MBP will not charge, run off battery, or illuminate MagSafe... HAALP!

hey everyone!
I've been searching for an answer but can't find one.
my client has a MBP 15" late '08 (i know, need to upgrade), anyway, the MBP:
-Will not charge batteries
-will not run on any (has 3) battery without being plugged in and tried a brand new battery, same issue.
-will not run on AC alone, ie. taking battery out, MBP refuses to run,
-will not illuminate the MagSafe LED.

for example, if the MBP is running it MUST have a slight charge on the battery and be plugged into AC. no other way will work.

tried resetting SMC, to no avail. also tried several known-good MagSafe AC adaptors. one little tidbit is that one battery (newest) now states the batter needs to be replaced with a 40 charge count, which the client says wasn't the case before.

does anyone have any ideas? specs below, if anything else needed please let me know! Do not want to send this to Apple!

Hardware Overview:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Battery Information:
Model Information:
Serial Number:
Manufacturer: SMP
Device Name: bq20z95
Pack Lot Code: 0
PCB Lot Code: 0
Firmware Version: a41b
Hardware Revision: 0
Cell Revision: 0
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 3496
Fully Charged: No
Charging: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 5348
Health Information:
Cycle Count: 40
Condition: Replace Now
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 75
Voltage (mV): 12244

AC Charger Information:
Connected: Yes
ID: 0x0000
Revision: 0x0000
Family: 0x0000
Serial Number: 0x00000000
Charging: No

Looks like the charging circuitry of the MBP is broken so it is operating entirely out of the AC power. However, the start-up cycle likely wants to detect some power on the battery before proceeding, thus as long as the battery has some juice it in, it passes the boot up test and the MBP continues to operate on AC power..

Replacing the logicboard is likely the only solution to this problem, but being a 2008 MBP, it isn't worth it to do that. I think it's time for an upgrade to a newer MBP..