jgs600 :
i have a sony vaio pcg 8qm and when i press the power button it tries to power up for a split second and then dies. you can hear the fan spin up breifly and the screen starts to load the sony start up but withing a second it just powers off, almost like something is tripping out...!
Try removing the battery and powering it up plugged into the wall with battery out. (put it on a hard surface not your lap when doing this).
Is this a new or old laptop? Sounds like you might have a short. If your laptop savvy you can take it apart and look for fried capacitors.
its another forum but i ran across this thread too maybe it helps.
http
/www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/30503/