So I got my hands on a positively ancient sony Viao laptop (633mhz single core processor, 300mb of Ram or so) It had a seriously dodgy keyboard so I shelved it for a while until I could figure out what to do with it.  
 
I recently dusted it off to try and install XP on it in an attempt to run Maxivista so I could have a third display. However the format failed several times. Eventually I booted into a Gparted live CD and formated from there. After two further failed attempts at XP installation (unable to copy critical files) from two different disks it now fails to boot. No BIOS, just a blank screen.  
 
I think the hard drive may have gone kaput, does this sound likely? If so I want to rip the LCD off it and build a new monitor, any other suggestions for what to do with a bricked laptop? (except for binning it of course)
 
Any help much appreciated

That looks like a pre-XP laptop, so check the Sony site for a BIOS update for that model.
 
Many PCs that ran Windows 98 required a BIOS update in order to run XP.

It actually had XP running on it for years. To get some better performance it was formatted and Windows 2k was installed. So I dont think it needs a BIOS update. Even if that is so, like I said, blank screen on power on, nothing else. No BIOS appears anymore.

take out the hard disk and try and boot it. see what happens.

I would have to open it up to do that. I might try it tonight.  
 
Anyone have any ideas as to a fun project to build out of this thing?

i've always wanted to scrap an old laptop just so i could use the keyboard, touchpad, and screen from a desktop computer. when i fix people's computers, it would make life so much easier than carriying the three around seperately.