I had this problem with a Gateway laptop about 18 months ago. It was the DC jack in my case. For the longest time, it was only charging the battery/powering the system if the prong was angled a particular way. Eventually, that entirely gave way and I was no longer able to turn on the computer because the battery was also toast. I had a coworker fix it (he was handy with comp. hardware/soldering) for around $100. I'd expect it to be more costly if done professionally. Due to this breakdown, I ended up purchase a Dell laptop. The power supply on that one died about a month ago. It wasn't able to properly take power from the outlet, which was easy to figure out since the power supply has an LED indicator. Because it's a $70 replacement part, I cheaped out and ordered OEM equipment off eBay for $20. Here I am on the Dell, no worse for the wear, except for the fact that the system won't recognize the power supply's battery charging feature when running due to it's off-brand nature (however it does recognize it as a power supply so no functionality is lost). The solution in that case was to simply charge the computer while off. Hats off to planned obsolescence!