Okay, this seasoned computer wrangler is about to give up... I was looking for a blown fuse but no-joy.
Pammie undocked the CD-ROM while running W2K. It froze up. Unplugged and replugged power and batts to do a restart but now the laptop is totally dead- no lights, spin-up, sounds, flicker. Power button does not cause anything to happen. The power brick light is on and it gives 17V. Replaced the battery with a fresh one but no help. I removed the HDD, CD, Batt, and keyboard and unplugged the CMOS batt for 30 mins. Reassembled but still dead. I saw that there is charging voltage at the CMOS battery when the external power is plugged in but as soon as the laptop power button is pressed, this voltage drops to 2.0V. This happens whether or not any peripherals are plugged in such as the CMOS batt itself, keyboard, HDD and/or the system battery. I was first looking for a board mounted fuse but when I saw the the external supply shut down when the power button is pressed, it looked like over-current detection was shutting in the external power. Power on the board is restored when the external plug is removed and replugged but the system is still totally unresponsive and the system battery does not charge.
Thanks for any help on this. -DJ