My computer got a complete hardware refresh today. As my 3-year warranty was going to run out in a few months, I called Dell last week. My LCD was really dim so I was hoping that they would replace it.
It took two hours on the phone with Dell technical support, but I hit the jackpot. They decided that my LCD needed replacing, along with my motherboard and hard drive. The motherboard is pretty much the same as the old one except that the new video card does not have an overheating problem (but still the same type of video card as on the old MB). I also persuaded them to change my hard drive, hoping that they would replace my 100GB drive with something larger. All that took place on Friday, and today a Dell support guy dropped by to replace the parts (he was ready to come by yesterday, but I was not).
The tech changed the LCD first and I could see a significant difference in brightness. The new LCD is amazing. I don't have to strain my eyes anymore. The problem with LCD screens is that the backlight loses brightness over the years. Having a 3-year warranty sure came in handy.
Then, the motherboard was replaced (successfully). Laptops sure have a lot of screws! The poor tech (who was about 60 years old) took a while to unscrew and screw back in about 25 tiny screws. He did a great job! Then, he replaced my 100GB drive with a 120GB drive. That is definitely not enough space for me. I ordered a 500GB laptop drive from a local computer store and will pick it up on Friday.
Until then, I first decided to run a LiveCD with a Linux OS (PClinuxOS). That actually worked out great, but then I found out that you can download Windows 7 for free (though it practically stop working on March 1, 2010). Took a while to download the whole 2.6GB but once it was done, I loaded it on the new hard drive. Then, I had to hunt for the right video drivers (Dell is not very helpful in this respect).
Finally, at the end of the day, I have a working laptop, with a bright screen, a new motherboard and hard drive, Windows 7 running and drivers making everything look pretty. I will let you know what I think of Windows 7 after I have been using it for a few days.
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