Windows xp was installed on a compac armada 1750 was worling fine but after an hr or so it shut off and now wont boot or run windows all i get is black screen with window xp and 30 sec coutdown and... poof! nothing happening

Have you installed the Windows OS on the new HDD? Insert the new Windows OS in the DVD rom drive, shut down, Unplug, remove battery, plug in, at boot the new OS DVD should start and ask Press any key to boot from CD/DVD, tap key.

Tap the F8 Key as soon as the Laptop is powered on, keep tapping it till it brings you to Boot Choice Menu Options.. Options such as: Safe Mode, Safe Mode w/ Networking, Last Known Good Config..etc... are listed here..

Press and hold the F12 Key If You Need To Get To Boot Choices.. Such As Boot From CDrom, Boot From LAN, Boot From USB Device..

You can reset windows password in safe mode.

Follow the steps below:

1. Restart the locked computer and boot it from safe mode.
2. On log on screen, click the Administrator and leave its password column blank to log on to computer.

If the method below can't help you, I think you should use Windows Password Reset to cracking your forgotten password.

Related: http://www.windowspasswordreset.net/article/reset-password-windows.html

You can't enter the laptop until it has Guest Account Enabled. It is surely disabled. And for that Forgotten Password, try to remember that do you have any other user on that laptop. If yes, then log into on behalf of that user and change the password of yours by accessing the User Account Page in the Control Panel. This way you need not have to remember the Password of that account. And if you don't have any other administrator, then try a Hard Reset. You can do it by De-attaching every internal and external Attachable part of the Laptop.
Thank you Sir, Have a nice day.

Borrow a cd from someone with the same version of windows as you have. For example xp pro or vista. Boot from the cd as go along as if you were going to reinstall. If XP select enter, esc, f8, then r. Those are the answers to the screen questions. In vista boot up the cd then select repair reinstall. It will remove windows files and leave everything else in contact then it will reinstall windows without harming programs or files. It kind of rebuilds itself.

On the 1750 the setup bios settings are held on the hard drive, if you cant get any further I would suggest the drive is dead.

Try changing the Window or RAM slot

remove the battery and directly connect to power and see.

try booting to DOS screen only by inserting a boot-able floppy disc (I use Win ME disc at this point although my system is also Win XP). Then select "boot with CD-ROM driver". It will detect your CDROM drive and assign a letter. Now insert the CD and boot from there. I have done this sequence many times with no problems.

When the system starts, hold the F10 key and go into BIOS and set CD Rom as 1st Boot device (in Boot Order). Because most Compaq's would put the BIOS in a hidden NON-DOS partition on the hard drive, you may have to get an OEM recovery disk for that model. Because there is no BIOS to go to, the machine doesn't know it has a CD, HD or Floppy to go to. A boot floppy/CD is no help. Alternative 1: With another desktop and IDE to Laptop HD connector, FDISK (make active partition and hidden partition [5mb]), Format both, copy the cabs from WinME CD to c:\windows\options. Alternative 2: Find the COMPAQ OEM CD for that model. Since there was no exact model number Click here Please indicate whether this is helpful or not.