[Long and throughly confused]Power issue, hard drive, battery, heat???

A bit complicated to explain, so bare with me.

Sony Vaio VGN-FS760/W on XP Home, just under 2 years old.


Symptoms

*Occasionally switches itself in and out of battery mode, while connected to the AC
*Hot; specifically where the AC plugs in
*AC adapter cable itself- the head is extremely hot(area that plugs into the computer)
*Programs and web pages hang while connected to AC, load quickly and effectively when unplugging the AC.
*Right now, while connected to the AC, system is making clicking noises which are coming from the base right where the AC plugs in
*Idle sounds are much more noticeable
*Sounds like the system fan is always on(though I may have just never noticed this before)
*Buzzing sound when not connected to AC

I should reiterate that NONE of these problems happen all the time. For example, I was able to load the forum and other sites just fine..though I did have to unplug the power a couple of times about an hour ago. Since then my battery appears to be charging correctly (though very slowly)
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I noticed about a week ago that my laptop had been acting a bit slow. It seemed like web pages were taking extremely long times to come up. I originally believed this was due to my wireless network, however I soon realized that the same issue was occurring with programs, such as firefox. I'd click a program and the hourglass cursor appears like normal, however it would not open the application. The HDD activity light would start up upon this process, but would stop with the hanged program not opened. Those apps that were open took longer than usual to close. In addition when Ctrl + Alt + Deleting to end a process, the program would not end. I also noticed that firefox stayed in the task manger for well after the window closed. After a number of troubleshooting to determine firefox nor my network were causes of the problem, I tried to figure out what programs/apps could be causing the slow system. Still couldn't come up with anything. This was quite annoying and the only way to solve it was to restart the computer. I'd go to do so, and
everything is fine up to hitting the 'Reboot' icon. Again the system just goes to normal and hangs. I decided to do it the old fashioned way of removing the batt/unplugging it. Had to do that few times, but I stopped after noticing that my laptop occasionally misread its power source. While fully connected to the AC adapter, the laptop would switch to battery mode; sometimes just for a split second, other times I had to disconnect and reconnect the adapter. When this battery mode became enabled, programs and web pages loaded just fine.

Since then whenever I have this problem, web pages hanging in the load process and programs not starting, if I unplug my laptop from the AC adapter for just a second, all the pages or apps load instantly. It's as if being plugged in blocks the web and prevents apps from opening. However this comes and goes. Sometimes the thing just works fine, no problems whatsoever. And when the page loads are hanging, I am still connected to the web just fine, as indicated by pinging attempts(thus eliminating any possibility of it being my internet). In addition, when i unplug the laptop, once the system determines it is running on battery I can hear a slight "wurring" sound. The best way to describe it would be similar to an dysfunctional hard drive spin.

Last night this issue was so bad that I had to do it about 10 times in an hour. The battery continued to drain instead of charge when i plugged back in and the batt dropped to 0%. At this point, the laptop worked perfectly for hours while connected to the wall. No complains in terms of running. However, 3 hours while plugged in, the battery stayed at [0% charging]. I felt the battery and it was by far the coolest part as it didn't have any heat at all. The side where the AC adapter plugs into was very hot. I woke up this morning and found the battery had charged fully back to 100%.

I've also noticed that where the cable plugs into the computer has been pretty hot as well. Burning hot.

Thanks for any help

 

I'd say 99% that the AC adapter is failing. If you're still under warranty maybe you could get a replacement?

 

Is there anyway to confirm this?(other than getting another of course) Not that I doubt this as a strong possibility; I was just more suspicious of the battery. It being 2 years old, the charge doesn't hold very long and I figured it was pretty much on its last leg and which could explain the failure to transfer the energy.