can't get into bios

I have a compaq armada 1700 laptop, running win xp pro. does any body know how to get into my bios, i tried F10 but that dosen't work.

 

You must have the Compaq mini bios(as I call it). The bios itself will detect new hard drives and configure them but to make changes in the bios you need the Compaq Computer Setup for Portables either on a special partition on the hard drive or on floppy disk.
If you tried f-10 than it is not on your drive. So go to Compaq link below and download Computer Setup for Portables under the Software-System Management category (note: you should really explore the Compaq site using your exact subset of Armada 1700's. I just chose the first on the list)
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/armada/us/locate/3_968.html#29

 

Have you tried the DEL button when booting up? Should say in the startup screen, before the windows logo, the key to press to get into Setup.
The other way to do it is type msconfig in the Run, okay then go to
boot.ini and put a check mark by /safeboot and reboot.