Any idea what part of your laptop is dead?
A few years ago at a @kwlug swap meet someone brought in a "dead" laptop. The only thing wrong was a dead battery that was trying to charge, but pulling so much power the laptop wouldn't boot. I removed the battery and it ran just fine, and it was my daily computer for years.
It's possible #ComputerRecycling at #TheWorkingCentre has parts to fix it; if not, they have cheap (used) computers and laptops.
cc: Charles McColm @chaslinux