Here are a few of pearls of wisdom derived from many years experience in repairing computers. When a laptop, hard drive or AC adaptor is being a pain in the a** here are a few seemingly random options to keep up your sleeve:
"The freezer routine"
-For HDDs: Pre-freeze your hard drive to recover data (when you get that clicking noise).
-For Laptops and Chargers: Reset any 'Temperature Cut Off' (TCO) device or Thermal Fuse this should allow the device to function normally.
and
"Clearing the internal static charge"
-For Laptops: Take out the battery and unplug the AC power supply. Then hold the power on switch for 60 seconds. Then put the battery back in and/or connect the power supply. All better?