Is the laptop a Compaq? I've been hearing lots of complaints from Compaq laptop owners with hardware failures, usually the CPU overheating.

If so, don't bother to send it back to Compaq. They just put it on a shelf for a month, ship it back to you exactly the same way you sent it to them, and say that it's fixed. If your laptop is a compaq, I counsel taking your frustrations out on it with a shotgun and then go out and buy a good laptop, such as a Toshiba.