Okay, not only will my 8 yr old macbook pro not start up. when turned on, I get a screen with the apple logo and the little spinning circle. I tried shutting it down and restarting but no success but I've also typed this question 4x and submitted it

Okay, I'll try to submit this one more time.

I have an older Macbook Pro (approx 8-9 yrs). When I try to start it all I get is a blank screen

witht the apple logo and the little spinning ball. I've tried restarting and even took out the battery

and replaced it again. Same screen for hours until I shut it down because it seemed to be

getting pretty warm. I know there's a sequence of keys to try to hit. I tried command-ctrl-escape

with no success. Any suggestions