Thanks all for the suggestions and support. I tried taking the laptop apart yesterday/last night but there are 2 screws that will not come out. I have successfully stripped the head of the screw -- so I'm gonna take it to the professionals to see what can be salvaged. I may be able to pul it apart, clean it up, and put it back together but I would not know if I burned up some part of it.
Luckily I got all my data off yesterday so now I'm just rebuilding one of my desktops to replace the laptop. It just makes me sick to my stomach that I did this. I haven't even had the laptop a full year yet -- but enough whining! My husband's been after me to stop drinking so much Coke -- maybe this will get me to change to water .... nah. Oh well, I hope things go better for all of you. And if anyone on this list works at Intrex in Durham -- here I come! (unless someone else has a suggestion) Lisa B. -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
