XP Laptop doesn't go past boot screen?

Its an Acer Aspire 7100

As soon as i turn on my laptop it goes to a loading screen with the Acer/Intel Logo, and a blue progress bar.

The bar goes half-way, and stops. Forever.

It says "Press F2 to enter setup", and when i press F2, it says "Entering Setup" but it never changes from that screen.

Things i have tried

Hirens boot CD doesn't boot.

Windows XP SP2 CD is useless.

Pressing ctrl-alt-del only restarts the laptop.

*Pressing Esc takes me to a more straight forward boot screen (CPU information, Ram Test .etc)

It also says "Press F2 to enter SETUP", nothing happens once pressed.

XP Laptop doesn't go past boot screen?microsoft downloads

Try removing and reinstalling your RAM. Should be a small trap door on the bottom, couple of screws. The RAM may be locked into the board with a latch, careful.

Len Estrada

XeroTeam Marketing

XP Laptop doesn't go past boot screen?microsoft word 2003 internet explorer

dead hard drive i think
Just a shot in the dark here, have you opened the cover where your hard drive is, and made sure that it hasn't jarred loose? Or, your ram cover? Those would be good follow up areas to check..
i had that happen to a laptop i had. i was told that the hard drive in the boot up sector was worn. it may have needed a driver. i'm not sure. i think i got a new hard drive.
Place your WindowsXP SP2 CD in your CDROM Drive.

Make sure the laptop is plugged in and not running on the battery pack.

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For the Aspire 7100 Series... When prompted (after memory testing completes), press Ctrl+Alt+Esc to enter BIOS CMOS setup. ...

After you enter the Bios/Cmos, find the Boot Sequence settings.. and set the 1st boot device to your CDROM drive and the 2nd Boot Device to your Harddrive or IDE-0 , Exit and Save your settings.

The computer should restart and boot to the Windows XP cd so that you can reinstall.