It turns out that I need to replace my computer's internal fan. In addition, I learned that the internal battery had swollen up dangerously -- to the point that, in their own words, if I'd asked them to put it back in my computer, they would have refused on ethical grounds.
So it was a good thing that I'd brought my laptop to competent repair people. I imagined a Chernobyl-style meltdown of my hard drive and a massive data loss, and was grateful that they only charged me $30 for the diagnostic. They didn't, however, have a replacement part, and they wouldn't put themselves on the financial line by ordering one for me. Instead, I'd have to order one on my own, and if I wanted them to install it for me, they'd credit me the $30 diagnostic fee against the cost of the part installation.
However, by watching them open and reassemble my computer, I felt fairly confident that I could do it myself. Because the fan had a part number on it, I was able to find a replacement on eBay for about $13. The downside was that it woud take some time to arrive -- specifically, four to 10 weeks worth of time.
I wanted to see if there was anyplace I could get one locally. However, I had no luck with that, so I had no choice but to go with that vendor. The good news is that, instead of arriving *months* later, it only took about one week. It was weird. I mean, yeah, "expectation management" is a good tactic, but when something is 3 weeks early for a 4 to 10 week estimate, that's just bad business.
In any case, I was able to install the new fan myself, and things are up and running again. True, I don't have a battery for my laptop anymore, but I don't really need it, either. AC power seems to work fine for all situations I can think of. For a $30 diagnotic, a $13 part, and two weeks of down time, I'd say things worked out fairly well.
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