What in the name of god is wrong with my 8887-X???????????

About three months ago, after just over a year of happy use of 8887-X, I downloaded SP 2 and installed Norton 04 – which, in turn, destroyed both my wireless connection and my network port. Norton also dumped a ton of code into my registry, so I ended up reinstalling XP. Annoyed, but figuring I’d run into some bad luck, I figured my machine could probably use the cleaning, so, hey, no big deal. Regardless, after carefully reinstalling the drivers, in the correct order, my machine was running quite nicely – then the lockups began.

I could be working on a simple program – and BSOD. Then, my machine would alternate between the BIOS screen and the XP screen for hours. Baffled, and thinking SP hadn’t let go just yet, I reformatted/reinstalled and everything was fine.

And the same problem came back. My computer would just sit there and, all of a sudden, it would go to a BSOD, kick to the BIOS screen, then go to the XP screen and just cycle for hours.

Hmmmm, I thought to myself, could this be dust? Sure enough, I blew out a big hairball or two and quite a bit of dust. Again, everything was fine, my machine was stable and everything was cool.

Then, today, I’m uninstalling a program and, well, you guessed it, BSOD, Boot, BSOD, BIOS, Boot……

I’m now going to just send the machine in, thank god for the extended warranty, and hope this flaming pile of overheating garbage didn’t take my 3k and waste it. I really don’t have the words to express just how psychotically enraged [GRAHAAARRRRRR HULK SMASH!!!!!!!!!!] I am right now as this pile of dung just sits here cycling back between the BIOS screen and the boot screen.

So, I call the extended warranty office and they have no record of my extended warranty. I have to call PC torque in the morning to find out what in the world I’m going to do about this [GUARRRRRRRRRRR HULK SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!! VEINS IN TEMPLES EXPLODING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

Seriously, this can’t be good for my blood pressure. Does anyone have any advice/encouragement? How long have people waited in the past on warranty repairs? I am, honestly, so pissed off and disappointed right now that it’s hard to think straight.

Oh I'll share with everyone. Part of the reason I'm so frustrated by the process is the fact that Phillips had no idea who I was and knew nothing about my extended warranty. I've e-mailed pctorque and I should hear from them tomorrow afternoon about what needs to be done to get my computer sent in and repaired.

Granted, it is probably easy to take it apart, but I'm kind of wary of getting too aggressive in trying to fix it myself – there’s something to be said in knowing one’s limitations. Thank god for the extended warranty.

OK, here's an update. Eventually the warranty issues were resolved and I contacted the Phillips people. They made me pull the battery and restart. When that didn’t work, I was told to reformat and reinstall XP. After that last reformat/reinstall, I had a stable desktop to work with and I was told to let the machine sit until it failed.

Since my desktop seemed stable, I began to install the drivers – and then I was off to the pattern of BIOS, Boot screen, BSOD, ect. I called Phillips back and they shipped me a box for my laptop.

I shipped off my machine and received it yesterday, after seven working days, with a new 60 gig HD. I’m typing on it right now and all is right with the world. It’s really kind of funny – you don’t realize just how much you miss your laptop until it’s gone. Honestly, this thing seems like a Ferrari after spending a week working with my 650 128 meg laptop.

All in all, things worked out pretty well. The process wasn’t perfect, but the problems were resolved quickly and painlessly. I’ve never had to do a warranty repair on any of my computers before (lucky me) and I didn’t really know just how this process worked.

Would I buy another Sager? Probably. Problems can happen with any company and small companies like PC Torque seem well-equipped to deal with these issues.