to start off, I cannot tell if my hard drive was changed out. But, assuming it wasn;t, is it possible to retrieve photos from almost two years ago that were deleted from yahoo IM?
if so, any recommendations to whom I should trust with this task?

I have a dell 600m that was working without issue. I shut it down one fine day and it hasn't shown any sign of life since.

I've checked the power supply from the adapter.
I've tried booting with just the battery.
I've opened it up, and there are what appear to be normal voltages at lots of places on the board. The battery pins have the right voltages.
I've changed the board that has the power and volume buttons.

It seems like something in the circuitry that starts the computer when you hit the power button (but not on that board) isn't working. I'm wondering if anyone knows a way I could just bypass that circuit and somehow get the machine running. Maybe jumping two pins on the bios chip?

I would greatly appreciate any advice because the computer really did everything I needed, but it seems like it isn't worth buying a new motherboard, considering the new laptops that are available now.

If you've been wronged or you're just not happy with the way you were treated, there are some sites on the Web that will help you get your voice heard.

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I've learned a lot from reading PC books from the library, but would like to learn more about how to diagnose and fix computers. Has anyone taken an online coarse that didn't cost a fortune, they could recommend? Thanks.

When I first bootup my computer in the morning, it hangs and shows a black screen with a lot of non-sensible code. When I hit the reset button, it reboots to the desktop OK. Ran SpinRite but that made no difference. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.