My laptop is shot ... anyone wants to take a guess at the cause?

Hi all,

Well, my Compaq laptop went on strike today. Yup, it's been 3 months since it got supposedly a full 600$ rebuild.

Anyways, when I start it, there are some weird green bands, like the graphic card that isn't there (integrated) was shot.

And when the time comes to booting Windows, it stops and says ... get this (I typed exactly what it says)
could nocould nobecause because owing fiowing fissing missing mi pt :corrupt :corry
\Drivers\DriverssNtfs.sysNtfs.sy

attempt attempt r this fr ftarting tarting Setupws Setupws e origine origin CD-ROM. CD-ROM.
r' at thr' at thscreen tscreen trepair. repair.

Also, after a couple minutes, I have neat pink bands that display random changing characters. A bit like the Matrix, but a gay Matrix.

Now I restarted ... and it fired up normally! Seems to be running fine and all.

WTF is going on?

BTW, I have already backed up all my important files

And now back to acting up! This is insane. People, stay away from Compaq!

 

BTW ... is there any 750$ rebate like there was on Dells not that long ago anytime soon? I wouldn't hate that! Had I only known ...

 

Well ... I know the whole thing is horsecrap. I've had for 2 years now, and it has only been problems. Heck, it was annoying even when the problems were covered under warranty!


Last time this problem happened (yes it already happened), it was the screen connector (that's for the screen problem) ... but I'm puzzled by Windows failing at the same time .... really a coincidence of 2 separate problems? If so, I can check the connector by myself, and re-install Windows. Nothing major there, but I wouldn't want to waste a week taking it apart, then back together to discover it's something I can't fix, or re-install Windows just to figure out the HD is *ucked (it happened 5 times already ... good quality components ... sure).


It's a Presario 900. Major bummer is that I had it "rebuilt" 3-4 months ago (650$cdn sounded more reasonable than 2 grands for a new one ... at least for a decent machine). So basically, tomorrow, I'm gonna blow the ears off the idiot who took my money for nothing and see if he will stand behind his lack of work.

Rant mode on.

I refuse to buy a puter on impulse. I shall find exactly what I want, and shop around patiently until I find it at a reasonable price. This takes time (especially with Christmas time coming around), and without another puter, I don't have time. This blows.

Rant over.

Thx for the comments.

 

Oh yeah, should've mentioned ... since the 650$ "rebuild", no trace of the floppy to be found. Pretty cool uh?

As far as virus being ... I dunno. I have Norton Internet Security as well as PrevX (intrusion prevention) running all the time, all this behind the school's firewall ... and I never open .exe or .bat or .dll etc files that I don't know.

 

UPDATE!!!

I brought the POS back to the shop I had brought it in for the last repair.
First thing I asked was "did YOU guys do the 650$ job, or did you send it to HP?". Guess what? They sent it to HP. No wonder it's a crappy job. When it was under warranty and free, I didn't really care. So I explained all my problems, and the guy was really nice about it, said the warranty on these kind of jobs was usually 3 or 6 months, but he was gonna call and push HP to do something, but he did not know off hand what they would do.

So any insiders here would happen to know if there is a lemon policy at HP/Compaq?
I may get a call from a servive manager. After the insults, and before hanging up, what should I tell him to get him to wake up about the lemon I have? Here are some points I would love to bring out to him.
First - incompetency. They never got the fixing right the first time, extra delays, extra annoying. Their service is insulting.
Same problems occur again and again, is the whole model a lemon? Can't they upgrade to better components (namely, HDD)?
I will mention I questioned myself and how I handle my laptop (I'd say with care).
I will mention that I do not even look at products with the HP or Compaq badge, I see the badge, I turn away, no matter what it is.
And a bit of drama too.

Now for the solution ...
Only way for me to forgive them would be by giving me a new laptop with a super duper warranty where if I have a problem, I show up, and exchange for another one right off the bat. For 3 years (which the usual extended warranty program on most brands). I don't see this scenario happening in the real world, though ...

So, what should I expect? From you insider guys, what would be a reasonable acceptable solution to this? Basically, I want to sound a little savvy, and know what kind of solution is generally accepted for a laptop that's been in repair (4-5-6 weeks at a time) every 3 months or so for the past 2 years.

Thx in advance