We apologize... message on black screen

[carpdad1]

Hi, my mother's laptop is:  Compaq presario 1200-XL111.  It has 640 kb system memory and 123 mb extended memory.  The sticker on the back says Windows 98, but the OS is XP professional.  They bought it years ago but someone may have upgraded it.  It was working fine until I tried to connect my 17" Dell monitor to it, although this may be coincidental happenings.  Anyway, the screens (laptop and external) came up as split and while I was searching to disable the laptop screen, a message came up saying the virtual memory was low and computer was going to correct the situation.  The computer became very slow, at which I turned it off with power switch.  Upon turning on again, I got "We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully" message in black screen.

I tried to start in every mode listed without success.  I can not see the blue error screen which flashes by.

F10 bios check lists no errors or broken hardware.  F11 does not give me Recovery Manager.

When I turn on the computer, I get red Compaq name, then there is short zipping noise like a printer and short clicking like a ratcheted dial turning.  Does this mean hard drive is shot?  By the way, I looked for hard drive diagnostics in the bios, but there is no such option.

Is there a way to connect (usb to usb?) laptop to my pc, and check the state of hard drive with my XP or free software that checks such things?

Is this computer worth the repair with new hard drive and maybe more memory? 

Would you also explain if this computer has enough RAM, although I searched the definitions of system and extended memory, I don't understand if this computer has enough memory.  Thank you all in advance for help.

[smackheadz]

use this to boot from and run diagnostics http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/