Dead Compaq Armada M300

I have a Compaq Armada M300 that was running Windows XP but (for whatever reason) is now completely dead, only displaying a warning to "load needed DLLs for kernel" but what these are is not specified and nothing further is booted. This means that although I would be happy to format and reinstall XP I can't do anything at all - I can't even access the BIOS. Can anyone tell me how to access the BIOS on this computer so that I can try and get it to boot from the XP CD?

All help gratefully received!
David

 

After doing a bit of research, it seems that you must repeatedly press F10 right after powering up to enter the BIOS. If you can't get into the BIOS then you may need a new CMOS battery or the keyboard is faulty and using an external PS2 keyboard should work. The error you're describing is a Windows error (only Windows has a need for DLL files; the system board and BIOS doesn't use DLL files), so you should be able to get into the BIOS, set the boot order for CD/DVD first, boot to your XP disc and format and reload. Here's a link explaining the process for setting the boot order from a 'USB cradle' (probably something like a docking station) but the process should be very similar for setting the boot order for the built-in CD/DVD drive http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...=321957&prodSeriesId=96234&objectID=c01236935
Yeah, this is for the Armada m300. HP & Compaq are now the same company.... so don't be alarmed that you see the HP logo everywhere