Laptop makes a clink noise and is off

"Sounds also a bit like a hard drive problem. The clink might be the hard drive stopping unexpectedly, maybe due to a connection problem with the drive to the motherboard.

If I disconnect the power to one of the drives in my desktop it makes kind of a clink-ish sound. That's all I can think of.

You might want to try re-seating the hard drive, or try one from another laptop if you have one, just to see if that is the problem."

"It does sound like a power issue. I would try replacing the easiest thing first, which is the power button board that sits just behind the power button. Sellers on ebay sell them for under $10.00. They are not terribly hard to install. Remove the battery and unplug the power. Undo the screws from the bottom of the laptop. You just have to remove the palm rest, the speaker/keyboard bezel, the keyboard, and the screen bezel. Loosen up the right side hinge and you will see it. One screw and a tab hold it in place. The wires are extremely fragile and break away from the power button board really easily. Bless Dell's pea-pickin' heart. They designed the power button to be right where the hinge is, where the wire gets the most movement.

When you replace it, you want to make sure that the wire is taught from the connector end and has lots of slack at the hinge end."