Dell Inspiron 600 m problem

Hi guys, New to this forum and hope maybe someone can give me an idea or 2. Have built a few pcs over the years but i have a friend with this 600 that is his daughters. In order to get it to come on you have to flex the case while holding the power button down. Just guessing but i would think it has a crack in the board or a bad solder joint on the board. You have to flex the case with either ac or battery. I am blind in one eye now so i am hopeing someone may have had this problem and can give me some idea as to where to start looking since it will be a hassle with only one eye. Thanks, Jerry

It certainly suggests a short somewhere, as to where it could be a few places, the most common one I know of is the power socket where the mains plugs in, over time this can weaken, and cause connection problems, as to a cracked board I don't think so, but it doesn't mean it couldn't be, but generally speaking if the board was broke the PCB would be interrupted, and probably wouldn't turn on at all, but again weirder things can happen. But given your description of moving the power ports to get it starting suggests that my suspicion of the power terminal(s) is the most likely cause, either way it is a full on repair, best done by someone trained in this field as they have tools the common person won't have, and will be far more used to this than those who have not worked at that level on a system before, I hate saying take it to a shop, but in this instance it is probably the best way forward. But to try and confirm, you mention the power points being flexed as allowing it to start, could you try starting it without the battery in, powered directly from the mains ? Should this start normally without touching anything, then there is another highly probable cause, and that's a bad battery, if this is the case then a new battery should resolve this, but it wouldn't hurt to take it to a shop and ask to try a battery before buying, say if it doesn't work then the battery would be of no use, so you want to be sure before spending money, I imagine most would be happy to help if it means a possible sale, but good news is if this is the solution then you don't have to pay a tech to open up the system etc, hope something here helps.