appears to be working now.