HP REALLY REALLY STINKS

My laptop returned from its second trip to the repair center on Friday. I didn't have time on Friday open it up and test it, so I did it on Saturday. I opened up the box and popped the battery in. I pressed the power button with no expectations whatsoever. Amazingly, after everything initialized, the screen flicked on and the system continued to boot up. I was pleasantly surprised. As Windows Vista booted up, I noticed it was very sloooow. But I attributed that to the 1GB of RAM; I had reinstalled the factory memory and taken out my 2GB that I purchased in preparation for the repair.

After the bootup and a check that everything was there, I shut down and removed the battery. I opened the memory bay to be greeted by one lone memory stick. Problem? I had two. So I think to myself, they must have taken my two 512MB sticks and popped in a 1GB. I removed the memory and flipped it over so I could read the label: 512MB. Now I'm annoyed. They fixed my laptop, but left out half my memory. What the h*ll? I held my anger as I installed my 2GB of RAM. I pressed power and was greeted by nothing. This obviously added to my anger. I looked at the memory chips and noticed they weren't in all the way, so I adjusted and the system booted up fast and fine. My landlord's internet was down, so I couldn't test the internet connection. I left it on and played some music. I didn't feel like dealing with HP that night.

After about 30 minutes, my system froze. I looked at my laptop as it played the same half second of music over and over again. I forced a shutdown and tried rebooting. Nothing. After a few tries, and remembering how it didn't boot up before because of a loose memory chip, I checked the memory bay and still nothing. I removed my 2GB and replaced the 512MB and waited a bit. It booted up. I am dumbfounded. I have absolutely no idea what kind of sh*tbox HP had shipped back to me. I put my 2GB in and figured I'll test it later. But as of this moment, I am 45+ days without a computer, HP left out/took/stole (whatever it is) 512MB of RAM from me, and I have a f'ing unreliable laptop that apparently decides when it wants to boot up or freeze up. I am down to my last shred of patience.

I will call HP tonight and ask them about 1) my missing memory and 2) the reliability of my sh*tbox. If I don't have a resolution, I will write to any HP executive/customer service manager that needs to know. If still nothing, then we'll see what I should do. At this point, I'm not sure if I want HP to "repair" my laptop. I have no confidence in them in repairing my laptop. I have a feeling that the thing will just keep breaking down until I am out of warranty, then I'm SOL.

I actually want them to refund the cost of the laptop, which I bought on sale. Shoot, they can even refund me the cost of the laptop minus the hard drive if they want; I can keep the hard drive. Then I'm going to take that money, add some more, and buy myself a REAL laptop from Dell or Lenovo. I've never had a problem with Dell, and I shouldn't have went against my better judgment when I was buying a laptop.

I will definitely update this issue here. In fact, it now gets it's own label.