I have a dell inspiron 2600. I used to use it everyday, then I didn't do anything with it for a few months over the summer. When I picked it up again, it wouldn't power on. I plug it in and the battery light shows that it is charging, and eventually is full power. still won't power on. if you unplug it and let it sit for a while, then plug it in again, you'll see that the battery has drained while it was unplugged, so it will charge again.
The laptop is not under any warranty anymore.. any advice about what I can do to fix it?

Its a dell. This kind of activity should be expected. In all seriousness tho, i would take the battery out and just run it off of AC and see what happens. If the warranty is gone, pop the sucker open and see if you can see anything wrong with the power switch. Good luck.

I have tried running it just off AC (no luck)... opened it up last night and couldn't *see* anything wrong... but I'm no expert...

thanks anyway

Well, I have heard many a times of batteries going bad. And if while trying to charge it the battery was already bad, you could have done some damage to your laptop's motherboard. Its a stretch but that is all I can think of. And since it's warrenty has run out, I suggest opening it up and seeing if anything looks wrong. Burn marks, loose cable, etc.

Good luck.

I just posted that dell is recalling adapters for their laptops, the 2600 is on the recall list. I wouldn't think that the adapter would be at fault based on what you described, but you might as well get a replacement should you fix your current problem

http://www.delladapterprogram.com