My Dell 1100 either overheated or crashed doing more than my RAM allows

Here's the problem: While using my Dell 1100 laptop, I opened three different programs at once -iTunes, FL Studios, and a Gameboy emulator- all of which use a decent amount of RAM. The laptop was running slow, but was fine other wise until I accidentally blocked off the fan, which caused it to overheat and turn itself off. Upon turning it back on though, I found that it only displayed the opening Dell logo and loading page, but didn't go pass that. The Windows loading page didn't even show. All that shows after the Dell page is a black screen with a blinking space bar. Something similar to this has happened before and a family member got it fixed for me. That family member isn't here though, and I could really use some help with this. Anyone?? Thanks in advance!
 
even though it overheated... it shounds like your hard drives bad... just because it wont continue to boot... since its a dell... turn the computer on and hit the F-12 key that will bring up a boot menu, then select either hard drive diagnostic, or diagnostics and it will go from there... should help you narrow down your problem
 
even though it overheated... it shounds like your hard drives bad... just because it wont continue to boot... since its a dell... turn the computer on and hit the F-12 key that will bring up a boot menu, then select either hard drive diagnostic, or diagnostics and it will go from there... should help you narrow down your problem

Alright, did the diagnostic. The DST Short Status test failed, and it told me to put in the Dell hardware cd-rom for further diagnostics. I set it to the Extended Test, which'll take a while to complete.

Would you happen to know what "Error Code: 1000-0142" means? And if it's a serious hardware problem, would it be something I could actually fix myself?

Oh and thanks for your help so far!
 
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