My laptop computer is hot!

Last December I started to notice that sometimes my laptop computer (IBM ThinkPad) gets really hot.  I took it to the IBM service center, and all they did was to clean it up.  I was surprised they'd only do that, but when I took it back home, yes, the problem was gone.

Now almost three months later I start to feel that my ThinkPad sometimes gets hotter than it should be, though not as hot in December.  On top of that, I also hear the fan making a terrible noise whenever it spins.  I'm not really sure this is a very bad thing, but for example, doesn't it raise your hair when you hear your harddisk suddenly making funny noises?

So two days ago I took my computer to the service center again to get the fan checked.  Yesterday afternoon I get an e-mail and a phone call from the girl at the service center's counter (the same one I met the previous day), and she tells me that the technician has informed her that in order to fix the problem, maybe it's necessary to replace the power adaptor and the battery.  I thought this was very strange.  Okay, let's assume the power adaptor and the battery are really in bad shape and need to be replaced.  Once these two are replaced, how does this make the fan run quietly?  Whenever the fan runs, it should run quietly.  So a new battery is going to make the fan noiseless?

So how much would it cost to get a new power adaptor and a new battery?  The girl transferred me to another deptartment (shouldn't she have had that info at hand when she called me?).  Whoever answered gave me the price for both of them.  New power adaptor about USD 45, new battery about USD 750.  I was astonished.  I thought there was one zero too many.  I told the girl I think I can buy a new computer for the price of one replacement battery, and she said yes, that's quite right.  And on top of that, she said they don't have it in stock, so they'd have to order it from abroad.

I'm like, huh?  Isn't this IBM?  Am I talking to Congo IBM or what?  At the same time I opened the e-mail they sent me, and it was confusing, it said "maybe", yes "maybe", so I ask this girl if I pay all that much money would I see my computer fixed for sure or just "maybe".  This mother fucker wanted me to hang up and call the other department (???).  With this, I really started to get angry.  I asked her if she just wanted to get rid of me or what.  Somehow she got nervous, and instead of making me hang up and call a different number, she transferred my call to the first girl..  Shouldn't she have done that without requesting me to hang up and call again?  What a moron!!!

Well, I couldn't get confirmation that even after spending hundreds and hundreds the machine would be fixed "for sure", just a "maybe".  Oh man, I got angry.  What the fuck I thought.  But I need these monkeys to do some work for me, so I can't lose my cool with them.  I told her I'd think it over and call her again the next day (today).

This morning very early I got a phone call again from IBM.  This time it was a technician, not the pretty girl from the counter.  This time, the guy was making sense.  He said that the fan is damaged, so it needs to be replaced.  He'll get back to me tomorrow with a quotation.  I hope this time it doesn't cost many hundreds of dollars, nor they need to bring the part from abroad.  Cross your fingers!