Laptop Help

[MissMem]

My laptop basically died on me today and I really think its the battery (not 100% though). At first my screen had lines go through it vertically, they looked like the lines you see on the disk defrag program only really thin and closer together. After that happened I rebooted and it went through a series of 'checking index ____(#) and file ___(#)' then 'restoring orphaned file ______(name)' and then went on fine and normal. I then clicked on the internet and got the lines through my screen again so I shut it down and went on with my day. Well I tried again tonight and it won't stay on. It makes a click as if I had shut it down completely then it basically died and doesn't have enough power to turn on. First off....could it be that the battery is dead? Second, does anyone know of someplace I can get a Dell Inspiron 300m replacement battery? I checked on Dell's website and they had nothing and then I checked Tiger Direct but they don't carry it. I also checked Ebay and I can get one through there (since you can get anything off ebay) but its $30 for shipping and handling to Canada. Is there anywheres else I can try that wouldn't cost me so much in shipping and handling? Any help would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[jeeper]

If it is your battery you should be able to plug your laptop into the wall with the ac adapter that you plug into your laptop and it should power up fine. You should be able to remove the battery completely and your laptop should power up fine as long as you have that adapter plugged into your laptop. You will want to try this first to make sure that your laptop is still working ok before you go and spend a bunch of money on a new battery. You should be able to order a new battery through dell.ca. I think that you have to type in your service tag and your should be able to order parts for it.

[MissMem]

It won't power up even when plugged into the wall. I tried to remove the battery then power up but it still won't. I don't want to spend a lot of money for a new battery to find out its something else, and I really don't care if it turns out to be time for a new laptop, as long as i can power up long enough to get my pictures off of it. It was working fine on saturday night when I was using it without any trouble and then all this started out of nowhere yesterday morning.

[paak]

The lines typically indicate a video problem. Most common cause in laptops for it to die 'out of the blue' in this manner is bad ram(most laptops have 'integrated' video meaning that it using the system ram and not a seperate card). Heat is usually the culprit - memory doesn't like heat for any prolonged period of time.

Personally, I would get the memory tested first before assuming anything worse.

Oh, and its doubtful that its the battery, the laptop will still work when the battery is removed and its plugged into the wall..

[MissMem]

It has been getting really hot lately, so you might be right. I'll get that checked out as well. If heat is causing the problems, I should look into getting a cooling pad asap. Thanks for the info.

[paak]

If it has been getting hot lately, then perhaps you should have the fan(s) checked out as well to see if they are still working. A dead fan would most certainly cause excess heat which in turn would start killing other components.