Gosh i'm bloody unlucky with laptops too. I just remembered that my old Dell laptop went bust with a graphic card problem a few months (or was it days) after the one-year warranty had expired. Lol then again my sister's Dell laptop was like this too, which has led me to completely black-list that laptop brand.
But predictably, i've run into a problem with my new laptop, this time a problem with the buggy Windows Vista OS instead of a hardware problem. To put it simply...my laptop now starts in Reduced Functionality Mode!!! In other words, the "Black Screen of Death"...an OS problem which affects mainly those who use pirated/unactivated copies of Windows Vista (check it up online if you don't know about it).
The thing is, my copy of Vista isn't pirated! And i even re-activated my Windows Vista via the phone with Microsoft last night, all to no avail. When i get the black screen, i don't get prompted to activate Windows too, so i don't think it's a problem with activation.
What then? I've got 2 theories. Firstly, something went horribly wrong when i uninstalled the pre-installed McAfee Antivirus program last night. I did that because i couldn't seem to register the Antivirus/Internet Security program 'cos the process kept hanging after i provide my personal details. So i got sick of them asking me to register/install product everytime windows loaded up. And i started getting the black screen right after i rebooted the computer following the uninstallation, so it could be due to that.
Secondly, i had tried to run a WinRAR key-generator program before performing the uninstallation of McAfee, which perhaps screwed-up the system registry or gave my OS the impression that i was trying to hack into it. Like wtf. Haha although in the end the generator program had problems and didn't work, so my copy of WinRAR is still in trial mode. So could that keygen program be some kind of sick virus instead? I actually find that unlikely, given the comments and discussion i heard with respect to the program. And yes, i'm aware that keygen programs are a bad, bad thing and would gladly pay WinRAR $10-20 if they were to come knocking at my door lol.
I've written an email to NEC's customer/service support or whatever it's called. But their own telephone helpline is only available on weekdays, so they'd probably reply to my email only on monday as well. Bummer. And even then i don't think they'd be able to help. They'd probably have to send someone down to perform an OS re-installation (because it's an OEM Vista so i don't have the installation CD with me!! >.<).
Until then, i guess i'll have to chuck my laptop to one side and pretend it doesn't even exist and that i didn't even purchase it, so that i can stop wasting time thinking about this problem and getting all depressed. Gosh. 0_o
