Screen Goes Black After System Begins Startup...

[laptop-problems]

Warning: I do not know anything about computers!

I've got a Dell Inspiron 1000. Had it since September. Worked fine until about two months ago where it would show the DELL startup screen then it would do nothing. Went into Setup only to find out it wasn't recognizing the hard drive. Took it to a shop, got a new hard drive. That was three weeks ago. Worked fine until an hour ago.

Now, I'm getting the DELL startup screen and then it goes to a black screen. Blank black screen. No cursor, no nothing. You can hear the computer's insides making noise, you can put a CD in and here it whirring. I went into Setup to make sure the HDD was recognized, it was.

I tried to repair Windows XP Home with the disk that came with it, but it did not help. It took me to a screen where I put my administrator password in (empty, just hit enter) and then to a black screen with C:/WINDOWS and a choice of commands to enter. Not sure where to go from there...

Anyway, it also gave me some kind of SMART 0 warning saying hard drive failure was imminent. Press F1 to continue. All in all, it still takes me to a black blank screen after the system starts up. It never makes it to loading Windows XP. Before I waste another 200 bucks taking it to a shop, does anyone have any ideas? And do ya think my old HDD is still in good working condition even though we were told it wasn't? Please help! These DELLS are killing me!!!!!! (2nd system to act up on me)

[ror_b211]

Sounds pretty unreliable generally. It could be overheating, or it could be a problem with general circuitry or cabling inside the Laptop, its quite hard to tell