The Lemon

Over the weekend my notebook went dead on me! Yep you read it right after 2 weeks the damned thing went crazy and it would not boot up! At first we thought it was a driver issue with XPSP2 and the ATI X600 card but when we took it to the shop even they couldn't figure it out! The re-seller told Chi that this was the First LEMON [n.b. defective units are usually refered to as Lemons] for this type/config of notebook... Wahhhh!!! Anyway took it to the shop yesterday morning and was supposed to have it replaced. The shop didn't have stocks of the exact same notebook and I was offered a low-end replacement [DL71] while they waited for the stocks [3 to 4 days] or I could get a brand new notebook with a different brand [MSI] and just add some cash. At first I was really pissed off I mean I had the damned notebook for like 2 weeks pa lang. I guess that's what you get when you buy whitebox notebooks :( My options were 2 NEO Q-Notes [whitebox also] and a MSI notebook... Anyway after much consulting with Chi [who in turn was talking to the re-seller] I decided I should just add some cash and get the branded one [MSI]. The funny thing is the 1st MSI replacement they gave me [brand new straight out of the sealed box] had a defective RAM slot! Geez! The next one seemed to work ok... the technician offered to install a 30-day WinXP trial, and stupid me I declined. So we went to Chi's place and well well bluescreens greeted us as we were trying to install XP. So we went back to the shop and after some checking found out one of the RAM chips wasn't working well with this notebook. After this was replaced everything went smoothly. So as of this writing the APEX DL70plus is no more... I'm now using a MSI M645. It has a slightly slower processor [1.6 Ghz] but it does have a Dual DVD/RW media drive. The apex screen is also better. But at least now it's branded you can actually get drivers/BIOS from MSI's website which I couldn't do with the whitebox Apex. So far so good... I'm trying to re-install most of my applications. Oh yeah BTW Chi was also able to ask for goodies I got a free USB mouse, a free webcam, a free notebook bag [TARGUS which is way better than the Apex's bag]. I'd like to extend my deepest thanks to Chi for all his help, advice and patience :o) Salamas bro!!!