weird clicking sound, now nothing

i need help! a few days ago, when i came out to the parking garage and started my car, it started up just fine, but then it started to make the metal grinding sound that cars make when you turn the key too far and hold it (not that i did that) and then it started clicking and the airbag light in my dash started flashing at me. I drove it home because i didn't know what else to do, it wasn't in a great part of town to just leave it there, and it drove fine, except that it clicked all the way. i figured with the sound it was making,it was the starter, but i replaced that and it isn't that. now it wont' even start at all though. i thought maybe the battery had drained from disconnecting it and trying to hook up the starter, so i tried to jump it and the weirdest thing happend. my lights starter flashing, my gauges and lights in the dash went nuts, and my doors started locking and unlocking. now, nothing electrical in my car will work at all, including the door locks and it won't even make a sound to start or turn over.....any ideas???

How many wires did you attach to your starter? make sure you attached not only the battery cable but also the fuseable links (see below for description).

It could be alot of different things, but the way you descired it I would have to assume you jumped it from a running vehicle and had both the positive and negative cables hooked to the battery, am I right?

I would check a few things, check all of the fuses with an ohm meter and the key off (easiest way to check fuses, leave them in the fuse box and touch the two metal ends on the fuse with the meter ends, if your meter doesn't go up its a bad fuse) check them all, but I don't think this is your problem.

My guess would be that because you had a car running and then got your car running, you then had 2 alternators pushing current thru a single system and it burnt up your fuseable links. Your fuseable links are the other wires (other then the positive power cable) that attach to your starter (should be like 4 of them). A fuseable link is a wire that has a smaller diameter wire for a short length that acts like the metal in a fuse, if you pull or push too much juice thru them the smaller wire gets hot and burns up, this keeps you from having to check all over the wire harness to find a burnt spot.

If its neither of these two next I would suspect a bad computer.

i am being told by people at the auto store that it could be either the ignition switch or a bad battery, does this sound right to anyone? the starter was completely replaced and hooked back up correctly and turning over, so that's not it.....

I have a 99' and my battery died. And as soon as I tried starting it, getting a jump, all the lights flashed too. That was because it takes a lot of juice to power you cars computer and DRL's and those auto matic lights on (at night). So I wasnt sure what your car exactly was, year and engine. But chances are the light show was normal with a dead or weak battery. Maybe try charging it more or trying a new(r) battery. And double check those wires on the starter, they might be loose :) remember safty first \,,/