Gateway P-6860FX Not Turning On (intermittent problem)

My Gateway P-6860 FX is having an issue where it sometimes does not boot up. What happens is I press power and the buttons at the top light up, but nothing else. The screen does not turn on (not even the backlight), and Windows Vista does not boot. I have to press and hold the power button to turn the laptop off and then try to boot again. Sometimes it works right away, other times it takes 3-5 on/off tries to get it to boot.

A few (unsuccessful) things I have tried to diagnose/fix the problem:

1. Flash the motherboard bios
2. Upgrade video drivers (tried a couple versions)
3. Connect to external monitor via HDMI

So it seems to me it is an issue with the motherboard, hard drive, or memory, but please correct me if you think it could be something else. I've built desktops before, but I'm not really sure how to pinpoint the problem here.

I've searched the forums for something like this, but couldn't find any solutions. Has anyone else had a problem like this or have any idea what I can do to investigate further myself?

 

Could be a power problem. Does it happen when you use the battery too? Otherwise it could be a problem with something on the motherboard.

 

id call em, get it in for repair, its worth it, even if you haveto pay, it was a dear machine