I think I killed my netbook

I have a little-used Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook.
It would not run on battery alone. A suggestion at the Dell community forum was that updating the BIOS could resolve the problem. I downloaded the flash bios utility. I opened the utility and got to the reminder to shut down all other programs. I realized Avast was still running so I tried to terminate it. At that point the computer froze. I had not yet opted to "flash BIOS now" so I tried to shut down and restart the computer. It was still frozen and would not shut down so I popped out the battery to shut it down. It now will not start. The power light comes on (white) however from there nothing happens. I tried removing and replacing both the RAM and SSD. No improvement. I could pop the CMOS battery however that requires pretty much fully deconstructing the computer so I'd rather not do that. Any other suggestions?
Thanks
K

The SSD may be the problem. You could try removing that to see if it will at least power up without it.

I pulled the SSD and tried turning on the computer. The white power light comes on but nothing else. When I pulled the RAM and SSD at the same time I at least got an error beep. From what I have read, the Dell Minis have been very problematic with lots of people reporting failed SSDs and other issues. Ours is out of warranty. I might consider spending $80-$90 on a new SSD if I thought that was the issue. Is there any way to diagnose it?
Thanks
K
BTW I opened up the machine and unplugged the replugged the CMOS battery to see if that would help. No change.

I fear you have bricked it :( :(

If you still have it open, look on the motherboard and have a look to see if the BIOS chip is socketed. If it is you will be able to remove it and get it reflashed. It will look like this:

http://images.trustedreviews.com/ima.../1916-bios.jpg

I haven't gone back in to look at the BIOS chip but from what I can tell online it is soldered, not socketed. I have come across an encouraging link, however, suggesting I can flash the BIOS with a USB pen drive. I will explore that.
My question at the moment is whether I can recover data from the SSD? If necessary is there an enclosure or adapter that I can buy to connect the SSD to another computer? Assuming it has not failed.
Thanks
K

If the SSD is a normal 2.5" drive format, then the SATA connectors are the same on 2.5" and 3.5" drives, so all you should need to do is plug it into a spare motherboard port and SATA power connector in your desktop PC. The drive should then show in explorer in the same way. If the SSD isn't like a 2.5" drive report back what it looks like (a picture would be handy).

The Dell Mini 9 does not use a standard SATA connector for its SSD. See post #9 at the link below. I have been able to obtain adapters for my Mini 9. I have not needed them as yet, but I wanted to have them in case I do.

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...highlight=Mini