Oh goodie. The little minor annoying problem of not being able to turn on my laptop w/out power plugged in is most likely the motherboard. ~$700 to replace!!! WTF!

The message is that it's docked and I need to apply power to the docking station or undock and plug in the AC. I plug in the AC and I check the bios and it says it's not docked. So it's sensing properly. Dell Forums shows the same problem with various versions of my laptop older and newer. The only solution I saw in 2 threads was replacing the motherboard. I'm thinking it's a switch or sensor gone bad. Either way I'm boned. I'm not putting ~$700 towards this thing. I was pissed I had to pay $100 for a new batter 8 days out of warranty. mucker fothers.

I saw another thread that suggests deleting all profiles. Of course there isn't an answer to that one. I posted a question so I'll see if I get a reply.