You (chrfr, snaky69) were both beat to it as I mentioned the lack of the battery as a probable cause in post #12. The problem with the trackpad sensor (likely in the cable), which people with the same issue say causes the fan to run constantly, could also be a cause of the performance issue. The jury's still out on this one but it seems like the connectors (trackpad, keyboard, possibly one of the USB ports) rather than a major logic board issue is the problem. The AHT and whatever diagnostics the "tech guy" ran did not result in any problems other than the sensor, the liquid spill indicators (at least the one near the trackpad connector) hasn't been tripped and a visual inspection of the logic board hasn't turned up any obvious issues.