Power supply or mainboard defect (Dell Inspiron 8200)?

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hello!

Could anybody help me to narrow down the problem:

-My Inspiron 8200 notebook doesn't gets charged. LED on the power supply
is of
-Disconnecting the power supply from the current and from the notebook
-Reconnecting to current, LED lights on and continues to glow
-now connecting the power supply to the notebook: power-supply-LED
extinguishes after ca 5s, "I'm getting charged"-LED on the notebook does
not even flicker. Instead, very very subtle "klick ... klick ... klick"
can be heard from the notebook.

-disconecting everything, connecting notebook and power supply and then
powersupply to the current, same as above, LED lights up and
extinguishes after <5 sec.

Question now: is it more probable that the notebooks mainboard/internal
power distribution is faulty or is it more probable that the power
supply is damaged and voltage collapses soon after some power is
required?

No, I do not find my multimeter now
No, stores are closed here (11pm)
Yes, I need the notebook urgently.

Tomorrows emergency measure will probably be to take the inspiron's
Harddisk out , connect it to a 3.5" external USB-devive via adapter and
to hook this to the cheapest PC (yet to buy ) equipped with WinXP.

Any bright ideas are welcome!

Alexander