15 ''MBP 2.4 2008 pre unibody won't boot.

Hi there a few months ago ( i have since abandoned it) my mbp suddenly shutdown and never powered up again. When i power it on the fans and hdd start up for about a sec, display stays dark, then immidiately shuts down. First thing i did, of course, is i took it to a mac autorized service (in Moscow, Russia) where they suggested it might be nvdia 8600 acting up which extends warranty period on my out of warranty mbp. However they could never figure out how to turn the thing on and run the dignostic, without the code - no new logic board :( So later i spoke to a 3d party repair guy that told me that there probably was a problem on the north bridge - probably thermal paste dried up and either fried the processor, or something a little less horrible. The price tag on the CURE is about $400-500. I guess the question is - is it possible to do the repair at home using spare parts for significantly less dough, that's if this issue is familiar to anyone? I'm kinda jobless at the moment and forced to use hp dv8000 :Anyway thanks in advance to anyone's input on this

Cheers