Get this. I got a voice message today regarding my laptop, “Your laptop needs a new motherboard, which will cost $500 (CAD) plus tax (15%).” I haven’t called them back; so I don’t know if that is in addition to the $100 labour charge (probably is). In total, that would be $690 CAD.
As I said in a previous blog post, F-Prot detected a few files in my Java Plugin cache. I assume those files were sanitized. Nevertheless I cleared the Java cache, rebooted, and my computer worked fine for the remainder of that night. The service person took one look at Limewire, and suspected that was where I got a virus. I hadn’t used Limewire for a couple of weeks prior.
Here’s the wake up call. In addition to mainly using the family computer for now, I took out my old laptop. It’s an IBM Thinkpad 385XD. The screen is as faded and red as can be, but the rest of the hardware still works very well. In fact, there’s a clear difference in the quality of the product, as opposed to my current laptop, which I got from MDG. Maybe I was spoiled with a Thinkpad; but I get the feeling my MDG was just a crap product, and I had just gotten used to it. I work my PCs pretty hard; and I’m willing to bet that I simply over-worked my MDG laptop.
As such, I think I’m probably going to get a new computer, rather than paying $600+ dollars for a new motherboard. I’ll probably go for a Dell PC. The IBM Canada warehouse is actually about 20 minutes from where I live, so I’m also going to check that out.
Well, it looks like my ‘online time’ will be low for a while longer.