I thought my Vista laptop was finally starting to give up the ghost for
the last couple of days. I have been noticing the fan was running at
high speed more than normal and for no apparent reason and also realized
the display seemed a little darker.

This has been going on since Thursday evening. I copied any files I
thought I might need onto a thumbdrive and have been waiting for "the end".

About 15 minutes ago (while responding to Harry) heh ... the fan went
to very high speed and I noticed the areas around the keyboard were
getting quite warm. I thought the time was close.

Then I noticed the AC adaptor plug wasn't fully seated into the
computer. I checked the battery status and it was down to 18 percent.

Pushed the power adaptor jack back in and within two or three minutes
the fan slowed to normal where I can't hear it running and the AC icon
is back on the battery status. Now I can feel that the areas that were
very warm are starting to cool back down.

Running on the battery must make it run hot. It's also amazing that it
has been running like this since Thursday evening. I don't shut it down
when I am not using it ... I just put it to sleep.

Looks like it's not dying.