More nightmares!
Well the repair guy came yesterday. What he found shocked me. The BIOS chip had short-circuited, giving out a burning smell. He’s now taken the motherboard, processor and RAM chips for testing, but has not got in touch with me about the status of either of them yet. To top it all off, a virus somehow managed to enter my laptop, but I think I’ve got it isolated and deleted. Phew!!!