Inspiron not powering up- different than other posts

I have a Dell Inspiron 1501. It turned itself off, did not shut down. Just *poof*. It's totally dead. Took out battery, waited, put it back in. Tried different power cord from another Inspiron, got same results. Here's what happens with the power cord: Light in the transformer of the cord turns on when plugged into the wall outlet, but as soon as it is connected to the laptop, the light on the powercord transformer goes out and stays out until I unplug it from the wall and then re-plug it into the wall outlet. This happens with the battery out and the battery in. I opened up the case to see if any dust or anything was causing a problem, but didn't see anything. Made sure everything was plugged in. My guess is the board is fried? Is there anything else to try?

Hi

"just poof"

That's never a good type of sound to hear with any computer…..
Some extra things to try:

1 Check to see if there is a light on the laptop (LED type) when you have the power supply plugged in and operational.
2 Takeout the battery again and unplug from the mains….. leave it for several hours, make sure when putting it back that all is at room temperature…then try again, any lights now, any sound fans etc?
3 If you have a light on the power supply "brick" that extinguishes when you plug it into the computer, and you have checked it with a known working correct voltage and wattage power supply, then it usually indicates a motherboard/socket issue
4 best thing is to speak to Dell Technical and get their views their contact address is on page 111 of the owners manual ( post back if you need a link to this….)
5 The Inspiron 1501's come usually with a hidden partition containing the diagnostic applications…..(they are also on the Dell CD/DVD) however you need to be able to boot into something to be able to run them…..
6 if you cant even get into or see the BIOS or any lights on the computer then its probably bad news.
7 Any warranty/guarantee, service agreement in force?
Regards
paws