Following a lightning strike - my Compaq-Pressario 918rsh laptop (pre-loaded with XP) has been unusable. When I turn it on - only the
'Compaq' screen appears - the 'Windows' screen never comes up. I cannot access the 'Safe Mode' at all. When I go into the 'Bios'- it
says something about 'Windows 95'(remember it came preloaded wuth XP) and stops. I have tried the Compaq System Restore Discs that came with it - with no luck at all (they go so far and then say 'a fatal error has occurred and stop). I cannot bring up the 'task
manager' even. At one point I got the message 'OS not found'.

On a whim - I tried a Puppy Linux disc - and it worked as long as the disc was in it. However now the laptop screen will go 'black' and the PC will turn off auomatically after a few minutes of use - with the disc in it.

Is this PC dead - is it salvageable (if so - how)? While I would like to save it - if possible - I do not want to put a lot of
money into it. Thank you for your help.

trouble shooting down the list:
your dvd player is working which means the power supply is ok. puppy linux loaded which means your memory is o.k.,which would mean your motherboard/cpu should also be good to go. the hard drive could be the problem. i'm not saying it is the problem, but also the pc shutting down after a few minutes could also mean the motherboard was effected or heat is building up. would it be a waste to take it in to say its trashed or repairable? or just buy a new one?
i'm just throwing ideas out there, laptops aren't the easiest things to work with.

if possible you can save your files from the hard drive using a ubuntu cd or of it's a sata hdd you can connect it to your desktop to retrieve the files