Two Months old, and it's already FSCKED

Bloody, sodding, pile 'o' junk PC World crap.

My blasted laptop - as purchased just two months ago and lauded by me in an earlier Blog post is currently sitting in the Oxford PC world while I fight for a replacement.

Leaving aside the problems with some of the software - most notably the integrated webcam, which doesn't actually integrate with any known application AT ALL - the laptop's developed an annoying tendency to shut down, with no warning whatsoever.

Imagine - working away, laptop on power and fully charged - and then *click*. Nothing.

So...Saturday saw me dragging myself into PC World, laptop and receipt in hand.

Explain situation to droid on 'Tech Guys' helldesk. "OK", says he. "We'll need to do some diagnostics - leave it with us for ten minutes".

"OK - given that I've told you the symptoms, and that it's manifesting as an intermittent hardware problem, what is a 10-minute diagnostic check going to prove?"

"Well, " the droid replies. "It's probably just a virus so it'll show up on our basic tests".

I resist the urge to batter the droid's head against the counter repeatedly, and Gerry and I head off to do other things for a while.

One hour later, we're back. And nothing AT ALL has been done.

Thankfully, G steps in at this point as I'm looking to maim someone.

So.....trip forward to this morning, and I call the Tech Guys.

They're still doing tests (thankfully now the ones I originally requested) and the box is in a thermal test now. Interestingly, it actually DID what I said it was doing - though there's much wriggling going on to try and say it isn't the laptop.

Tomorrow a decision will be made - and I'm pushing for replacement or refund. We shall see.

But so far, I have to say I'm not impressed with PC World's warranty support!