OK, had issues with laptop since spilled a little liquid on it - think it affected the power button as everything else was dry but eventually noticed it wouldn't power on via the button - and of course no way to boot in other ways - I saw other posts about removing battery, holding power button for 30 seconds, reconnecting power and it powers on very briefly, DELL flashes up on screen and then it powers off.
I did have a fix where I took out the CMOS (as thought the battery was probably 6 years or older), powered on and it took me to the BIOS screen, and could boot from there. I'e been able to use the laotop for the last week by never shutting down - only sleeping as the lid sensor will get the computer to wake up. Everything about the laptop works when it's on - as long as I only sleep or choose reboot. Can't therefore hibernate or power off as no way to power on.
I've had a new power button switch arrive from an ebay seller, fitted this, tested reboot and sleep and light is working on the power button (old one was too), and so have eventually had the guts to power off the system totally to test the new button.
Zilch - nada - dead,
Battery out, hold switch, connect power, it wakes up for about 2 seconds and then goes off. Can't even get to the bios menu or boot. Taking out the cmos worked last week but even this fix doesn't help me now. I've tried all combinations of battery in/out/cmos in/out / lead in/out and can get no further. also tried disconnecting power switch from m/b lead and no difference.
The weird thing is that it would reboot, when it was up and running windows, but not from hibernate or power off. I feel it was something to do with the power button because of this, but a new button hasn't worked.
HELP please!
Richard