I bought a Dell XPS M1210 in Canada two years ago. It's a sturdy light-gaming machine and it was able to tolerate 2 years+ of heavy usage. Knowing that I would be out of the country, I also got the 3 years next-business-day interenational warranty (as the way-too-awesome replace-even-if-you-pour-water-on-it warranty is not transferrable internationally).
Last week, I went on a business trip to Singapore. The video chip on the laptop started giving in and gave me the Blue Screen of Death (or the "BSOD"). I was pissed because the computer wouldn't even post after the BSOD. Not sure how, but the issue resolved itself after several hours.
Fastforward to last night, the BSOD appeared again. This time, I noted down the error: "NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error".
I decided to give Dell's Singapore technical support a call. They said they knew of the issue (having vertical lines displayed on the screen and the computer throws that error) and there's a new revision of video chip available that should fix the issue. They will arrange a technician to come to my office to replace the motherboard tomorrow.
[to avoid wall-of-text]
I can only imagine how much more pissed I would be if I got another brand of laptop because (i) the warranty would probably have expired already, (ii) the warranty may not be honored internationally, and (iii) it would probably take a few days to fix the issue if they have to return my laptop to the depot.
Anyway, I will definitely buy another DELL laptop if the one I have decides to die on me after the warranty expires.
