Laptop won't boot

[vesperlind]

I have a Toshiba Satellite 5105-S501 that currently hangs on the manufacturer's screen and doesn't even get a chance to start up Windows. It will hang on the screen for about 60 seconds until the message "HDDPassword=" shows on the small media screen on the front of the machine. At this point, it will hang for about another 10 seconds and then shut down.

I attempted the following:

1. Boot from Windows XP CD = CD drive will run, but machine still hangs on manufacturer's screen
2. Press ESC to get into BIOs = nothing happens (still stuck on manufacturer's screen)
3. Removed and reinstalled RAM = nothing
4. Removed and reinstalled harddrive = nothing

Any ideas? This problem arrived after going on a trip (ie airport X-ray machine) and apparent complete battery drain - I had no idea the computer had not been completely shut down and was in sleep mode for quite a while.

I did also notice last night that the battery had been drained again even though we just took it off the AC adapter the night before and only turned it on to test it two or three times.