Did you try popping off the battery and just plugging it in?

You think the button that you push to turn it on is loose and not making contact? possible I suppose. When you plug the laptop in do you get any sort of battery charging light or any lights that indicate it's recieving power? I've seen on many laptops where the connection that you plug the powersupply into the laptop itself get's real flaky and you need to jiggle it in order for it to get power.

Laptops can be tricky to work on. Everything is internal and most things are part of the system board. Is it still under warrenty? If so I'd recommend sending it in. I'm guessing it's not however. Getting the case apart can be challenge on it's own. I don't really recommend cracking it open though yourself unless you really have to. You can do more damage then good.

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I believe in make the world safe for our children, but not our children's children, Because I don't think children should be having sex.

Sometimes people miss the most basic things when troubleshooting because they're focusing on it being something trickier, so it never hurts to double-check ... is the battery charged or dead? And just for the sake of mentioning it to anyone outside of the United States, they have power converters that usually must be used when plugging into the wall to charge the battery.

Google GeekDrop is your friend.

That is strange. All the years I've worked on laptops I've never seen that happen. But I've also never seen one with the power button in that location before. Do you have a local computer shop in the area. You could alway's take it there and ask them what they think. They should be able to give an idea of what they would charge you to take a look at it. I would recommend avoiding the geeksquad though! They will rip you off.

You could try and take the cover apart and take a look yourself. If indeed it is the power button that is just loose maybe you could fix that. If you did try it yourself though go on dell's website and look up your model laptop and try and find the documentation on it. You should be able to find out how the case comes apart. Sometimes there not easy to get apart and it can be really frustrating if your just doing it blind. I've taken a whole laptop apart before I realized I didn't need to in order to get at what I needed to get at. Although I have successfully proven that most laptops are "over engineered" I've had at least 5 extra screws when I was done and the laptops still work!

Anyway my recommendation would be to try and find someone local and see what they think. Do you have anyone that you live nearby that works on computers that would be willing to give you some advice? That's what all my neighbors do, and relatives, and friends of my relatives... you get the idea. But if you do decide to try it yourself just be careful, take your time.

Keep us posted.
EM
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I believe in make the world safe for our children, but not our children's children, Because I don't think children should be having sex.

One other thing comes to mind that is worth a try. Try removing the memory and reseating it. Even try turning it on with the memory out. See if it tries to post, or beeps at you or anything. Then put the memory back in and see if it powers on. If there is more then one chip then try one at a time. Maybe one has gone bad. Worth trying. You'd have to look it up online depending on your model where the memory is located but most of the time it's on the bottom of the laptop. Sometimes there's memory under the keyboard too.

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I believe in make the world safe for our children, but not our children's children, Because I don't think children should be having sex.