2009 MacBook Pro Won't Turn On

Hi There,

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro that won't turn on. It was working perfectly fine last night. I didn't shut the computer down, I simply closed it and let it sit for the night. When I opened it this morning, I expected the computer to boot up as usual, but I was greeted only by a black screen. I clicked, pressed the space bar, hit random keys on the keyboard -- nothing. I hit the power button, and nothing happened. I then held the power button down for a few seconds, and I heard the computer shut down, indicating that the computer had been on the whole time, just not responsive. I then tried to power up again. No luck. This is what's happening: I'll press the power button, and if I release immediately, it makes the same noise it does when you force shut down. Essentially, it turns on for a second, but powers down immediately. I can hold the power button down for eight seconds and hear it starting up before it forces itself to shut down. The screen is always black, and there is never a chime. When I hold the power button down to its eight second limit, the sleeplight will initially be bright, fade, flicker, die out, come back for a second, and then the computer shuts down.

My computer has had no serious problems in the past. It belonged previously to a friend, and I received the computer in good condition. My friend did drop the computer at one point, but that did not appear to cause any problems (other than some external, cosmetic damage). It's always been a bit slow, but I figured that was normal for a used computer. I don't run disk utility as often as I probably should, running it about once every two months.

This is what I've tried so far:

• Powering up without the charger attached. This did not work.

• Cleaning the battery, replacing it and starting up. This did not work.

• Letting the battery sit, removed, for several minutes, then starting up again. This did not work.

• Starting up in Target Mode connected to a Mac Pro. This did not work.

• Booting up in recovery mode (holding down command and R, and then pressing the power button). This did not work. The computer could not start up long enough for this to be effective.

• Using Safe Boot (pressing power button while holding shift). This did not work. The computer could not start up long enough for this to be effective.

• Launching Single User Mode (starting up while holding command + S). Surprise surprise, this did not work. The computer could not start up long enough for this to be effective.

• Resetting the NVRAM (holding command, option, P and R, then hitting the power button). Again, this didn’t work.

• Resetting the SMC. This didn’t work either.

I genuinely don’t know what to do from here. Reading up on similar problems with MacBooks online, it seems like there could possibly be a problem with my computer’s logic board. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to afford fixing that, so I’m doing whatever I can to try to find out if it’s another issue before taking it to a mac specialist. If you have any suggestions, any possible diagnosis, or have encountered an issue like this in the past, I would be most appreciative if you would let me know.

Thank you very much for your time, and if you’re able, please let me know what you think.