I Can Haz Laptop!!

It's back! Actually it arrived day before yesterday when I was out, so Fed Ex brought it back yesterday. Anyway I've had time to check it out now (also to realize I should probably post about it) and it's working fine. Including my hard drive; I'd removed it before shipping, then followed jeran's suggestion and picked up a USB connector. It worked more or less - most of the drive was accessible but it didn't want to let me look at my website files for some reason. They're ok though - I'm getting at them fine now, and did some updates yesterday and today.

They did, indeed have to replace the motherboard, also the keyboard and a few other odds and ends including a couple of panels which weren't involved in the disaster but had gotten a bit worn and they were after all taking the thing apart and putting it back together ANYWAY... I think I like Dell's attitude here, I do.