NJS

The film could just be the layer of thermal compound that a CPU should have between it and the heat sink. I had a similar problem with my laptop which I eventually found was due to the partition on the HD not being activated. Can you actually get into the bios and if so is the HD recognised? If its not then it may be the same problem I had. I fixed mine by booting with a CD with FDISK on it and re-activating the HD.