white screen on power up

Hello - newbie question here.

My wife purchased the ibook from my son's school over a year ago. So I've got nothing but the physical computer - no manuals, cds, etc.

Yesterday, 2 of my younger kids did something to it to cause only a white screen to appear on power up. I really don't think it was a spill. I'm suspecting some odd key-stroke combo. Needless to say Mom's a bit cranky.

The only thing that seems to make any change to the screen is pressing the option button which results in a graphics of a Lock, a text box for password presumably, and an Arrow button.

I searched the forum for similar issues, but saw none. If there's something obvious here please let me know.

I have tried a power reset sequence of shft/ctl/option/power while off but no change. Saw that recommendation in an other post.

Thanks in advance, Ed

Hold down shift at start up and see if safe boot works. If so, try to run disk utility. Honestly, you'll need the install discs. That is if the hard drive didn't take a nose dive, hopefully it didn't. You can call apple support and order the discs from them for about $30-$40 bucks. I would highly recommend getting those discs. They are an indispensable tool.

Holding the shift has the same effect as not holding the shift. The only difference now (and before trying w/ the shift), is that instead of just a blank screen, it now has a very small image.

The image is what looks to be a face in side a camera.

I do hear the disc spin w/ or w/o the shift key.

Any other advice? Would buying the utilities still be worth it at this point?

Thanks, Ed