Won't complete initialization/calibration

When I power on my scanner I get the interior light, flashing ready/option lights and a single buzz, but it doesn't continue it's power cycle. Sometimes the indicator light will stop flashing and my software will recognize the scanner as ready, but if I try to scan the calibration progress window comes, the scanner makes a continuous clicking sound, but nothing and the software times out. The scanner worked 1-2 months ago. It gets infrequent use. It was cold in the house the day this problem came up, but since then it still won't work in the warm. We tried the power cycling, removing it form scsi and taking it to a new single outlet to try to power it on. No go. We opened it to see if we could see something making it stick/lock or any visible burnt/discolored electronics. Nothing immediately apparent. We didn't disassemble though. I downloaded a driver update and installed it, but as expected, this accomplished nothing. My husband thinks it may be a relay but we have no schematic or repair manual. The problem seems mechanical. Please help. I'm a freelance graphic designer with no budget (barely starting up in freelancing). This scanner hasn't been used a lot. The problem may well be caused by lack of use, for all I know. The transparency adapter has never been used. I should get more mileage out of this unit even though it's about 5-6 years old. I can't afford to replace it with another professional model and the idea of a cheap consumer model is very depressing. Business is still VERY slow where I am (Katrina affected area) and I don't know when I could afford an equipment upgrade. Thanks, inez