Laptop Won't Switch On

Yesterday he was trying to copy a DVD. As far as I understand (which is limited), it froze and he turned it off. When you try to switch it on, you get a black screen with a white message. the jist of it says that Windows shut down and that to restart it you need to choose a mode - it gives you options 'safe mode' 'last known settings that worked' 'normal mode' etc. We have tried all of these modes. the most successful of which always looks really promising - you get the blue windows screen, logo and jingle it looks like it is starting up but then dies and the screen goes black. When you turn it on you get the black screen again and go around in circles.