When the technology doesn't work

I love my Dell Inspiron 9400....when it's working.

Recently the hinge broke. I had the top level 3 year warranty, so I got that fixed, but it wasn't done properly. The rubbers that sit between screen and keyboard with the cover closed started falling off. So Dell shipped me another rubber...but the screen developed a dust spot behind the LCD that you can't clean off. While trying to replace that the technicians stripped the thread on a screw, so it had to go in to the shop via courier which was a pain. A week later I get the laptop and everything looks right, except it's covered in dust. So I clean that off. Only dust has clogged and jammed one of the fans and it starts overheating. Luckily i managed to work out what was happening and unjam the fan without opening the case and before the thing fried. The overheat protection seemed to kick in slowing the whole thing down which is how I noticed there was a problem. (Forget 3D gaming - after a few minutes it became a slideshow).

So far in just over 2 years for this laptop I've had
- 2 hard disk replacements
- 2 new screens due to dust issues
- A broken hinge cover
- A stuck fan
- Strange problems with memory leaks and blue screens (Took literally weeks of spare nights to find and fix the issue which in the end was resolved by reseting the BIOS)
- Blue screens due to bad video and/or wireless card drivers.

With an NVidia 9800GT graphics card this thing is a gem when it works, but I don't think I can call it a good purchase after so much hassle. I seem to spend a few weeks using it, and a few weeks working out what's wrong to fix it. I think it's my last Dell.