Acer One Appears dead

I hope that someone can throw some light. My notebook has worked perfectly since purchased via eBay in Jan 2009, last week that all changed. Press the on switch, green light appears - and nothing elase. Slight hum from hard drive discernable but nothing else! - screen remains black.
Do I pay the £54 courier fee to Acer and cross my fingers or just cut my losses and invest in something else? Please note that I am not a technically lucid individual - but I can test a plug and solder connections without melting everything else in sight.

So if anyone can help I would be very much appreciative. :?

 

Not the std BIOS brick problem? google "aspire one bricked" see if the many guides help (basically stick the bios on a USB stick and restart the machine while holding a few keys)

http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html - The first one from google