Inspiron 600m "seizures"

My friend's laptop is a 2.5+ year old Inspiron 600m running Windows XP.
It's starting to fall apart (much like my XPS of the same vintage) but unlike me it's still her primary computer (come spring break she's planning on getting a new one, Thinkpad most likely).

Recently it's developed a behaviour my friend describes as a "seizure" which is when she tries to boot it and instead of booting at all (not even to a Dell splash screen) the three 'lock' lights above the keyboard (num, scroll and caps) blink on and off several times and then nothing happens. After repeated presses of the button the laptop will eventually start up normally.

Additionally, it seems her wired LAN port has ceased functioning.

The laptop has been opened up and cleaned out (it wasn't really dusty) and the RAM and wi-fi card have been re-seated. New drivers have been installed across the board and her system BIOS was updated from an old one (A13) to the latest (A17, iirc)

The power supply did die just before winter break (luckily it can use the spare one from my XPS) and she also lucked out and got a new battery from the recall.

Any suggestions as to how to further diagnose the problem, other than just assuming the laptop is dying and in critical condition?

 

I have this same problem. Have you resolved it by any chance?

 

If by 'resolved' you mean 'bought a T60' then yes. She was looking for an excuse to get a new computer, anyway.