[Tfug] My Mangled Laptop

[Bill M.]

It must be the season...
And I thought I was being so clever... My old E-Machine E-Slate 400
with a 4.3 Gb hard drive. I picked up a whopping 20 Gb drive to
replace the old drive, but had a dickens of a time getting the laptop
case partially separated to get to the hard drive. Suffice it to say,
I didn't find the drive (then..), let alone replace it, and after
reconnecting the case, the system doesn't start up. I get power
indicator (plugged in to wall), noise like it's going to spin up, but
no LCD screen display, no further hard drive seek or noise.

Here I thought I was being careful... I'm not a complete numb skull,
I've replaced plenty of components on desktop systems and upgraded RAM
in the laptop. Any clues to what I might have done to kill the beast? I 
have this dread that I've cracked the motherboard or broken some solder 
joint or done something to the video system -- all look OK. I've 
returned the hard drive for refund. Take this to a shop and pay
thru the nose? I would be open to find a cheap, used replacement in 
about a month - hello, Ebay?

Your commiserations and kind-thoughts are most welcome... <sigh> Of
course, suggestions and ideas are also welcome.

-*-Bill