Emergency - Laptop in trouble!

You get the feeling that they just don't make things with the same level of quality and durability like they do in the good old days. My recent experience with my (in)famous laptop further reinforced the notion - and managed to raise my heart-rate and blood-pressure a few notches in the process!

Last week, I witnessed my very first BSOD (Blue-Screen-Of-Death) since taking the leap of faith by migrating to Windows 7. The BSOD was a fairly common sight with Windows Vista - judging from the recurrence, it seems not to be a software problem.

Starting from Monday, things took a turn for the worst. Coming back from a meeting, I found myself staring at an artifact-laden Red Screen of Death. Hmm, never saw this one before. Barely had I whipped out my trusty side-arm (none other than the pocket-friendly Panasonic Lumix), the system rebooted itself. The red artifacts persisted throughout the reboot, and appeared even before windows booted up.

Trying to boot up, I was faced with again, a blue screen of some sort. This time, the font was really illegible.

Shortly and sadly, the display gave up and ceased to output either to the laptop screen or via VGA output to the external LCD monitor.

Unsurprisingly, in today's "paper-less" working environment, a failed PC almost means productivity grinds to a halt. Weighing my options, I considered purchasing a SATA-to-USB adaptor so that I would be able to access my critical files while waiting for technical support. Well, to their credit, help arrived much sooner than expected. By the end of the following day, my laptop was up and running once again, but not without a major overhaul. I learned that nearly everything EXCEPT the casing, CPU and hard disk / DVD drive was replaced. Excellent support, but at least now she seems to be running smoothly.

There is just one down side from this episode. Throughout this ordeal, my battery decided to become a "ghost" and disappear from the system. Booting up in BIOS yielded the same outcome (again, Microsoft escapes my wrath).

Of course, this has the effect in Windows that my laptop would have to remain plugged into the AC adaptor (making it an expensive desktop), lest Windows drop immediately into hibernation mode upon disconnecting the mains. (16/7/2010: Update - today out of sheer habit, I unplugged my laptop and hauled it to a meeting in the adjacent building. I found that it was still awake, even though there was no battery detected!) In the BIOS, the system was up and running on battery power alone, in spite of showing "Battery Not Installed". The bright orange indicator in the lower right hand corner of the photo seems to scream out for attention. Hmm....

Well, I will order a replacement battery (my second one since getting this unit a little over 2 years ago). Otherwise, it's just like driving a car with a faulty fuel gauge - you'll never know when you'll suddenly run out of juice!