Inspiron Laptop Boot problem?

[mar122999]

I have an Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop and the laptop will not power up. Whenever you press the power button, the "power on" light will come on and blink every 3 seconds. No components turn on afterwards. I ruled out the hard drive, RAM, battery power, and anything else pertaining to those types of components. I believe it is the motherboard or the power board. I'm not sure though if the Inspiron 4000 series has a power board on it. I think that the 3500 and 3700 series does, but not the 4000 series. Correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, I disassenbled the laptop and found that the chipset on the motherboard had an oily residue covering it. This makes me suppect that the problem lies with the motherboard. The only thing I'm am curious about is, why does this chipset have an oily residue covering it other than being dry. Did overheating possibly caused this (I doubt it considering the chipset doesn't even have a heatsink/fan on it which means that manufacturer knows that the chipset will not run very hot...unless the laptop experienced a electrical surge??) Any suggestions?