I just ripped apart this laptop to pretty much bare components and resoldered my battery connector and the DC adapter plug (which had a cracked solder joint) and strategically shoved a piece of paper in the right spot in my laptop's casing, and now my laptop not only consistently stays on AC power, but also will charge the battery as it is supposed to.

Shock horror, a laptop that works consistently.

Apparently, amazingly, I only have a few parts left over. One screw that I drilled out with a power drill because it was AFU, and a piece of metal I couldn't remember where it went.

Oh, I managed to guess the SSID of a closed network (no SSID broadcast) today. It wasn't completely obvious either. Too bad they were using MAC address security, it would have been far more rewarding if they weren't.

Hey, I managed to put this beast back together. Amazing. It took 2 hours to do this, and at one point I said "I don't think I'm ever gonna see this thing in one piece again" (It was in about 7 pieces at the time. An exact quote: "Hey, look zer0, PC card slots!" as I dangled them in the air.)

Bah, I'm rambling now. Have a great day everyone.