Late 2006 (black) - Bizarre Startup Issues

[Meldar]

Cutting right to the chase:

My first MacBook, late 2006 2,00GHz C2D, does any of the following when I press the power button:

• Chimes, gray Apple screen, then kernel panic. Time = 10 seconds
• Chimes, gray Apple screen, power off. Time = >5 seconds
• Chimes, gray Apple screen, login screen, freezes. Time = 10 seconds.

Now, if I remove the battery, it will only do the second.

I did an SMC reset.

If I start it with the battery in and AC unplugged, it boots okay. About 20 seconds and a long time on the spinny tick wheel. THEN I can plug in the adapter. I'm posting using it right now.

More than advice I want opinions. It looks like classic directory corruption but DiskWarrior, which I use constantly at work, saw nothing wrong. No program did. Rebuilt it anyway. Verified disk OK using both Disk Utility and TechTool Pro 6. No bad sectors. (better not be, it's a year-old lightly used HDD).

Sooo...I've got the install disks a hundred miles away back in central PA.

Should I nuke n' pave? (meaning fresh install on zeroed disk?)

Or should I just continue fussing with it the way I have been so that it boots?

Or tell my brother to get a new machine and sell this one for parts?

 

[Sonhascome]

It sounds like it could even be a problem with the magsafe dc-inboard, if you go on ebay for that computer model it's a 5 dollar part, I'd definitely try that before scrapping the thing