Quote Originally Posted by retailguy
meanwhile, my T42, bought used off a 6mo. lease (one of the 1st centrino processors), has got a new hard drive. That's it. My IBM is clearly a better machine in all aspects. It isn't even close. The VAIO has a catchy purplish cover and a cool logo. But, there isn't anything else to back the bling up with.
There are lemons in every manufacturing process. Sounds like you happened to get one. All of those things outside of the case cracking and the pixels seem to be the result of the fan failing and the scorching hot processor wreaking havoc.

Don't know how common it is, but they use nicer quality hardware (nicer keyboards, trackpads, displays, thinner, etc) like Apple and IBM used to. My work T61P laptop is also a tank but it weighs a million pounds and is gigantic!