HELF

Purr, my laptop, is sick. It was fine last night, but this morning it won't power on, or even give me a little light to tell me it is plugged in.

The light on the power supply does come on.

When I tilt the computer there is a noise like a screw loose in there, but that may have been there before without my particularly noticing.

Possible causes of this problem:
-we had a brief power surge and fritzed the power supply, so the light comes on but it isn't working right
-the power supply cord or connector has worn out
-the power connector on the computer has worn out
-something Vitally Important has come unscrewed
-the fan died, and something melted
-we had a brief power surge the power supply couldn't deal with, and something melted
-something else I do not understand
-ghosties are in there
-the lions got out of the battery and made a mess
-lynnyn decided to have a walk around in there for her birthday yesterday, and accidentally stepped on something.

The good news is that I still have the desktop computer, and thanks to the extra-long ethernet cord sci gave me, I can actually use it on t'intarweb.

The bad news is that the laptop is old, not a standard make (Sager, which I'd never heard of before), I have no spares, I don't even have a multimeter to tell whether the power supply is working right, and I don't really know what the next step is in fixing it, beyond asking you lot for help. shevek doesn't think he can do with it (see no spares, no tools).

The other bad news is that the aging CRT on the desktop makes my eyes and my brain hurt something fierce. I might see whether I can hook the deaded laptop up as a screen, instead...