So I'm out on a trip at a client site with my brand new Dell laptop. Before the trip, I had to have the lcd screen replaced because of what appeared to be a short in the wire connecting the screen to the motherboard. I should have known then that there were major problems with the machine.
Well, I'm out at the client site, and suddenly, the machine starts giving me BSOD's. Supposedly, BSOD's aren't supposed to happen with Vista, but here they are, and they aren't for the same thing. One was for a USB driver, one for the video driver, rinse repeat. The reason for the blue screen appeared to be fairly random to Vista.
So, I call up dell, get my account rep on the line, and in the space of a few minutes, she's re-ordered the machine, set up express replacement and overnight shipping, AND upgraded the video card to the better card at no cost to me! Talk about making things right!
I received the new laptop right before I had to leave again, and it worked perfectly. Thanks Dell!
As to the Vista install procedure, I can tell you that it's pretty solid, since I was able to re-install several times while fiddling with hardware . . .