fixing a gateway

i am in the process of rebuilding a gateway TA6 M 285-e. i have put a new hdd into it, and i am planning on installing a linux os, but my issue is that my screen will only turn on for 3 seconds during its startup, and then it turns off, something is occurring in the computer, but i cant see what it is, what can i do to fix this? i am fairly new to rebuilding computers , as this is my first, and i am having a lot of issues. any information that can help me resolve this would be awesome, but please use laymans terms as i havent quite learned all the language of computers yet.