Chosen Solution

  1. turned on macbook 2008 unibody, it was in safe mode. Keyboard was acting up and not letting me type username/password (delete button was not working and it was really sluggish
  2. selected restart
  3. will not power on now. Charging light goes from green to orange within a couple seconds of hitting power button
  4. tried removing battery with cable connected - light is green but still will not power on
  5. held power button for 10 seconds and all held shift/option/command power button and no luck How can I get this laptop to turn on?

Have you tried SMC and/or PRAM/NVRAM resets? If not, I would advise you to try them. How to reset the SMC, PRAM and NVRAM on a Mac Laptop