Gateway laptop bricked?!

[OneMansGlory]

So I have an old gateway laptop that was working fine for quite some time. Then one day, suddenly it won't turn on... Thinking it is unbrickalble, after trying whatever I could (which wasn't much) then gave up. I found it in my back closet, and determined that I was going to unbrickalble it. When I push the power button, nothing happens. The AC connected light powers on when I plug it in, but there is nothing actually powering on the laptop. Possible diagnostics: Bad button, totally bricked, bad driver.

 

[C12Friedman]

Start by replacing the CMOS battery inside the laptop if it is not at 3v. For some reason that battery going bad can have strange effects on the operation of the laptop including not powering on.
While inside the laptop, look over the motherboard for burnt areas and swollen or leaky capacitors.
Usually the power on button gives a tactile click when depressed, can you feel anything like the switch clicking? If so, likely the button is okay.
While it is possible the laptop is bricked, I've found more often than not, it can be revived through some maintenance. Disassemble (YouTube should have you covered here - look for disassembly instructions for your model) and clean, while inside, that's when to look over the motherboard for problems and if the laptop is more than 5 years old, I'll recommend cleaning the old thermal compound off the heatsinks and replacing with a fresh application

 

[OneMansGlory]

EDIT: doing an atx reset with cmos out fixed it... Thanks!