Weird Startup Issues

Ive got an 4 or 5 year old Alienware Area-51 m7700 laptop that I use for gaming. I have had some problems with it booting before but it usually goes away after a few boots.

Recently I tried to turn it on and it would power up for about 3 seconds then turn off with no beeps or error messages. I went through a process of removing all the parts one by one to see if it would turn on with no avail.

I was about to deem it DOA but when I had all the parts put back, it would turn on, fans would kick in, hard drives spin, but would stay at a blank screen with the HDD light staying on with no beeps or error messages. I decided to start diagnosing again by removing the RAM piece by piece. After I removed one stick and tried to start it up, everything booted normally to XP. I turned the computer off, inserted the stick again and has booted normal since.

Does anyone know why this appened? I got a feeling that since its an older laptop that the board may be slowly going out. Any feedback or comments is appreciated.

Computer specs: P4 3 ghz processor, 2 gb PC2-4300 RAM, Nvidia Geforce Go 6800, and two 60 GB drives with XP raided together for 120 GB total.

 

It is more then possible the contacts on the ram were contaminated when first handled, the oils on your fingers can cause problems. IMO it is a good practice to gently wipe contacts with a clean cloth prior to installing, I have seen a few machines lose problems by removing components and cleaning contacts.

 

When the problem first arose, that was the first thing i removed was the RAM but it would only turn on for three seconds then turn off. I then systematically removed a part and tried to start with no change. But for some reason when i put it all back, it kicked on.

A friend recommended that it might be the BIOS and may try flashing it since it might be slightly corrupt. I may try it but not sure if when I reconfigure the RAID if it'll pick up the drives like they are now or i'll have to reinstall XP.