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My son has a Compaq laptop/notebook computer.

Last summer . . . well, it broke.  We *think* it was hit by a lightning strike.  One day it worked fine.  The next, post thunderstorm, it had issues.

It powered on and booted up just fine and everything worked . . . except the modem.   

And, while it operated just fine on the battery charge, there was apparently an issue with the power supply.  We tested it with a different power supply cord and various outlets, which we knew worked, but, for whatever reason, the juice wasn't getting to the computer.    It never acknoweldge that it was connected to juice. 

So, of course, eventually the charge in the battery ran down and now it's dead.

Any ideas what happened? How to fix it?  Is it worth fixing? 

Quote:Is it worth fixing?

It depends on the age.  Parts for older laptops can be very expensive depending on the laptop's age.

It's 3 years old.  A Compaq Presario 900.

$295-$550 for the laptop in eBay.  $25-$40 for the battery.  Dead modem, AC not working sounds like a motherboard problem and if it is the only way to fix it is to replace the motherboard...motherboards for sale on eBay for $249.

So replace it and part out the good parts - the screen, the DVD-RW combo, etc? 

That's what I'd do.

I think radio shack has testing equipment to test your mobo.

Seems like a guy wanted me to fix his pute a year ago and
he ended up taking it to radio shack and confirmed what we
suspected that it was indeed the mobo.

I don't know if you have a radio shack in you area but
if so I'd give them a call to see if they can test and how much to do so.

If it is only like 10.00 bucks or so, might be worth it to make sure.
But like BBH said it does sound like the ac power supply feed on the mobo
may have been fried.