Dell inspiron 7500 won't boot up

[silysavg]

I have a Dell laptop--7500 pIII running ME that has been working just great for the last couple of years.
Recently the battery finally died and I bought a replacement. Exact same type of battery. Probably the battery is not the problem since it takes a full charge. Maybe never needed a new battery at all since the first indication of a problem was the comuter going into "safe Mode" even with the older battery and I thought that the battery was too old and could not take a charge anymore(which it can't) and believed a new battery would solve the problem--wrong
ANYWAY,
HERE is the problem. When I start the computer it goes to a mode where a msg appears "Windows is bypassing your start up files"
It then goes into "Safe Mode" However, there is absolutely no response to anything pushed on the keyboard. I can not even ALT-CTRL-DEL. It just sits there. Since I can not go anywhere or do anything I am totally lost.
I did have some time with Dell tech support but the women I had was hard to understand and she could not help.
Any help would be appreciated.
Mike

[Cheetah_HWK]

hmm

[Cheetah_HWK]

well we need more information about the problem. try running setup again and recovering. if not try formatting the drive with the setup disk, setup a new partition and load windows all over again. Make sure you have your boot devices set up in bios to read cdrom, floppy, and disable your hard drive boot priority. when the setup is finished go back into bios and enable your hard drive boot priority. other than that im not sitting next to your computer right now so I would like to know more about what is going on on your end.

[silysavg]

Originally posted by Cheetah_HWK
well we need more information about the problem. try running setup again and recovering. if not try formatting the drive with the setup disk, setup a new partition and load windows all over again. Make sure you have your boot devices set up in bios to read cdrom, floppy, and disable your hard drive boot priority. when the setup is finished go back into bios and enable your hard drive boot priority. other than that im not sitting next to your computer right now so I would like to know more about what is going on on your end.

Hi Cheetah,
Thanks for replying and trying to help.
Problem is I am not that savvy with computers. Since there is no response to any keyboard action I have to hook up a separate keyboard. Wow is it hard to navigate with a keyboard only-and a "not do good" keyboard. I did manage to get into bios, by mistake- I think and looked around. I am sort of afraid to do anything in bios fearing that I will make matters worse.
I also tried System Recovery. It came up automatically when trying to boot up in the Safe Mode. I answered the question " How did you get here" by saying "Unexpectantly"--anyway-something to that affect. I chose a recovery date but it would not let be go further back that Jan. 25, 2004. I wanted to go back to early Dec. That did not work either.
At one point I got a screen view where I had options to chose from one of which was "Normal Boot" I chose it but it still booted up in "Safe Mode" and the keyboard was still not responsive.
I also reinstalled Windows ME from the Reinstallation Disc but when prompted to restart, and it did restart, it restarted in "Safe Mode"
All I want to do is save some of my email files from Eudora then I would not mind formatting(having someone do it that is) the whole $(&*&%&^$^%# thing.
Mike