In a few posts over the last few months, I mentioned that my laptop (which runs Windows 8 DP) would regularly freeze every few hours without warning. Because this started happening almost immediately after I made the switch from Windows 7 to Windows 8, I assumed that it was a bug in Windows 8 and that I would eventually see a fix.

Recently, I decided to put Windows 7 back on my machine just to make sure it wasn't a hardware issue. My 3 year black tie warranty was expiring in May and I wanted to get it replaced if necessary while the warranty was still good. After a few days of sporadic use of Windows 7 again, it happened. My laptop froze exactly as it had done in Win8.

Then, after rebooting and continuing what I was doing, it did it again. In a way, this is a good thing. It's good because it shows that the OS may not have been at fault and because I may end up with a free upgraded laptop out of the deal. Best Buy says that if they can't repair the device in a cost effective way, they will offer me a more current computer (with similar specs). I never thought that warranty services ever did that. I assumed that they would always have a replacement laptop of identical make ready. I am glad I opted for the 3 year warranty. Looks like it will be worth it....

I figure that by similar specs, they mean things like same clock speed and same amount of RAM. A Core 2 Duo processor with a clock speed of 2.4GHz won't be as fast as a current gen processor with a 2.4GHz clock. Either way, I just hope that the new laptop doesn't run as hot as the old one. I kinda have my eye on an Asus, but that may be out of bounds for a replacement. I'll probably have to settle with a Dell since my last laptop was a Dell Studio XPS 1340...