Laptop shuts down and won't start

[maccas]

I turned on my laptop this morning and the fan started then it automatically shut down. So I pull the battery out and unplugged it for 1 hour and tried again but the same thing. I then pulled the hard drive out and put it in again and it started ok but after 2 minutes the screen went dark and I could barely seen the icons. So I tried a restart but it wouldn't start again. I have tried everything unplugged each component and tried to start but nothing has worked. It has happened before a few months back and after pulling the battery out and unplugging it for 30 minutes it started fine. The only thing I haven't unplugged is the LCD screen and the ati mobility 9700 as I don't know how to. Any ideas at all of what could be causing this?

[maccas]

Oh Windows XP, not software as it also happens when I pull the hard drive out, sometimes starts (but very dark screen) but mostly just turns itself off.

[defanjos]

Does it still happen with the laptot connected to the ac power (charging battery)?
Could be your battery is totally dead.

[Essex_boy]

I was going to suggest that or has your battery died? Both have happened to me.

[maccas]

Yeah it happens when the battery is out and when just on battery. The thing is it somtimes starts (but screen goes dark after a few minutes) so it can't be the processor, ram, hard drive, motherboard?

[kaled]

Boot from a cd or floppy and let it wait for input for half an hour. If the screen stays bright then it sounds like a software issue, but if it goes dark again it's probably hardware - best guess a knackered backlight or bad connection.

Kaled.

[maccas]

Well I fixed it :) after pulling practically everything out the culprit was grime! Yep a piece of grime was causing the little button thing at the base of the screen to be halfway depressed, the button that lets the computer know when the screen is closed. Unbelievable, wonder how many laptops have been chucked out for simmilar things?