Issues with Dell Inspiron 1100

Am running 10.04 on a Dell Inspiron 1100. Having two issues. First problem created the second. When the dell screen goes to sleep, it is impossible to wake it up. The current and more pressing problem is that while trying to run a huge mass of updates, the computer went to sleep, and we couldn't wake it. Ended up force shutting it down, and now when you turn it on, the log on screen comes up, but the cursor doesn't move, and cannot log on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Okay, I thought that possibly trying to boot from a live cd would help, but either I messed up the live cd, or it didn't help. Still stuck at the log in screen and still no cursor movement.

This is an older computer. Please give the exact specifications, especially the size of memory.