HP Lies, or One Man's Quest to Get His Defective Computer Fixed: July 30, 2009

Here's where I get involved. July 30th, my computer is once again running very hot while the fan screams in an attempt to cool it down. I leave the computer open on a low power setting in order to hopefully cool it down while I am away at work. I come back later that day to discover that it has become completely unresponsive, the fan has shut down, and the display is distorted in multiple places. Reddish lines chop up the lower half of the screen, and a small checkerboard-box pattern follows my mouse cursor as I move it around (this was the only input my computer recognized, although clicking was not functional). Never having seen distortion like this on my computer before, I attempt to fix the problem with a hard reboot and drain the capacitors by removing the battery and AC adapter before restarting the system. Upon powering on, my computer displays a grayish-black screen split by a few random lines, and lit up by an irregular white blob in the upper left corner. It does not proceed past this point. Mouse clicks are useless, no keystrokes are recognized, and multiple restarts produce the same screen each time. I consult the online forum/database www.hplies.com, which is dedicated entirely to this problem. It contains a list of 10 symptoms conclusively identified as hallmarks of the defective chip issue. I have experienced 8 of them, including the final "Unresponsive black distorted screen." At this point I am convinced that my motherboard has indeed been fried as I knew would happen sooner or later, and that I have a long road ahead of me. Did I ever.