acer bios problem

Hi, Mighty glad I found this forum. Hopefully someone can help me.

Heres the thing, I have an Acer TM 4070 and I need to wipe it clean. Too many spyware/adware/viruses etc.

The problem is that, I would like to do a fresh install of XP but the laptop wont boot from CD and I can't access the bios for some reason.

The only thing I see when I boot is a black screen, after 20sec it flashes a underscore, then it turns dark gray and then black and after 1 min or so windows emerges.

Ive tried to press all kinds of keys and keycombos at boot, such as f1, f2, ctrl+alt+esc etc, Ive tried pressing them, tapping them and all sorts of things but no BIOS, the only thing i get is a beep because the computer thinks my keys are stuck...

Does someone recognise these problems and can help ? All tips appreciated. And since I have done backup of all documents and such, Im not afraid to do anything.

Thx in advance, Koads...