re: My current IT Issues
A power supply replacement is an easy do-it-yourself job, unless of course Dell is giving you a free warranty job.
My daughter's DVD drive went out too, and I used the external DVD solution. Unfortunately, she seems to have misplaced it. So it goes. Repairing a laptop yourself is NOT an easy do-it-yourself job.
Unless it's important to have a drive you can use with many machines, why not go with the refurbished solution?