2008 MBPro won't turn on/power issues

My friend's 2008 Macbook Pro (5,1) has been acting really screwy this past month. First the (original) battery would not hold a charge and now it's failing to start up. Today it just sat there with no sign of life, despite being on the charger and swapping out two different batteries. I opened it up and blew it out (there was a decent bit of dust) then reseated the RAM and reset the SMC for good measure (something he had already tried) and it did start up and recover.
Does this sound like a failing logic board? Or perhaps a jinky power connection? It's up and running now but everything points to a massive FAIL looming on the horizon, and I don't know if anything can be fixed versus scrapping it and buying a newer model. Both batteries were close to full and the power adapter had a green light, but nothing we tried would turn it on until I opened it up and reseated everything.
FWIW, he and I both bought the same model at the same time; both were Apple refurb and we've upgraded the RAM to 8GB using OWC chips. He still has the stock HD and I replaced mine with a bigger one, otherwise they're the same. And I haven't had nearly as many problems as he's had with his.
MBPro 5,1 (late 2008) 8 GB, 250GB, 10.8
JVK

I do not see anything critically bad, just the battery has seen a fair amount of use and if it is the original, that is what is expected. Favor me once more and download from the Internet Coconut Battery (free):
http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/
Post the image. This is from mine:
I am interested in the 'health' or current capacity divided by battery capacity. If it is 80% or more, than that is good, If it is less, then a new battery may be considered.
Ciao.

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let me ellaborate on this part:
"b) perhaps I've got some kind of virus on mine?"
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