Startup problem ibm thinkpad t43

Question

My notebook is having issues starting up. Whenever i turn it on, it barely gets past the bios messages and then turns itself off. I have tried;- removing the battery and starting it up with the power connected- removing the hard drive and booting with a live disk- booting to biosbut none of these things work. It goes off after a few seconds. Any ideas on how to fix it are welcome. Thanks!