Do you have a (bootable) XP OS CD?

No. XP was loaded at a previous job on this laptop.

All I have is recovery disks.

"All I have is recovery disks."

And what happens when you utilize this?

Does it want to revert to a "fresh install"?

Is there a Recovery partition on the machine?

There is a system disk, and 2 recovery disks.

I've tried both; the disks are running/loading, but the screen stays black and the disk stops loading/running.

Dan Penny

I have a bootable XP OS CD now.

Still looking for help with a black screen at boot up. So far, nothing has been able to get me past an initial fan noise, then the system stops.

Any suggestions to get something working would be appreciated.

Attempt a Repair Installation of the OS:

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

I'm getting nothing. The CD runs but I can't get away from the black screen, then the CD stops.

I tried F2 to access BIOS but nothing.

A black screen means that the machine is booting from the hard disk.

All machines have the capability of booting from the CD/DVD drive. On a "cold" boot, enter you machines bios and set the CD/DVD as the FIRST boot device. (It may be F1, F2, F4, F8, F10, or F12.)

Tried to do that, but the screen stays totally black so I see anything in order to make that change.