Huge problems with Acer Aspire

Hi everyone! I really hope someone can help me.
I started having problems with my laptop weeks ago. First, there were problems with the screen. Sometimes when I turned the computer on, the screen didn't displayed, so I had to try several times for it to come. Then, even when the image appeared, if I moved the laptop a little bit or it was on for a long time, color stripes would appear on the screen.

After that, one day i tried to turn on the computer and a message appeared that said that the operating system could not be found. By then I asked someone at my school and they told me there could be a problem with the hard drive. So I took it with them, and they told me it was so damaged that there was no way to recover the information I had, so I lost all of it. They formatted the drive because in that way there was a possibility I could save the drive even though the information was gone. So the next step was to install Windows XP again.
So I started doing that, but when I turned on the computer, now there wasn't even a message that said that the operating system could not be found. Now there's only this white line flashing on the top of the screen. What can I do now? For what I've read, there can be a problem with the master boot record. Considering that there's a huge chance that my hard drive is really useless now, I was thinking about buying a new one, but I fear that even then I'll still have problems with that boot record.
Please someone help me. Thanks very much!

 

New harddrive indeed. The boot record problem would go away once you install a new harddrive and a new OS, although maybe before you get rid of the old drive you might want to have it checked just in case, perhaps a proper formatting would take care of that -using- an external enclosure.

 

You do appear to have a hard disk fault though it is difficult to determine if this is the root cause of your problems or just a symptom. If it is only a symptom then putting a new disc in might not solve your problem, and you might end up damaging the new disc as well.
When you attempted to re-install XP what approach were you taking? Were you trying to install from an XP installation disc or from some form of backup?
When you try to reboot the machine are you able to access the BIOS settings?

 

Hi, sorry it took me so long to write back but not having a computer really put me out of touch.

First of all, thanks for the advice.

When I try to install XP is from the disc, not some kind of backup. And I can access the bios settings. That's good, right?

I'm gonna get a new disk, but I don't know if the problem with the screen is related to that. Could it be? I already checked the all the cables and the connections seemed to be ok. Could there really be a connection between the drive and the stripes that appear on the screen and block the whole system?
Thanks!!

 

^

I don't think so, cause there are not related between HDD and the screen, maybe your screen hit by something and makes your lcd stripes..CMIIW

Thx

 

Thanks. The thing is that when the stripes appear, they don't go away by moving the screen again. When they appear the whole system freezes. Does that make a difference?

 

If its stripes across the screen, i believe its the GPU, ive had this with fx5600 (i know old school) but thats what mine did before it broke, and if its freezing its sounds like its died, prehaps due to heat.

HOw olds the lappy, still got warrenty?

 

No, no warranty. I've had it for about three years. Do you think is gonna be expensive to fix it if the problem is the GPU?
Thanks