Compaq 700 laptop which randomly powers completely off

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I have a Compaq 700 laptop which randomly powers completely off.
The fan is working fine and there is no accumulation of dirt inside.
Even from a power up, going into Bios. While in Bios, the system will
power down before I get a chance to set anything up.
I am trying to install a new drive (old one is trashed), and therefore
installing XP from scratch.
If I dont go into Bios and boot from CD to install XP, the system will
power down at random times during the load.
Now the odd thing is that when I let the system attempt to boot from
CD and dont hit a key when the system asks "press any key to boot
from CD", the system will get the "Error load operating system"
message. At this point the system will stay powered up in that
condition forever with the fan running.

Anyone have a similar problem?