A few days ago starting having intermittent problem / symptom with 16 month old laptop no longer under warranty.

Pressing the On / Off button to Wake-Up or Turn-On the laptop fails to start it.  The buttom lights up for an instant and the screen flickers twice, then nothing.  Pressing the button again might yield a screen flicker, but nothing  els.  One, the AC power light on the laptop itself flashed amber and white for a few seconds.

After we wait for several hours, pressing the On / Off button works just fine and starts the laptop.

Once powered on, the 'Windows shut down unexpectedly' screen usually pops up and one time Dell Diagnostics started.

Unplugging the battery or the AC adapter doesn't work at all.  I have not reseated memory or HD yet.  Sure seems odd though that starting up again is a function of time.

Most responses to these power issues tell owners to replace the mother board - really, that's it!  These laptops are that bad that the MB's fail in a little over a year!  If it is the MB, I'll do it myself, but gee.  I own other Dell products - no complaints.

What about the power button - can it be bad?  Any advice is appreciated.