Finally!

Got my laptop back today. After over THR33! weeks in the shop.

I've never felt so impotent. Not because I'm so desperately dependent on my computer, but because my resume and all my writing samples I needed for job applications were held captive on my hard drive.

Injury #1: Every time I attempt to boot my laptop, it either completely fails to turn on at all, or makes it into Windows only to crash suddenly and terribly.
Treatment: Completely new motherboard.
Cost: $700-$800

Injury #2: After I get it back, the first time I attempt to boot, the screen goes almost completely black (the laptop's on, but too dim to see).
Treatment: Unsticking the tiny plastic button that normally turns off the screen when closing the laptop.
Cost: A week of my life.

The only silver-lining to come out of the whole thing was the fact that my laptop is still on warranty, so it cost me nothing (monetarily, that is).