Okay, its summer break. I'm going on vacation and I decide to take my Dell laptop with me. Everything goes fine until the point when I take it out of its protective case. As I pull it out I notice a black plastic piece hit the floor. Hmm thats odd, I think and reach down to pick it up, set it on a stand and forget about it. A day later I go to place my wireless card in my laptop and surprise, it wont go in. I realize that that plastic piece was the ejectory device used in the PCMCIA slot and that the internal seems bent in in the metal a bit. I figure this shouldn't be to much of a problem, as it should be covered under my warranty and I just put the plastic piece in a plastic bag, and store my laptop in its case for the rest of the vacation. When I get home(I'm moving in a couple weeks from this point) I decide I'll wait until I move to get it replaced to avoid shipping complications. So I move, contact dell support, and recieve an e-mail saying that the warranty doesn't cover "accidental" damage, but they would be glad to repair out of warranty for around a 260$ base charge :O

So I'm 4 weeks away from college(Clemson University where a laptop with wireless access is required) and I'm faced with two options. I can either be incredibly overcharged for what should be a simple repair or I can buy a USB wireless adapter to haul around with me. Either decision is going to cost me a bit.

I keep getting recommendations to bring it into a computer repair shop but I'm figuring that since this is really just a case of broken plastic and bent metal that they wouldnt really be able to help me.

(A third option would be to try and ebay the laptop and buy a new one which might also result in indeed, more money)

So I'm torn on what to do, any advice?