laptop not booting

i recently purchased a laptop from ebay. probably not the best decision. anyways, i got it out of the box and it was fine. i didn't have time to play with it yet, so i left it on for about an hour or so. i came back and it was fine, still on and everything. so i went to control panel to change the wallpaper and it turned off as soon as i clicked display. now it won't turn on at all. i can plug it in and it shows that the battery is charging. but when i turn it on the little calculator type screen shows a symbol that looks like a circle with a z in the middle, (z). sort of like that. and the machine is running it's just not doing anything. i've left it sitting on and nothing. i've plugged another monitor into it, and nothing. it's a fujitsu 330e lifebook, 96 mb ram, 3.2 hd, pentium 2. does anybody know what's up with it? there's a computer repair shop nearby, but i'm afraid of how much they'll charge me just to tell me how unfixable it is. it's got windows 98. should i try starting it with a boot disk?
thanks,
jenn

 

Is it possible you invoked the external display mode by accident? The (z) sign is the power symbol, showing the notebook is on.

Hit the Function key plus F10 (FN + F10)


Either that or see if you have a reset button......

(The book didnt say anything about it)

 

thanks you guys.
i left it plugged in and turned "on" all day long. the video showed nothing, but it made sounds like it was on. in the evening i turned it off and back on again. and it booted just fine. now i've just been turning it off and on until it finally comes on. not sure why it's doing that. just kind of weird. should i worry about getting it fixed? i'm hoping maybe after awhile it will start working okay. it's really dusty like it hasn't been used much. maybe it's like a car and the longer you leave it sit to warm up, the better it runs? no idea.

 

i'll see if i can find win 98. one was included, but it's cracked. i have win me, but don't want to risk that. i've had a lot of problems with that one. i haven't seen any lights flashing to indicate the hard drive is running. i paid $130 for it.

 

after experimenting with it a bit last night, i found out that after i've turned it on, if i push it lightly near the mouse it turns on. i'm guessing that maybe it's just a loose connection of some sort. but with my luck, i'm leaving it like it is. i don't want to risk messing it up.

thanks for all your help