Studio 1535 won't power on

My laptop died without notice yesterday.
I had it on yesterday morning, closed everything, shut down - everything ok.

Got home last night and - nothing.
Hit the power button, sometimes nothing happens, some times the HDD indicator flickers for a second, the media buttons do their scroll-ey light up thing, the HDD spins, CPU light goes out, 2/3 seconds later HDD stops spinning. Screen blank throughout - no BIOS or anything.

Any idea what could be wrong?

Hopefully I'll get a chance to take the HDD out and pray to the Gods I get a BIOS POST.

 

Pull AC and battery and hold power button for 30 seconds or reseat RAM but I doubt that'll help.

These things have terrible build quality. I closed my laptop, moved to the next room, opened and now have a pink line down my screen. Gotta love Dell...

 

I resat the ram and HDD, now I'm getting a "Time of day clock stopped."
Hopefully if I replace the CMOS I'll be laughing, but I fear it's a mobo issue

 

Well, at least you have something showing up on the screen. Can you get into BIOS? Either way, good luck.

 

This is why you keep your warranty up on your Dells.

 

I have a 1535 motherboard with ATI graphics if you need it. I also have the correct fan & heatsink incase yours has Intel graphics. It kinda sounds like my 1536 acted when the motherboard died. I replaced it with a 1537 motherboard & T9600 CPU & have never been happier.