Hi all,
Wow, I sure appreciate many of you spending time not only trying the suggestions here, but posting them so others can benefit -- you are the type of folks that make the internet indispensible! My hat is off (head getting cold)... My friend's NC6000 had the same problem: power on, fan comes on, amber light, then shuts down after a few seconds. I tried pressing down on the fan, no joy. Then tried lifting up on the fan's lower left, and it booted! I decided to try to place some washers under the fan housing where it screws down, at the edge of the motherboard. While I had it unscrewed, tried lifting up as before -- it did not boot! I then thought that maybe my lifting up before had caused some contact to occur that had not without the lift, but that would have had an effect when screwed in, so I tried screwing it back together -- and it booted, without any extra pressure anywhere! I would guess that the whatever-1987 chip that folks are saying needs re-soldering is my problem, but re-screwing down the fan housing flexed the board enough at that point to re-establish contact. I don't know how long it will last, of course; I may get brave and file down a soldering tip and give it a try.
Well, that's my story; thanks again to all who posted their findings; I thought I'd post mine as well. If I think of it later, and if I find out anything more that may be beneficial, I'll post it.