My macbook pro wont get passed the apple icon and the little were wheel below it. Any suggestions on how I can get this thing to atleast get to the home page or sign in page

Question

This initially started out as me trying to get my battery to work.  my battery was dying after a few minutes so I was trying to kill the battery and recharge it to see if I couldn't get it back to a full charge.  This didn't work but after a day or so I noticed the computer running slow and when I went to start it a couple days later the apple icon page would pop up and the little grey wheel would just whir away below it like it was thinking.  The screen was kinda hard to see.  Since then I have tried several different things to get the computer to fire back up as it should.  I have taken out the battery and left it hoping the internal battery would die and it would reset itself to a default mode.  Didn't work so I then tried taking the battery out and just using the power cord.  This didn't work.  I tried putting the battery out and in while running on the power cord.   this didn't work.  I have tried holding the "alt/option" key and that didn't work.  Although it did give me a different window.  I have tried holding down the "f" keys.  That didn't work.  I have tried installing a disc to try and reinstall the operating system.  That didn't work.  I had to shut it down and restart it holding down the eject key to get the disc back.  I am running out of things I can think of to try so if anyone has any ideas I am open to all of them.
Thank you,
Seldovian

Answer 1

Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode
I have tried installing a disc to try and reinstall the operating system.
Disconnect all peripherals from your computer. Boot from your install disc & run Repair Disk from the utility menu. To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc, and restart your computer while holding down the C key as it starts up.
Select your language.
Once on the desktop, select Utility in the menu bar.
Select Disk Utility.
Select the disk or volume in the list of disks and volumes, and then click First Aid.
Click Repair Disk.
Restart your computer when done.
Repair permissions after you reach the desktop-http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751 and restart your computer.
If you did manage to reach the desktop after doing any of the above
my battery was dying after a few minutes so I was trying to kill the battery and recharge it to see if I couldn't get it back to a full charge.
Apple/About This Mac/More Info/Hardware/Power/Battery Information - copy and paste the information here. Do not include any serial numbers.
I noticed the computer running slow
How large is your hard drive and how much hard drive space do you have left?
Mac OS X (10.4.3)
Update to 10.4.11 using the combo update or Software Update along with all the other updates that goes along with it.