Incidentally have you tried removing the laptop battery overnight and replacing it in the morning? My ex had some problems with hers a while back and I picked that tip up off a tech website somewhere. Apparently it allows the stored power to drain from the capacitors or something... I don't know a great deal about electronics, but when she put the battery back in the next morning they went from barely recognising anything being plugged in to fully working.
Just a thought in case you wanted to give it a try.