A few weeks ago, a friend of mine told me about his wonky laptop. It was a familiar story. His newish Vista box had, without much warning, begun collapsing into a blue-screen funk almost daily. He complained that he'd spent countless hours on the phone with Dell support techs, all of whom were kind, polite, and intent on being helpful. Unfortunately, none of them had actually helped him at all. We were near my friend's office, so we stopped in so he could show me the laptop. It was barely two months old. The blue screens had begun within a few weeks of his buying this Dell XPS M1530-one of PC Mag's favorites (laptop analyst Cisco Cheng gave it four out of five stars). I asked my friend the usual questions: Had he installed any unusual apps, visited any odd sites, or opened an e-mail attachment that he probably shouldn't have?
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