My laptop's totally gone?

[tempest]

I still can't really make sense from that. Does it really stop, i.e. turn off suddenly, hard drive stops spinning, lights go off etc? You know, the kind of "battery might be loose or damaged" symptoms.

Or does it continue running, but the screen goes/stays black? In that case, the usual suspects are the cable connecting the screen to the base unit (often breaks after so many open-lid-close-lid cycles) and video card (obviously).