i have a dell insperon 1000 w/ XP Home that is nothing but problems and now it has the blue screen of death. can someone please tell me how to wipe out everything and start from scratch so i can give it to my kids for internet use.
thank you

I have just found this in the Inspiron 1000 manual on page 64.

To use PC Restore:

1 Turn on the computer. During the boot process, a blue bar with Dell Laptops, Desktop Computers, Monitors, Printers & PC Accessories appears at the top of the screen.
2 Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>.
If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish restarting, and then
restart the computer again.

NOTICE: If you do not want to proceed with PC Restore, click Reboot in the following step.

3 On the next screen that appears, click Restore.
4 On the next screen, click Confirm.
The restore process takes approximately 6–10 minutes to complete.
5 When prompted, click Finish to reboot the computer.
NOTE: Do not manually shut down the computer. Click Finish and let the computer completely reboot.
6 When prompted, click Yes.
The computer restarts. Because the computer is restored to its original operating state, the
screens that appear, such as the End User License Agreement, are the same ones that
appeared the first time the computer was turned on.
7 Click Next.
The System Restore screen appears and the computer restarts.
8 After the computer restarts, click OK.

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Hopes this helps you...