tries to boot but black screen

I have an NX570X laptop that is 1 month out of warranty (isn't it ironic) it is running XP SP2 with two 512mb ram cards installed
Without warning I turned it on and here is what happens.
1. Gateway screen comes up
2. press 11 to start recovery times out in upper left corner
3. of course, since i have tried it several times, the "We apologize for the inconvenience ...windows wasnt shutdown properly options screen times out if no options are chosen.
I can hear the CD drive whirr up..
4. The Microsoft Windows XP logo with the scanning bar, scanning, will run forever....

If I try to boot in safe mode I get
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS
\LOTS OF STUFF .. down to agpCPQ.sys and it freezes there forever...

I have tried everythingthat has been suggested by friends,
followed by every option to boot in #3 above and let it sit for 15+ minutes
reseating HD
swapping ram slots
installing ram individually

I have also tried to put in recovery/OS disk(Windows XP Media Center Version 2005 With Update Rollup 2 Operating System Disk) that came with unit and done every combination i can think of
When I put recovery/OS disk in it and power up..

1. Gateway boot menu comes up with boot and bios options
when i press "R" for recovery options then "R" again for recovery, or F11 for recovery,
2. "preparing system recovery options" (loading bar advances)
3. black screen forever...

I have also tried making a GWSCAN boot disk and starting up on it, it whirrs up but wont load..

A friend of mine says he doesnt think it is my HDD because the Windows XP logo shows up on boot, but I don't know...

and yes, the bios is set up to boot off of CD drive first.

Gateway says for $3 a minute they will try and help me pffft. I should have known better.

help

The hard drive never makes a noise, the HDD light flashes when it first starts up but not when on the Windows XP screen.

I have tried a couple of OS disks with no luck. never get past the spot mentioned, but i will try the one you suggested...

thanks
anyone have a guess?

the bootable Hitachi Fitness Test runs all the way through and says there is a problem with the "non-Hitachi HDD" and to contact the MFG... there are options to wipe the boot sector and format HDD. I could do that. I dont have anything on this unit that is not backed up.

any ideas??

OK I got the unit back by running GWSCAN and then formatting HDD and reloading windows, now I have a fresh OS and the WIFI will not pick up my wireless connection in the house for internet. I feel a little stupid about this stuff. Am I missing something? I have another PC on this connection with no problems.My connection is not secure right now and no firewall. Am i missing something simple?