I bought a new 600m in October 2004 and during the first few weeks, it worked fine. Afterwards, however, it began locking up completely at seemingly random times. I did not have to be using any one particular application or doing any interaction with the computer to prompt it to freeze (by freeze, I mean a complete lockup with no mouse, no keyboard, and no audio. The display would be frozen at whatever was on the screen when the freeze occurred and any cursors on the screen would stop blinking). Ctrl+Alt+Del did not do anything, so all I was able to do was hold the power button for 5 seconds until the system powered off. This happened sporadically for a few weeks but got progressively worse. I use AVG Antivirus and made sure I was virus-free, and for good measure, checked for other malware with Adaware and Spybot S&D. After turning up nothing on either front, I called tech support and they had me go through the usual diagnostics (including checking to make sure the HD and memory were properly seated) and a PC restore. This did nothing to alleviate the problem which continued until I engaged in e-mail support with Dell and got a replacement hard drive in the mail. Again, this did not solve the problem.

I talked with a co-worker who experienced the same freezing problem with his Apple iBook. He informed me that Apple determined his motherboard was slightly damaged from strain (the laptop was apparently not designed to withstand the strain placed on its framework when held in a certain way, thus causing wear on the board). Whether or not I believed it to be true, Apple replaced his board and he said his system worked fine after that. My question is, could this be the case with my 600m? If not the motherboard, how likely is it that hardware I can't get to may be loose or worn? I have not dropped, spilled anything on, nor allowed other accidental damage to occur to the system.