Simple power hack

Everyone has experienced this, that heart stopping moment when your computer froze and stoped responding to anything. You then reached for that quick solution to the perceived problem i.e. pressing the power button. I did exactly that and my laptop went nuts, it would blink for like 2 seconds, die and keep repeating the process.
I did a harried quick read online and online gurus said I had to press down my power button 10 times and then hold down for more than 30 seconds on the 11th press to reset the power cycle. Well I did that and…. surprise, it did not work. Well I had to put an object on the power button to hold it down for more than 2 hours and glory be to God, it started working again. Now my blood pressure can return to normal.