A few months ago I purchased a high-end laptop (I'll post the spesifics once I find them, if that is relevant) that worked just fine up until now. All of a sudden, the laptop won't start. When I press the power button I can hear the machine starting up, a few lights on the keyboard flashes and the machine beeps. Some times the screen flickers briefly. If there is a DVD or CD in the DVD-drive I can hear it spinning as well, but that's it! The screen remains blank, the laptop does not react to any buttons and after a short while, the fan and DVD-drive stops working.

It has been this way for about a week and a half now, although it did work perfectly normal once a few days ago. When I turned it off again the problems persisted, though.

Any ideas?

are the problems just when running on the battery, or when powered from the mains as well ?

both