Dell Inspiron 9100 screen blank

I have a dell inspiron 9100 with windows xp home and i was having this problem with my screen being blank when i booted it, you could hear the hard drive making noises but the screen was blank. The screen would eventually come on after waiting a while and rebooting a few times. Now the screen will not turn on at all, i've checked the lid close button and that isnt stuck. My only thoughts are that its the video card, but im just hoping it isnt. If anyone has any thoughts let me know.

if this is some kind of malware issue combinate with hardware
why don't you try a fresh clean instalation of windows?

then if the problem persist, the problem will be on the screen alone
the next step will be open your laptop and make sure the connectors
are right connected.

I've tried to reinstall but nothing appears on the screen when i put in the xp disc.

OK if this is the case, i will next worry about the screen and not the system.