Don't know if this is a Vista issue or hardware issue

Within the last week, I just installed Vista Business onto my Inspiron 1501 and had no problems up until a couple of days ago. I had my laptop off of AC power for quite a few hours (school) and actually forgot to plug it in until the following morning (off of AC power for approximately 12 hours having been either in hibernation or in actual use). I assumed my battery was low and went to plug it in without paying attention to any lights. When I tried booting it up, from AC power, all I got was a black screen. I left it plugged in, still not seeing any lights (battery or otherwise) and tried again. This time it hung up on the Vista boot screen. At this point I'm thinking that my AC cord is somehow damaged and ordered a new one (not from Dell because I didn't want the hassle). I just received the new cord and same thing is happening, hang up on Vista boot screen or sometimes the logon screen. I tried taking the battery out and the computer does turn on with the AC cord plugged in. I guess I'm wondering if this is a Vista problem (if it is, I'm not surprised) or a problem within my laptop where the AC power comes in. If it is a Vista problem, can I easily go back to XP (still have all my disks) because I do need my laptop for school. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you,

Mike Hughes

 

 

Inspiron 1501

AMD Turion 64x2 TL-56 processor

1Gb RAM

80G HD