Dell E1505 Won't Boot

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Yesterday I went to turn on my E1505 and pressing the power button did nothing. I played around with the AC adapter cord where it enters the laptop because I know it may be starting to separate. Then I checked the battery and it showed full charge. I unplugged the adapter and tried powering up on battery power and still nothing. I checked Dell Forum and one posting discussed a bad battery and running on just AC. I tried removing the battery and powering up with just AC and still nothing happened. But when I snapped the battery back into place I immediately noticed an LED come on and at that point I had high hopes. However, what happened was the power, numlock, capslock, and scroll lock lights came on and then after about 3 seconds shut off and then immediately came back on. It would continue to cycle like this until I removed the battery. As soon as I put the battery back in the same thing happens. I do not even have to press the power button; it just tries to start up by itself. I noticed that while the lights were on there was no sound of the fan starting and the hard drive would whir and then click just before the lights went out. I tried reseating and then completely removing the RAM and this did nothing, the whole cycle of the lights coming on for 3 seconds, shutting off and then coming back on continued. I then removed the hard drive because I was afraid the persistent cycling may damage the drive. Still the lights would cycle but this time there was no sound of anything. I began thinking the problem was a bad fan and that maybe the laptop is set up to not fully power up without a fan to protect the CPU. But what does not seem to make sense is that the only way to get the lights to come on and cycle is to remove and then re-install the battery. If I connect the AC adapter and then install and remove the battery, the lights continue to cycle getting power from the AC. But if I remove the battery first and then plug in the AC adapter nothing happens. As a last resort I tried reseating the CPU and checking all the plgu connections, especially the fan. I was hoping someone might have a clue as to what the problem may be. I know the board that has the power and lock lights has been referred to as a "power board" and was wondering if that actually has anything to do with the power path (and whether this could be the problem) or is just called that because it is where the power button is. Somehow I think my problem may be connected to the battery but I hate spending $100+ for a battery only to find this is not the problem.

One thing I should throw in is that my E1505 pretty much was on 24 hours a day (battery connected and AC adapter plugged in). When I closed the lid the monitor would go off but the computer was allowed to run to do daily backups and virus scans during the wee hours. About a month ago, after I closed the lid, I would hear, periodically through the night, a chime (the same sound it makes when a device is connected to a UBS port) and the monitor would turn on even with the lid closed. If I pushed down on the lid the monitor would shut off. I finally got tired of hearing the chiming and seeing the monitor go on and then off with lid shut when there was no activity going on (no backup, no virus scanning). I finally reset the laptop to go into hibernation when the lid was shut. So maybe with the laptop being on so often and for so long has resulted in a battery/power issue.

I appreciated any feedback to this problem. I found nothing like this at Dell's forum and am hoping for some leads here. I really need my laptop back but cannot afford to buy a new one.
 
I tried with a working AC adapter; same thing. Lights come on for 2-3 seconds without pressing power button, go out, and come on again. I removed the fan and can hear a slight click in the area of the CPU when the lights come on. I am beginning to suspect it is the CPU, maybe from the computer being on so much and the fact that heat removal from a laptop is not as efficient as from a desktop.
 
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