Smallfry
No apologies needed, you have been very helpful. Your post led me to a Mac troubleshooting site, but still no luck.
It definitely seems to be the DVD that is whirring away. I get no start up chime and no screen visuals at all, just black screen.
I do know that the battery is buggered, it holds its charge for maybe 20 mins, so I normally just use the macbook with the power lead connected. There is power going to the computer, even without the external connected. Battery underneath is showing 4 lights, so I guess 75-80%.
edit
sorry meant to say, there is a disk (dvd movie) in the drive and I cannot eject it, so can't try anything with original disks etc.
Gentleman Jim