parasomia

Hey everyone,

I got my M9750 over a year ago, and it has worked well. Recently though it isn't happy. Lately it would shut it self off (which I thought.. ok overheating) and I still think thats what it was. But it would be ok.. let it cool down and it would boot right back up. It was usually when I had it in a not so ventilated place.. my bad!

Last night I had fell asleep and it was left on. It wasn't doing anything heavy so it was fine. I woke up and it was still good, and then I went to shut if off. Later I turned it on.. nothing. Oh it lights up.. the power button, the HDD light will for a few seconds, Disc tray. etc. But thats it. It isn't the screen because I can tell the hdd isn't loading. No POST or anything. Oddly enough I can eject the disc tray or push caps lock or whatever and it will light up. Now this similar thing happened the other day.. except after a few tried it did boot. That isn't the case today so far.

Well here is what I have done/tried. I reseated the RAM.. nothing. I took the RAM out and put the original modules back in.. nothing. I cleaned out the fans and what not, Nothing. I redid the thermal paste on the CPU with some the lovely Arctic Silver 5... nothing. I unplugged the Cmos battery for a few minutes (that is all Alienwares site said to do... left it off till I redid battery).. nothing. I switched hard drives around just for a try.. nothing of course.

I'm kind of stuck with what could be the issue. Funny thing is.. it will turn on by itself. If I connect the power adapter or put the battery in.. it just turns on. If I turn it off by holding the power button down.. it turns off and turns right back on! Strange little creature!

No warranty now, so I'm planning on attempting to fix it myself. I'm just kind of loss on what the issue could be! I don't believe it to be completely dead. Anyone have any ideas? ANY help appreciated!

Thanks,