I get the feeling that you just press "enter" after pressing "shut down" without checking to see what is written on the "shut down" line. Check to see that it doesn't display "restart".
It may...

Dear Gav,
I see that in the three days since you posted your first note on DaniWeb, over 80 people have read it but nobody has answered.
That makes me feel bad for you--your questions are very...

Initially I wasn't aware that you were dealing with a laptop--but that doesn't change the basic issue. I would suggest looking in the site of the manufacturer--they might have a diagram of your model...

What makes you certain that your mother board is burned out? I was in a similar situation a few weeks ago--when I would start my computer absolutely nothing would happen on screen--I too was certain...