Acer 5520 locked up - won't boot

[Shooglefly]

Our Acer Aspire 5520 won't start.  All it does is click and the power button lights briefly.  This keeps cycling but never starts.  Running Win Vista.  We have tried the following;  removed the battery, held down the button for 30-45 secs, replace battery.  Still same. Tried with only the adapter connected (no battery).   What else can we do? No screen at all.
Thanks in advance.  KJ

[jason2074]

What happened prior to the problem? Can it still boot or power up when you say keeps cycling but never start?

[ShotAlive]

In my opinion the motherboard is toast. This happened to my old laptop it just kept going on and off before screen shows up. I got it checked and motherboard was to be replaced so I just got a new PC.

[luna821]

I've had something happen like that to me  as well! But in that case it was the processor, when I opened it up you could see right where it was melted.
 Good luck!

[patio]

I have no idea how the previous 2 Posts are supposed to help the OP...

[Shooglefly]

Hi Jason 2074,
You asked what happened prior to my problem.  Nothing that was notice.  Had been using computer previous day, then tried to turn it on, that's when it wouldn't start.  Can't thing of _anything_ that was done or happened prior.  Scratching my head....
Now, today I took the back covers off, removed HDD, then DVD drive and tried to start without them in...same situation.
Also tried reseating the RAM and also lifted the fan and cleared some dust.  Just while I had it open.
Still same situation.  Maybe like someone else said  m'board???  I hope not!  Anyhoo I probably can retrieve stuff from hard drive with another machine (I hope).
Thanks again....

[Shooglefly]

..more to Jason 2074.  Actually after some thought, had been using laptop, it went into 'sleep', then when we hit the power button to wake it up it went into this cycling.   (Have made a short video of the way it looks, clicking on and off).

[jason2074]

If the laptop has Vista disc, try using Startup repair. Look also first to connecting the hard drive by enclosures or a SATA/IDE USB adapter to backup important files.