Laptop not acknowledging adapter

[NonTechie]

Hi !
I'm new and need help. I have a Toshiba Satellite A70 laptop and it is exactly a year old (lucky me...no more warranty). Anyways, I have an adapter and I use it all the time. It's plugged into the wall and the other bit is plugged into my laptop...but my laptop is not registering that it's plugged in. It *used* to acknowledge the adapter if I fiddled with the piece that goes into the laptop and now that doesn't even work.
Is there a trip to the repair shop in my near future? I can't even recharge the damn thing if it won't acknowledge my adapter. HELP!!

[BigStu]

You can check your ac adapter with a volt meter to see if it is putting out the correct voltage. If it is, the plug in the back of your laptop has likely broken.

[NonTechie]

Thanks for the help BigStu...as it turns out 1)Luckily I'm still under warranty and 2) it's a motherboard problem - at least so sayeth 2 repair type guys. They said that my jack is loose and these jacks are connected to the motherboard. Thank God I still have my warranty otherwise I'd be looking at $600-700 worth of repair.
Again, thanks for your reply. I appreciate it.