Dash lights on, no start, one click. Battery not grounded?
 

Alright. I've been reading all over the Internet (mostly this site) about this issue. Here's what happened. I pick up my new to me 2002 4wd blazer, it runs fine, starts fine a couple times, I let it sit for a few hours and when I come to turn it on, I just get one click. The dash lights and headlights are on, the power windows and locks work fine, CD player/radio are working. It is negative 6 outside so I figure something is frozen. Whatever, I let it sit and come back to it tomorrow.

Tomorrow happens and I search all over the web about possible issues, and I'm leaning towards bad battery cables somewhere or a grounding issue. As I said I picked this car up from a dealer and they said they charged the battery. Well when they put it back in they didn't secure it under the two clamps that hold it onto the tray. (I had a Jimmy before this and I made that mistake so I knew how to fix it). I figure this will solve everything. Well it made matters worse. When I tried starting it now, everything went dead and the security feature kicked on, and I can't get my key out. So I waited 10 minutes like I've read and tried again but I'm getting hardly any lights, just a battery & check engine light. When I try jumping it all my lights come on, but still only one click when turning the key.

Upon further investigation of the battery, I notice that there is a screw missing from the battery tray, and it can be wobbled around. I'm wondering If a screw fell out and now it's not properly grounded? I haven't had time to mess with it today because I had to get to work. It started fine at least 3 times in the day before this happened.

I know people say it is the starter but I'm just avoiding that option because I just freaking bought this thing and I don't want to be plugging money into it.

Also, I don't have a chip in my key.

for those that are wondering, a new battery solved my issue. the battery that was in there must have had some bad cells or something.

I wish I would have seen this,I would have said right away, bad battery.

It actually worked out quite well. I traded in my Jimmy to the dealer I got the Blazer from (couple days ago), and they gave me my battery from my Jimmy. And that battery is only a year old.