[meburns]

I had almost the exact same issue with my 2009 17' MacBookPro and when it finally wouldn't boot up anymore I took it to the closest Apple store near me. They told me they could do an out of warranty fix of the damaged part (whatever it was, something on the logic board) and it would be around $300. I agreed and they sent it in to their warehouse to get fixed, a few days later I get a call telling me that the part that was needed was severely backordered and I could either wait or they would give me a refurbished 2013 15' MacBookPro with comparable specs to my old MBP plus AppleCare and a bunch of other nice things. Needless to say that was the best $300 I ever spent, had they not been able to do anything with it I suspect I would be trying more things like drilling holes in the case ;)