The thing turns on, but the screen stays black. But if I keep tapping on f-12 as it boots, I see a little lock icon on the bar over the keyboard. Two, actually. One with an A next to it and one with a 1 next to it. I think that means something is locked, but I can’t figure out what, and I sure don’t know how to unlock it. Anyone have a clue here? I surely don’t.
Those are Caps lock and number lock indicators. You press the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys to toggle them off. They probably don’t have anything to do with your problem.
I agree with RealityChuck that, if the icons in question are NOT on the screen surface, they’re not related to the screen problem.
If the laptop seems to start up correctly when you turn it on (= lots of disk activity for a few minutes while the OS boots), it may be that only the screen is dead. Get an external monitor and hook it up to the laptop’s VGA or DVI connector. Laptops usually have a keyboard combination to switch output to the external monitor. This would be something like pressing the “Fn” key and the 6 key, for instance – there’s a little blue or gray drawing on the key in question, or look it up in the laptop’s manual at HP.com .
Of course, if the screen really is dead, the laptop becomes much less useful.
Could it be a burnt out back-light bulb for the screen? That might be fixable yourself.
I fear we may be nearing the end of useful life with this guy. No one says, “Just do xyz and things will be back to normal.” Crap
At least it should be possible to transfer anything you want to keep before it packs up altogether. And make sure you don’t give anything useful away to a possible new owner.