Very bad news Doc about the HDD - would it be worth talking to Trading Standards and seeing if it would be viable to threaten Dell with Small Claims Court under the Sale of Good Act for selling goods not of a merchantable quality. I'd be inclined to take them all the way as online it it is fairly inexpensive to start a claim http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-righ...-claims-court/
A few years ago I ended up putting the Bailiffs in and getting £300 plus from Homebase over a non critical part missing from a kids study bunk. Cost me about £20 which is added to their final payment.
I go along with the advice about the cooler and use a fold up stand jobby with my laptop to give the vents clearance.Problem is they can be a bit unstable when you fold the comp down. These ball things look a simpler and cheaper alternative
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Laptop-Noteboo...item2eb2d4c956
Don't buy Dell - weve got an Acer netbook which is 2 yrs old and going fine. This looks a half decent deal Compaq £175 from Tesco Win 7
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.210-3905.aspx
