More often than not, dropping electronic devices is a bad idea.
Fortunately, my Dear got of comparatively easy and did only break the power socket on the back of her laptop.
compared to all the other highly breakable components in there (hard drive, display, cooling pipes etc.) this is one of the more repairable problems.
So, let's roll, this should be easy. One just opens the case and repairs the broken part. Haven't touched the soldering iron in a while anyway, could even be fun. - Oh ok, opening a laptop is not quite as simple? No matter. One just removes all the little screws, then one opens the c.... oh ok, turns out there are n+1 little screws (n being the number of screws you've found so far) holding the case together. Then one removes another m*2(n'+1)+n" screws (m being the number of removable casing panels which are held on by an even number of n' screws and hide n" more srews. n', and n"analogous to n) aaaaand generally fiddles and jiggles for an hour or so, memorising cable routings and building a little forest of screws and heaping piles of components until one can finally see the dc jack.
I wonder - do all laptops have fractal insides?
Oh, so the dc jack is completely buggered and needs to be replaced? no problem. Ah, so it turns out all ones electronic supplies got misplaced by 180km while moving flats? no problem. Let's make yet another foray into the realm of makeshift repairs and hackjobs under it's supreme ruler Angus MacGyver I. (don't forget to pick up your ballpen and chewing gum at the tourist office)!
Fortunately, at this point my brain started routing in emergency supplies of common sense before I started joyously ripping apart innocent household electronics and stationery supplies for spare parts...
Turns out the broken socket is a pretty common part used in dozens of laptops and you can buy it on ebay. admittedly this is a boring solution, but at least the guy selling these parts is from the netherlands so his username sounds appropriate for the whole enterprise (see above).