About a year ago, a friend of mine gave me his old laptop, a Toshiba Satellite S1800-814. I basically use it as a typewriter, and to check my email. It never could run on battery only, longer than for a couple of seconds, but I've always used it with the power cable connected, no problems. At times, it wouldn't start up, and I had to unplug the power cable for a while to get it going. I was visiting someone, and wanted to connect to the Internet. They had this USB wireless modem, which I plugged in to my Toshiba. During the installation, the PC froze, and I had to reboot it by pushing down the power button for a while. It did reboot, but stalled. I rebooted again, sometimes got it working, sometimes not, and eventually, it went into its current state: With the power cord connected, it'll start, I'll hear the processor fan (or whatever that is) working, and the battery and power lights will be green at the bottom of the keyboard. The screen, however, is black, it doesn't make any sounds, and the caps and insert key indicator lights are not reacting to anything -- they're permanently off. What's up here? I tried removing the battery, give it some time and then reinserting it, but to no avail. I also tried booting it up with the USB modem plugged in, no luck there either. Do I need to make an appointment with the PC Doc, or is this something I can fix? I have really important documents on there. Grateful for any help!

Have you tried it connected to AC with the battery removed?

>> They had this USB wireless modem << Don't you mean a USB wireless interface that communicates with a wireless router. While there are such things as wireless modems I doubt very much if this is what you have. Have you tried booting into SafeMode. If so try removing the drivers the would have been installed for the USB device and see if this solves the problem. You may need manufacturer specific drivers for the device. What is the name of the USB device? Stuart

Thanks very much for your replies. I just tried connecting it with the battery removed. No luck. Yeah, it's probably a USB wireless interface. The USB stick is a Zonet 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless USB Adapter, more information here: <http://www.zonetusa.com/DispProduct.asp?ProductID=231> I'm not sure how I'd boot into safe mode as the screen is completely blank. Starting the PC, I noticed not even the processor fan is going anymore. I think it's time for the repair shop for this baby.