Mac Mini Core 2 Duo died and now won't boot - any help or advice appreciated...

Hi, all
I have a core 2 duo Mac Mini (possibly a 2008 model?) which has been retro-fitted with a superdrive at some point in its life and was running Lion.
It used to be left running 24/7, but one day I returned to find it powered down and it will not boot up at all now. Applying power and then pressing the power button results in the cpu fan starting, and the HD spinning up - the white power indicator lights steady, but other than that there is no sign of life - no noises, beeps, no display, nothing.
I'm not averse to getting the lid off (I've opened up a fair few mini's before ) so any suggestions as to what my next step should be?
As an aside, the Intel minis have a small push button on the logic board, about half-way down the right hand side - what is this for?
Many thanks in advance for any help and advice you may be able to offer.
O.

Thanks for your reply, mooblie...
I have tried the SMC reset (which, unless I have misunderstood occurs as a result of removing all power for a while then reconnecting the psu and turning on as normal after a few seconds delay) with no luck.
The PRAM reset is a bit of a problem, though, as I do not appear to have any keyboard function - I'm using an aluminium Apple keyboard and mighty mouse (both are the wired variety, plugged into separate USB ports), but the 'boot' process doesn't appear to get far enough to enable operationof the keyboard (shift lock light doesn't light if appropriate key pressed), so I can't give it the 4-finger death grip at power up.   The mouse illuminates, and I've tried all 4 USB ports, BTW...
I forgot to add to the previous post that there is 2GB RAM fitted, and both Bluetooth and Airport.
O.

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