motherboard problem

Hi,
I'm a new poster, and I'm in a kinda bad situation. My dell laptop stopped charging... my ac adapter is fine, as is my battery. Dell tech support says it is a problem with my motherboard, a problem that would take over $400 to repair. Does anybody know of an easier and cheaper way to get this fixed? Any advice is welcome.
Thanks.

[Link774]

How do you know that your battery is fine if you can't charge it? Did you test it in another laptop of the same model? You're out of luck if you confirmed that it is not the charger or the battery. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Nomad84]

I have no idea what your particular problem is, but I had an HP laptop that stopped functioning with the power supply. I was able to charge the battery in my roommate's computer (basically the same model) and the power supply worked with her computer, but not mine. Turns out the power connector had broken off of my motherboard. I never got mine replaced, but I think that a port replicator (or docking station or whatever they are called) will fix my problem. It appears that the port replicators power the computer through a different connector. Of course, this isn't very helpful if you use the laptop for much other than a desktop replacement.