Need second opinions on DC in board situation

My Powerbook G4 1.25 alternates between DC and Battery power. Orange......Green......Orange......Green. Been doing this for about 6 months.

Sometimes it whines.

I can "force" the computer to stay in DC mode, charge the battery, and stop making the whine noise by litterally smushing the power cord plug down. I typically put a heavy book on my power plug, when I need to charge the battery

Obviously this is not a long term solution.

Took it to the Apple Store. They told me there is a $400+ flat fee. That's too much for me if it's JUST the DC in board.

Computer works fine, it's not the power cord (I've checked with multiple cords), but I should tell you that the problem started not long after I upgraded the RAM from the factory 512MB chip to dual 1gb chips. I believe that my particular computer has some issues with the lower RAM slot, but for now, both slots appear to be happy

So, how can I tell if it's JUST the DC in board, or the logic board too?

Thanks
Chris

Uh oh, I think I finally killed it

So I get home 3 hours after I posted my previous message...

Battery's dead, and i get the "your clock is set for yada yada yada 2001" message on start up

Smush the power cord trick still works, but now my (newer) battery won't charge.

Does the DC in board dictate how the battery charges?

Just checked System profiler to see what's the deal with the battery:

Battery Information:

Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 4395
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 0
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 10379
Cycle Count: 20
AC adapter cannot charge battery: Yes

AC Charger Information:

AC Charger (Watts): 0
Connected: Yes
Charging: No

... and now it suddenly is charging...

Every time I write a post about this machine, it seems to know about it, and then changes it's behavior just to spite me and make me look foolish.