Laptop doesn't like OS anymore

[Lloydb39]

I've been trying to wring as many years as possible out of my Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop. Has been running well on Xubuntu 11.10 for a couple of years but now won't boot. It gets past the startup menu but Xubuntu screen never appears; only a flashing cursor. Thought it might be the hard drive, but when I tried to boot from the original CD, wouldn't do that either. So I'm stumped. Could anyone offer any suggestions?

[dino99]

no need to post the same thread into different subforums

[Lloydb39]

It never indicated it was posted. It kept saying it was "waiting for ubuntuforums.org" so I quit and went to another forum. It did the same thing there and I quit again. There was never an indication either time that it was posted and the post didn't show until I came back this time.