Well speaking of pooches, laptop years are kind of like dog years except it is more like 15 to one not 7 to 1 so a 6 year old laptop is equivalent to a 90 year old person. And the dv9000 is known to be prone to motherboard failure and a very common failure mode is peripherals like hdds and wifi cards and optical drives just go AWOL. Fortunately, a cottage industry developed around the dv9000 and there are several excellent repair centers that use state of the art electronic tools to repair the motherboards. The fix is well known and a lot of shadetree mechanics try to do it, too but their repairs do not last. So if you hear somebody suggesting that you bake it in the oven; resist. The cost at the high-tech shops is from $60 if you can remove the motherboard and ship just it to them, up to $175 or so it they have to receive the whole unit.
Post back if you want more help.
