Wifi, power and cooling issues with my MacBook Pro.

I've had my MacBook Pro for about 2 years and I've been really pleased with its performance from work I've thrown at it. I initially got this MacBook Pro refurbished from the Mac store and it has a Apple Care protection plan. Although this past year I've noticed several issues that are probably hardware related. First, my MacBook's WiFi does not receive WiFi signals from the great distances it used to anymore. The times I can pick up WiFi are within like 5 yards from my wireless router. Second, I'm having an issue with the power. This past week, it seems my Macbook Pro does not run off the battery anymore. It only powers on when connected into the power supply. If I unplug the power supply, my Macbook turns off. It does not revert to the battery which is strange. Third, cooling seems to be a problem. The Macbook Pro is getting very hot. It burns my lap when it is holding there. The cooling problem has lasted since I got my Macbook back in January of 2007. I thought it was normal since I would load the CPU with some graphics intensive games. Now the Macbook Pro gets hot to doing some less CPU intensive tasks like surfing the web or word processing. I have noticed, a decrease in performance, longer boot times, loading of web browsers, and word processing applications. Would this be the best time to consider taking my Macbook Pro and for repair with apple care? I'd like to trouble shoot these issues to know exactly why these problems are happening. I have a feeling it could be due to the Macbook Pro getting hot. As for cooling I go by the manual and place it on a table or hard surface, or my lap. I pretty much want to know what is wrog and how to prevent issues like this in the future.
Thanks.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
It sounds like you have several issues:
I don't know why your MBP can only receive wireless signals from 5 feet away. Unless possibly the antenna has worked loose. But I'm just guessing.
Regarding the power, is your battery still good? Have you tried resetting the SMC?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411?viewlocale=en_US
Regarding the heat issue, have you tried running the extended version of the Apple Hardware Test? If you check your fans with iStatPro, are both running at an appropriate speed for the heat?
Also, have you checked in Activity Monitor for any out of control processes which might be running in the background and hogging the CPU?
A good place to start would be with the AHT. Since you have Applecare, you should also have a Tech Tool Deluxe disc, and you can run that too. Should anything turn up in the form of an error code, that would indicate a hardware problem. Write down the code and call Apple to arrange for repair.
If you have access to an Apple Store, you could also just take your Mac in for evaluation.
Good luck!

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