Busted Dell Inspiron 1501.... anyone diagnose it?

[inflight36]

I know, a Dell Inspiron 1501 is about as low grade of a laptop as you can get but I am trying to fix it so I can use it to take a test. (Test is only operable on a Windows platform, go figure, I have only Mac). Any-who, here are the issues and what I have done so far on my own:
---Issue #1---
First issue and when it first gave me problems was it was operating perfectly fine until the infamous blue screen of death popped up (ok, so no biggie, just restart and everything will be fine) NOPE.
So, now when I go to shut down and restart, the blue screen would keep popping up and there is no where to go when you hit that.
***What I did to try and fix***
Pre-BSoD, I pressed F2 for BIOS. Browsed around and tried adjusting a couple things here and there but I couldn't pinpoint where or what I had to do in order to fix the BSoD from BIOS. As time went on I began reading up on as much as I could for why my PoS wasn't working all the sudden. Meantime, I began taking apart the laptop to inspect the internal components. I started to become more and more familiar with the parts and determined that either the CPU or Motherboard may be the issue. I reset the CPU and cleaned out the heatsink, fan, etc... really cleaned things up. I didn't really change anything around but I began putting things back together exactly the way they were before and then.........
---Issue #2---
.... the screen wouldn't turn on. The laptop would turn on and the fan would go on for 2 seconds but then the 3 green lights would blink on and off... these lights are right next to the power ON/OFF button. When there is an issue with laptop these lights are used to give a general diagnostic based on the sequence of which these lights blink or hold solid. These lights are typically used as LETTER and NUMBER CAPS LOCK and (not sure of the other lights use). So, with the screen black (off) and the blinking lights along with the hard-drive just spinning, that's where the 2nd issue stood..
***What I did to try and fix***
Recently, I ordered a refurbished Motherboard and it came in the mail yesterday. It came 100% complete and even before I ordered it was stated the motherboard was in 100% working order. I went ahead and installed it praying for a miracle... The exact same issue as Issue #2 appeared... I knew there was a chance it wasn't going to fix the issue even though that is exactly what the 3 blinking green lights told me was the issue (need to replace motherboard). So, since that didn't work I also have a new CPU (processor) on its way. Hopefully this will solve my issues but I'm not so confident after yesterday.
Is there anyone else out there that has had this same issue?? Is there anything more I can do to try and reboot this bad boy to working order again??? I am hopeful for a solution as I do not want to spend 500 bucks to just get a new laptop. I have only spent 80 bucks to get to this point and that is all I'm hoping to spend.
ANY HELP???? thanks!

Dan

[vesseblah]

Memory perhaps? Or the HDD just died on you?

You're spending whole lot of time and effort on something that could be fixed with boot camping Windows, or maybe even running it as a VM.

[chazus]

Or just buying a $100 laptop on ebay and calling it a day. I've taken apart and fixed plenty of laptops, and the issues your having could be one of like... twenty. Honestly, instead of just buying parts when you aren't clear where you're going, or how to diagnose things, I'd recommend either taking it to a professional, or a friend who knows how to handle these things. Laptops not posting are extremely difficult to troubleshoot over forums, when someone isn't extremely familiar with them.