Got me a new laptop

[MrBill]

When my son went to Iraq back in March, I gave him my old eMachines laptop. Apparently, it has crapped out so I'm sending him my Gateway I bought several months ago. So....I bought a new HP Pavillion dv9009nr today!

17" widescreen, AMD Turion 64 x2, 2gb ram, 2x80gb hdd, nVidia GeForce Go 6150. So far, I think I'm going to like it. :)

[MrBill]

Well...just shy of 1 year old, the left display hinge broke taking out the screw mounts in the cover with it. Due to my traveling and not having time to mess with it, the warranty ran out. It has been a major pain in the ass just to open and close it. I finally ordered the repair parts ($177) and 3 hours later I have it fixed.

Ironically, the sound from the laptop speakers went out about the same time so I looked at the connectors while I had it apart and didn't see anything wrong there. Guess I'll just keep using earphones when I want to hear anything.

I've never had this kind of issue with a laptop before. I don't know what caused the hinge to break or the speakers to quit working, but this may be my last HP.

I'm just happy to be able to open and close the lid again! :)

[McBain]

Extended warranty for a lappy are damn near the only consumer good I'd ever recommend buying a warranty for.