Who offeres the best warranty?

Does Dell offer some idiot proof warranty?

you can get 3 years manufacturer's extended warranty from almost every vendor for $150

major brands have quicker service in general, though

LCDs are covered in every warranty, however I have a feeling you meant damage protection for LCDs. For that I would personally look to an actual insurance company, because you will have damage + theft insurance on your laptop.

Good warranties though...Hypersonic, Dell @ Home, IBM on site service, and Falcon Northwest. Other people have good warranties but the return service is not as fast as these companies.

one thing i would recommend is to check with the reseller/company

heres an example from velocity micro's warranty statement


If diagnosed as necessary by the phone technician, we will ship you the part(s) needed to repair your system and arrange for one of our field service engineers to correct the problem. A qualified technician will diagnose your system and make sure the proper steps are taken to restore computer to proper functioning. It is the customer’s responsibility to notify the Warranty Department once the parts have been received by the customer. The guaranteed time frame for a field service engineer arriving at the customer site is calculated according to the distance from a customer site to a designated service location. In addition it is calculated according to the time the Warranty Department receives confirmation of parts received at the customer’s site. The old part(s) must be received within 7 days or the customer will be charged for those part(s).

Once confirmation has been received, a field service engineer will arrive on the customer site:

Within 12 working hours, if the customer’s site is within 50 miles of a designated service location.

Within 3 business days or less, if the site is beyond 50 miles from the local service center.

If a problem can not be repaired on site, arrangements may be made to ship the system back to Velocity Micro for repair. Prior written authorization is required or the package will be refused or shipped back at the customer’s expense. Velocity Micro will pay for ground shipping from and to the customer. If faster service is requested by the customer, the customer will be charged for the difference in the shipping costs. If shipping an entire computer system back to us, please use the original box and packing materials to ensure its safety. Velocity Micro is not responsible for damage to your computer while in transit.




http://www.velocitymicro.com/warranty.php

hypersonics

Onsite Service:
If an onsite service plan is purchased under your warranty package, a Hypersonic support representative, at his or her discretion, will arrange for an onsite technician to arrive at your location. Onsite service is generally available the next business day if arranged before 1PM EST. Some localities in the United States may not be supported.
NOTE: Before you ship the product(s) to Hypersonic, back up the data on the hard-disk drive(s) and any other storage device(s) in the product(s). Remove any removable media, such as diskettes, CDs, or PC Cards. If you have any questions, call Hypersonic for technical assistance. Hypersonic will NOT be responsible for any data loss associated with any warranty service.

http://www.hypersonic-pc.com/2001/warranties.htm

What school are you going to out of curiosity, and you can also run this info by the companies you are interested in to see if they can do onsite service for your PC. Companies like Dell and IBM have a pretty extensive onsite coverage network if I remember correctly. So large companies like that you shouldn't have too much trouble with.