L305d won't fully start, power jack also loose.

Question

I have a L305D-S5934 satellite Laptop that won't boot, seems not to be seeing the HD. Upon startup,the DVD drive whirs a moment, the "On" light lights up, the fan starts and runs,but the HD light doesn't come on and the HD stays
silent (it might momentarily make a noise, I can't be sure). F8, F1, no effing key helps and the screen is blank.
It started this intermittently, but quickly progressed to never starting. The last time it started I left it running for 2 days, then let go to hibernate and now it won't start again.
Taking the battery out for 30 minutes doesn't help. Draining it and recharging it no good either.
I even put in a DVD of Darik's Boot n Wipe to see if I could get that to come up on the screen upon startup. Nothing, Nada, dark.
The recepticle for the AC power has been loose for a couple months...could this be part of it? 
If it's the motherboard, howmuch are they and can a skilled novice replace it? 
Thanks for any help.
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Answer 1

Toshiba does build tough machines, if you saw what I do and have done to mine you would heartily agree that I beat the heck out of them, but like any other laptop there are certain areas you have to be careful with.
The screen of course is fragile on any laptop, as are the hinges, but the most fragile point on any laptop is the power socket, it does not take much to damage them,  In fact it takes very little force to damage them, and once damaged they will only get worse until the laptop can no longer function.  it is one of the weakest points on any laptop ever made.
On some models the power socket is not mounted on the motherboard, some have wires that connect the socket to the board, and they are normally not hard to replace if the person knows how to solder. This is one of those places where size matters as smaller laptops are more prone to having the socket mounted on the motherboard than larger units because of the limited amount of space available in laptops.
Since yours will no longer start, but it is obviously getting power due to lights working on the unit, it is more than just a bad socket, but the loose socket may have started your laptops downfall by causing power spikes that could have damaged the motherboard.
The best thing you can do when you get another laptop is to make sure that the power cord is placed in such a way that nothing can get tangled in it that might pull on the cord and damage the socket. 
Feet in power cords has probably killed more laptops than any other form of damage other than dropping them.
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