My computer (relatively new) won't boot up. Any ideas, anyone? (Details)

My Asus laptop was working fine when I went out to the shop to run some errands. I had put in on “hibernate” before I left. I returned and switched it on ( as I normally do). What comes up is the big Asus logo (on black background) with the Intel logo on the bottom right corner. Then, it opens up to a small cursor dash in the upper left corner that simply blinks….nothing else happens.

I thought that it was not plugged in so I tried plugging it in, nothing, the same. I tried plugging it in and waiting a half hour to see if the battery was a problem (nothing happened.) I took the battery out and put it back in, nothing. The only thing that I can see is that it wanted to install a Windows update before I left, and it said it had to restart for it to take effect (I vaguely remember that…but it may have been earlier and thought it had finished.) Would that have affected this? I have no idea.

Do you have any idea at all what might be wrong? Or what I can do to fix this? Unfortunately, the service center is closed for the day (!!) and I need this to meet a deadline for tomorrow. Most of the work I need is on there.

Once again, the basic logos come up, but it never goes into Windows (the blue screen) it stays on a black screen with a small cursor dash blinking on the upper left hand side of the screen.

Also, under the keypad there are a series of icons…there is a lightbulb (lit in white), a battery (green—I think this is for the mains charge), a barrel or cylinder (dark/unlit) and a wireless icon (also unlit). Don’t know if this helps or not.

As I have professed on the Fluther before… I am still woefully ignorant of computer tech…so please explain in as clear terms as possible…:)

Hope someone can help….thank you!