R40 Power Problems [another one now]

[Blue_Sky]

Hi everyone,
I recently bought an old R40 of a friend of a friend. The reason they were selling it was that the hard drive craped out, and she didn't want to bother having to put a new one in.
I put a Knoppix livecd in it and started it up, and everything was running fine. Five minutes later, I left the room for 30 seconds and when I came back the laptop was off and the battery was no longer charging (it had no charge to start with) and there was a very high pitch whine coming from (I think) the battery. I immediately took the battery out, and the whine stopped.
Now, when I plug it in, the battery doesn't charge and the charging LED doesn't come on.
So, what part do I need to replace (battery, AC adaptor) or is it likely that it's fried?

BTW, I'd like to avoid having to take this laptop in to get checked as this will likely cost me more than what I paid for the laptop.

Blue_Sky (spam.ep at gmail.com

[MeanGene]

I believe u have eliminated the problem without knowing. Try getting a batt. I am assuming it still powers on w/out the batt. correct.

[Blue_Sky]

That's what was throwing me off at first; it didn't. But, just to make sure, I just tried again, and it did. Thanks so much.

Blue_Sky

[Blue_Sky]

When I run the laptop for longer than 5 minutes, I get the message the "battery has run out" even though it is removed and I get that same high pitched whine, even after the laptop turns itself off.

Now I really have no clue what is wrong.

Blue_Sky

[SeanM]

You should be using a 72W adapter. Look on the adapter for the output numbers, like 16V - 4.5A.

Multiply the V and the A number together. What you get should be closer to 72 than to 56.