Good Ol' G4 12" won't power up - weirdness.

I know this is sooo 2003 but I wanted to see if any geniuses out there might offer some insight...
My trusty old 12" Powerbook 867 (god I loved that machine) died last night, just as I'm getting ready to give it to my 10 yr. old nephew. I got some great mileage out of this machine and am hoping I can save it to give it just a bit more life...
As it was getting old, I have been putting up with occasional tired wake-ups and power issues. Most significantly, it suffers from a heavily dented corner right where the power plugs in, and therefore from a very unstable connection, resulting in constant checking to make sure the unit is getting power.
Recently, I've been noticing that although the connection is intact , I never see the power indicator ring light turn from green to orange - even when it obviously needs charging from constant disconnects.
Anyway, at some point last night she went into a deep sleep (the little light near the front latch pulses gently and no key combination would wake her), so I pulled the battery out and put it back in, hoping a hard reset would at least let her start back up.
Now, the machine won't power up at all, and the power connection ring indication is green. Both batteries I have for it give me the rapid blinking dead signal, so it looks like I have no way to power it back up.
I've tried resetting the PMU to no avail. (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431?viewlocale=en_US)
My hunch is that the power management circuitry is dead, and that my best bet would be to replace the DC-in board, as suggested here: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Wiki/PowerBookG4_Aluminum_12%22_Troubleshooting#Section_My_PowerBook_won_t_turnon
Before I spend hours taking this little baby apart, does anyone have any other suggestions? Could it be the power supply not working properly (and somehow giving a false green light indication?) Any other ideas out there??
Thank you so much in advance.

Because you say the corner where the power cord plugs in has been heavily damaged and contact with the plug is iffy, a bad DC-in card (possibly caused by something on it shorting out against the dented case, or possibly by breakage of one or more of the port's contacts with the card) is by far the most likely suspect.
Getting to the card in that model is no joke: it requires a total disassembly of the machine.
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-12-Inch-867- MHz-DC-In-Board/214/1

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