Interested to read of your problems with the Compaq M2000. I bought exactly the same model from PCW in Dundee on 26th December 2005, used it sparingly while I was overseas for the next eight months ( and I do mean sparingly), then when I came back I put it away and didn't use it for five months as I had my home PC (bought the same day from PCW). At the end of January 2007 when it was thirteen months old I went to use it. Same problem as you. Wouldn't power up. I called a local company over the phone who told me that it would be the battery as I hadn't used it for so long. Ordered a new battery the same day on the internet, had it delivered next day and it wasn't the battery at all. 70 quid wasted. The company I called took it away, had a look at it and managed to get it working only by pressing the on/off button, removing the battery, reinserting the battery and pressing the switch again. Bizarre, of course, but its the only way it would power up. The guy had no idea what the problem was and it cost me another 50 quid, but it still wasn't fixed. I needed the laptop in a hurry though as I was leaving for Poland. I had been in Poland for four weeks and it was still working although I had to go through all this nonsense every time I wanted to power up and had resolved to get it properly looked at when I got back to UK. Anyway, after four weeks it died on me completely. I took it to a computer shop here in Poznan in Poland where I'm working and they had to send it to Warsaw to find out what the problem was. I just heard today that its going to cost the equivalent of 260 quid to repair it. Apparently its the motherboard but they can't get another board here so a repair is the only answer but it would be another two weeks before its ready and I'll be going back to UK in about two weeks so I'm reluctant to go ahead in case its not ready by the time I leave. Also, if I pay that kind of money for a repair, what if something else goes wrong with the motherboard? Its an absolute disgrace. The laptop has hardly been used. My two children also have Compaq laptops which I bought for them when they went to uni and they have had no problems at all with them. I've been checking the internet today and they are a lot of complaints on the net about problems with the motherboard on this model so its not just us. I don't know what to do. I can't afford the time or the hassle to get embroiled in a big deal fighting over this as, legally, the guarantee period is over but I don't like getting turned over either. I don't know if its worth spending that sort of money to repair what may be a dodgy motherboard anyway and then have something else go wrong with it. Would a new motherboard be any more reliable, especially with the other complaints surrounding them? Is it worth putting a new board in anyway or bite the bullet and buy another laptop? Yes, I know when this one has been hardly used! It certainly wouldn't be another Compaq, that's for sure. Any feedback, advice from anyone would be helpful.