Booting a 'broken' macbook pro

So I got a 'broken' macbook pro with a broken screen. When powering up the machine, the sleep light lights faintly, the CD-ROM drive spins and the fans come on. The HD doesn't start up.
Reading through a lot of forum posts, this is what finally got it back to work:

• remove battery and power cable
• press and hold the power button for over 10 seconds
• remove the memory
• press and hold the power button for over 10 seconds
• replace memory and battery
• replace power cable
• power on

Some other reset procedures that found for the macbook pro:

Resetting the SMC

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the computer's power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

Resetting PRAM

1. Shut down the computer
2. Press the power button to tun on the computer
3. Immediately press and hold CMD, Option (alt), P and R
4. Wait until you hear the gong for the second time
5. Release the keys

Booting in safe mode

Press and hold shift after powering up. This forces the mac to check things instead of assuming that hardware has not changed. Note that some drivers, like the WiFi, aren't loaded.