[Quacker]

I've been abusing my Dell 700m laptop since I bought it on sale about 4 years ago. It's been dropped, put into steamy hot and bitter cold conditions, left on for days at a time, and it hasn't had so much as a hiccup. The body is scratched quite a bit, the latch mechanism still works (albeit with only one latch instead of two), and the batteries only hold about 3/4 of the charge they used to, the on-board speakers don't work (the headphone jack works fine), but when I hit that power button, she turns on. I don't keep sensitive files on it, but I haven't lost a single file. Haven't even reformatted the HD yet.

Then again, I had a friend who went through 3 Dell laptops during his college career. His was pre-Centrino, and was constantly having issues, mostly with the processor. So it's all a roll of the dice, but you can stack the odds in your favor by buying better brands.