Dell Inspiron 5160 will not Post,Boot, can't enter CMOS

[bradlang]

Hopefully someone can help. I have a Dell Ispiron 5160 about 4 or 5 years old that when turned on will continuosly try to boot. The screen shows the Dell logo and below is a progress bar. When the progress bar is about 75% complete the screen goes blank and the laptop restarts(this happens continuosly everytime the progress bar is about 75% complete) . This is also the same screen you should be able to enter the CMOS from, but when I hit F8 it says preparing to enter steup, then the screen goes blank and it tries to restart again.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[oran68]

This may work to clear the CMOS so you can start from scratch.

If the Power button is round, on the same surface as the keyboard, and so that you have to push down to start, you can hold it down for, say, fifteen minutes with your finger. After unplugging the power cord, of course.

But, it is a lot easier if you find a kid's small marble, put it on the Power button and then put a book or anything flat, heavy enough on top of the marble to hold it down, down all the way, for a long time.

Certainly, it sounds like a hoaky idea but it does the job.

Other folks might try unscrewing anything they see on a laptop, but you may know already how that ends.