If your system will not power on try some or all of the following.

>Remove the ac adapter and the battery for two minutes then reconnect the ac adapter and try powering the system up.

>Remove the ac adapter, the battery, and the harddrive then put the harddrive back in and try it on ac power only.

>Try starting the system without the harddrive in the system.

>Remove hardware components one at a time and see if the system will start after that.

If the system will not power up with a certain hardware component install then that component may be faulty.

If the system will not power on no matter what, then the processor or motherboard may be faulty.

You can email Dell by Clicking Here for assistance.

Please include your system service tag and a description of the problem and troubleshooting done to try to resolve it.

You can also call Dell Technical Support. The phone number to contact our US Mobile Computing Hotline is 800-822-8965 for Corporate/Government Accounts or at 800-247-9252 for Direct accounts.

You will be connected to a Technical Specialist who will help you resolve the issue over the phone or arrange the appropriate service.

If you are outside of the United States, you will need to contact Dell in your global area.

Thank you for choosing Dell.

I too have experienced the exact same symptoms with my CPxH. Dell support ran me through several hoops and demanded that I restore Windows NT as was factory installed (like I was going to do that). In the end my solution is similar to ms.lori. I push the on button several time (like 10-20) in rapid succession, often without letting the system try to turn off. Then all of a sudden it comes on and stays on. yipee!

Good Luck, Art

I had the same issue with my CPXJ; would not POST or go into BIOS; just the light show and shut off. I followed the Dell advice and removed the hard drive, battery, cdr, floppy ; still computer would not post and go into BIOS.

Then I removed the memory and still no POST results.

 I reinserted the memory a few minutes later in the DIMM A slot. The machine booted to BIOS; I reinstalled the hard drive and other components and all was well. Hope this works for you and resolves your issue as easily.

Thank you for replying.  I tried re-inserting the memory into the DIMM A slot, but it still wouldn't post.  Still open to other suggestions.  Once in a great while it will post and I get an error message:

Hit Fn x to continue, Manufacturing Mode, Level 001

According to what I found in the knowledge base, it is the MNT jumper pins shorted together.  But I can only find the system planar for desktop computers.  I don't even know if my latitude has a MNT jumper.  Can anyone help me with this?

I am no expert; but I am certain that pushing that key combination will reset the system board to Dell factory testing conditions....so that may be a reasonable route to go when it does POST.