Fix HP Compaq NX5000 Freezes on Ubuntu 12.04 – Kernel Parameter Solutions

From what you say, it doesn't sound like a problem with GRUB or any other operating system. GRUB is the first thing that is read on the hard drive, but it seems like you are having problems even reading the hard drive at all. It may be a hard drive failure on the laptop, which definitely happens eventually to any hard drive, especially laptops that move around while the drive is spinning and also have reduced airflow (especially when old and clogged up with years of dust inside).

But the fact that you are having trouble reading all of the CDs makes it seem like it might be something causing all the disks to fail, like a controller card or something. It's possible to have multiple failures at once, but seems unlikely.

If it was me, and I really wanted to resurrect the laptop, I would try to first take apart as much as I can and clean it out with a vacuum cleaner and perhaps compressed air, getting out as much dust as possible. Sometimes dust makes the cpu fan stop, and when that happens, all sorts of errors occur. I once had a computer where the fan had stopped, and I thought I had a virus, as it kept getting strange errors right away.

If you can't get a CD to boot properly, nothing else will work, though.