IBM thinkpad stopped working this morning

I've had this thinkpad since Nov 2000. It's been a superior computer in every way .... until this morning.
This is the A20m. 12 gig hard disk, 396meg memory, P3. Win2000.
When I turn it on, it looks like it is starting to boot up and then it does nothing. Nothing ever comes up on the screen. My impression is that it isn't even reading the BIOS.
Fortunately, I backed everything up yesterday. Some new high speed internet software was giving me trouble, so I was going to re-install the o/s this morning.
So I put the recovery CD in, but that made no difference.
Any ideas?
I thought it might be that new virus, but you would think you would at least see something come up on the screen.

Win blaster virus has affected many PCs. It might be the trick.

I haven't heard any reports of the virus preventing a boot-up. In fact, to the contrary, it seems to keep rebooting and rebooting endlessly or else give the "blue screen of death".

When I had a problem booting, it was finally resolved when I did a flash upgrade on my bios.
[ August 16, 2003: Message edited by: Marilyn de Queiroz ]

Hi all
I have seen these type problems surfacing quite commonly. Probably every time the faulty component was the BIOS. Try flashing it if possible. I have also noticed that it happens more so often when the climate is more humid.
I guess that you are not getting the BIOS beeps. In case your SMPS fan is revolving try keeping your laptop on for a few hours and see if it then starts up. It worked for me many times but I have a desktop.
But even if it does power on I guess that you may have to get your BIOS replaced soon. But in case if it works fine for a few days then you may save you rself from the BIOS replacement.
[ August 30, 2003: Message edited by: Anupam Sinha ]