I'm afraid it would be optimistic to upgrade this machine to be able to properly work with a modern version of photoshop but you could try. I do not think you would be able to upgrade the graphics card as apple has a tendency to use laptop format graphics cards on their imacs and the dimensions of those are extremely specific to the pc they are installed in. Also upgrading probably wouldn't gain you much performancewise as you motherboard, cpu and ram would sufficiently bottleneck the systems performance and cause it to be very slow. I would opt to buy a cheap modern laptop rather than upgrade a 2009 imac as the laptop will be faster and cheaper.

First of all, try removing the battery and turning it on with only the powersupply plugged in. If that doesn't work try to insert the powersupply and wiggle it a bit, if it feels like the part that the powersupply is plugged into (the dc connector) is loose or follows the power plug without resistance to the wiggle, it will probably need to be replaced or resoldered onto the motherboard. If neither is an issue you might have to open up the laptop and take out any removable hardware and periodically try to power it on. if you get to a barebones motherboard with not poweron then it is probably the laptops motherboard that is defective.

Did you maybe disconnect the antennae? They won’t entirely stop working if you disconnect them but their strength will greatly decline. One of them is right next to the battery connection and can be accidently loosened.

First off, LOVE the way you ask a question, nicely detailed. More often than not when a burnt smell is coming from a laptop it's because a short circuit is occuring somewhere. The heat you talk about (around the ssd) correlates nicely with a short circuit, more rarely however, it can be a capacitor being strained or blown out and even a piece of debris that is being burnt. Personally I would disassemble it, clean out all heatsinks and replace all cooling paste and looks for any signs of singed plastic, soldering or capacitors. (the top of a capacitor is flat normally and will bulge out and be singed when blown.) I really hope this helps. Good luck!

That sounds very strange indeed! Would you be willing to attempt a windows bootcamp or booting a system on a usb to try and see if switching works in a different OS? It sounds like a driver problem rather than a hardware problem because of no other problems than the lcd.

I'm inclined to say that any amplifier can be fixed and the older the better because it will require less finesse. Have you opened it? can you take pictures of the insides?

Is the problem only present during bootup or does it persist throughout use? Does moving the screen aggrevate the problem or will it work in specific positions? Are there artifacts like vertical or horizontal stripes present on the screen at any time? Is the computer hot? If you can answer these questions, then I might be able to tell you what's wrong. Good luck!

It seems that the sensor detecting the lid closing and the motherboard connector for the facetime camera have been damaged. Have you seen any corrosion damage around these parts of the motherboard? On a side note I would recommend that you use isopropyl alcohol and no water to clean the internal components of any computer as corrosion can travel within the soldering and might be damaged without any visible clue and using water could aggrevate the problem.

I would suggest you bend a paperclip in a tight "U" shape and put a drop of crazyglue on it (shape to improve traction) then insert the paperclip into the port and let it set for 15min. The broken part should have enough surface damage that it will stick and then you can pull it out. Hope it helps, did it with an iPhone 4 but not sure if the jack port is tighter in a kindle. Good luck!

Check the seating of the ribon cable to the screen, also check (don't remember if it used magnets in the screen assembly) any magnets that might interfere or have been knocked out of place. Does it turn completely off when the top is placed or does it display artifacts like vertical or horizontal stripes before turning off?