I hereby declare June the Month of Computer Asshattery.
I wrote a whole slew of articles about it for the site I'm working for, but long story short...desktop machine suffered some kind of internal meltdown. Had a big back and forth with the manufacturer. My basic tests and fix-its didn't work, so I had to send it off to Indiana go get fixed.
Indiana. That is where Californian HPs go for repairs when they're still under warranty.
At the same time this happened, I wanted a new battery for my laptop. The stock battery lasted two hours, max, when I got it; now we're down to five minutes of function and maybe a half hour on standby. I went to HP because I wanted a battery that, you know, wouldn't blow up my computer. They gave me the runaround again, told me to visit the parts store, etc...suggested I just buy a new one...no thanks.
I ordered the right part through Newegg out of spite and now I'm sitting in Starbucks with a fabulous 12-cell extended life battery that is so huge it actually props the computer up at an angle. I'm supposed to get 5+ hours out of the thing. I'm just happy to not be tethered to an outlet anymore.
I guess I'm lucky. Apparently my laptop is one of the few of its model that didn't ship out with a processor failure and explode (or so I heard...it's been a reliable machine, which is why I got a new battery rather than replace it). (knock on wood)
The whole situation with HP left a sour taste in my mouth. I don't know what the next step is, honestly. At the end of my article rants I threatened to go Mac, but the reality is I can't drop a month's rent on a computer, and frankly I like Windows. I just don't like the customer service (or lack thereof) that comes with PCs nowadays. I am no longer at the point in my life where I have the time to troubleshoot my machines extensively. They need to work, especially when they're still under warranty.
Before all this went down, I was looking at the Ultrabooks just to have a tiny portable machine that I could take with me to the coffee shop. The new battery adds a good two pounds to the laptop and that doesn't really help its cause.
So yes. Those are the first world problems I am presently grappling with.
