I have a inspiron 1100 notebook and it was working fine and when i went to reformat it and re-install xp on it it would hang up on installing the drivers part. So I tried turning it off to see if it froze and when i tried to turn it back on it makes the sounds like its starting up and the lights go on and then there is a click in the upper right hand corner and it shuts off. When i tried there was no screen activity since it didnt get to the point where something would show up? Does anyone know what might be wrong with it?
my bet is the video drivers didnt load, try putting the XP CD back in and booting off of it.
I am trying to boot off the cd but it wont load to the point to select it since it just clicks and then shuts down.
Use a drive wipe tool to zero the drive, and all the partitions before you reinstall.
where do i get a drive wipe tool?
Correct me if I wrong but from what you are describing you can’t even get to the startup screens now correct. It’s just turning itself back off correct?
You can’t wipe a drive, or run hardware diagnostics if it won’t start people. 
Usually in this case there are only so many things one can do about this. The following only applies if it is out of warranty.
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Verify the charge light is coming on when you first plug the power adapter
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If it is, remove the battery, and power for 15-30 seconds. Put the AC adapter only in try to power it on.
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If it’s still shutting down, then re-seat the memory. (This can be done by the following)
a. Remove single screw on bottom of memory door. Usually stamped with an “M”.
b. You will have either 1 or 2 sticks of memory. They can be released with the two arms on the side.
c. Remove both sticks if applicable. Check all contacts on the stick itself for burns/corrosion. If it’s dirty for some reason you can use a pencil eraser to clean it.
d. For testing only replace one stick in “Slot A” or “DIMM A”. If it still won’t power up try the other chip if there are two. -
If it still won’t power on and you don’t have an extra stick to test it with you could reseat the CPU. I would only recommend this if:
a. You are comfortable at working with computer hardware
b. Are extremely organized when working with it so you don’t lose parts.
- If it still does not work there might be worse issues at hand here.
If you are not comfortable doing this yourself, I could do it in probably about 10-15 minutes if you bring it by.
If you want to try on your own, then here is a link to the service manual.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins5100/en/sm/index.htm
Again I would only do this if it is out of warranty.
you need a copy of ultimate boot disc livecd, and a notebook hdd to usb converter.
The cd is free online, a converter is very cheap.
You can run mem tests, cpu tests, on the machine to make sure its well.
You can reformat the drive as an extrernal drive using something from the hddtune family.
western digital data lifeguard will allow u to write zeros to the drive
i used to do that back in the day to hard format hdd’s
thanks guys its working now
what did you do?
re-seated the ram and tried powering it without the battery in