Question lost(?)

W1DGL

I just posted a question less than an hour ago and it seems to have gotten 'lost' somehow (I'm not seeing it as having been asked on my profile or anywhere).

W1DGL

My question was about my old Aspire 5315 laptop, so I'll ask it again here.  It has multiple problems (it was running Win Vista 32 bit):

1. When plugging in the power supply, I have to 'jiggle' (for lack of a correct term the plug ever so gently one way or another for it to make contact (I'm guessing there's a loos connection inside somewhere) and even then, the battery light illuminates amber (as it should when charging, but then shortly thereafter, it starts slowly blinking (2 or 3 seconds on, then 2 or 3 more off, etc.); after a few minutes of this, then BOTH of the lights (power and battery) flash in unison, both amber.  This is without turning the computer on (pushing the power button).

2. When I WAS able to get the computer powered-up, it would boot into a blue DOS system password screen - I don't remember ever entering a system password into it (I've had the computer since 2008 and since then, I've given it to an old Air Force buddy of mine who also doesn't ever remember entering a system password); I've done the 'shorting the CMOS battery' thing several times to no avail; it still comes up with the blue screen and the HDD name and asks for a password.

I WAS able to get into the BIOS (F2 on bootup) and change the boot order to the CD-ROM, then inserted a diagnostic CD and ran it.  The diagnostic was showing all sorts of 'bad sectors' on the HDD (at least until the battery went dead halfway through the diagnostic, even when plugged in with the power supply).

My question is, short of telling my friend to go out and simply buy a new computer (he doesn't like Win 10 either), is there anything I can do myself to get this thing to run for him?