HP Laptop Black Screen on Startup

HI... I am now one of those who has encountered the "black screen of death." Help!

I have a 2 year old HP dv2116 Entertainment PC, running XP, that has worked fine until I was finishing up my taxes last night. I turned it on and got a blank black screen.

Holding down the power button, I finally got it to shut off in about 5 seconds. I let it sit awhile, and then started it back up. Black screen, no mouse, nothing. I did this about 5 times and it finally had a little message at the top flashing rapidly. I think it said "Operating System Not Found." The next time I shut it off and turned it on, it gave me three options (I think f8, f10, and f11). F11 was system recovery. I hit that and things started up! Cool.

Thinking all was fine, I shut the computer off after I was done and went to bed. This morning, same black screen. Same routine. After 6 or 7 tries I got the F11 notice again and finally got going.

What is going on? How can I get back to my normal startup?

Thanks.