Y550 nVidia issues

Hi guys-

Just posting my story here for all.

Got my Y550 last May without incident after enjoying my S10. Got it, didn't have many issues at all if I can remember right. Around Sept/Oct I upgraded to Win 7 (and had all the supporting drivers) and had this issue start it SEEMS like after upgrading (or maybe I wasn't paying attention before). Anyway, upgraded to win 7, CONSTANTLY had my screen go black after opening up Google earth. The screen would then kick back on with the message that my video display driver had stopped working and restarted. This would sometimes happen without google earth running, as much as 3 times in 15 seconds. It got REALLY old... fast. It seemed like 25% of the time I could provoke the system to having the error by opening google earth.

I then used my recovery partition to go back to vista. Still had the error. Went back to 7- still had the error. Upgraded nVidia drivers to four different versions- the one lenovo shipped with, a new one, a beta one, and an older version. All failed (meaning I was still getting errors). Went back to Vista and did the same. Still errors. I called Lenvo for Support on December 3. After being on hold at 11pm for 55 minutes, I got thru. I was mailed a carton to send my y550 in. I told the person my suspicions that it was a faulty video card. After Lenovo received the computer, they called me and could not reproduce the problem. I told them, and they said they ran their "diagnostics" (which apparently doesn't simulate real use or they would have found my issue), and couldn't find the problem. They shipped it back with updated BIOS, saying "There were no issue found with system. Unit passed diagnostics and functional tests. BIOS updated."

OK, so I thought maybe it worked. WRONG. Within 2 minutes of the computer being on, I reproduced the same problem. This was the week of Christmas, and I called Lenovo back (after another 45min on hold) stating my computer was still having issues and that I was losing business because it was difficult to get work done. I asked to speak to a supervisor (politely- I also try and get further by being polite). After insisting they would fix the issue by replacing the integrated video card (and thus the motherboard), I was OK. I never made it thru to the manager. The guy also recommended I try direct sales to see about a return (even though it had been soo long!) so I called and was nice and the guy who stated he couldn't help me, but tried to see what was going on. At this point, it was suggested to me that I up my concern to Lenovo, so I called the tech support and asked to up the situation. They told me a customer rep would call me in 5-7 business days, which for me was absolutely unacceptable. In the mean time, I had no computer and was left waiting. I was at wits end, calling many lenovo departments seeking a break OR a cross ship. No luck. I was called on the 29th? of December by a case worker, and it was decided that since the Y550 had already been shipped back a second time, that we would wait to see the outcome.

I got a call again from Lenovo asking problem specifics (which I had given to everyone I talked to at least once or twice). I told him the screen would flicker, then an error would pop up. He said ok, they'd try to get google earth to provoke the error. Well, around January 13 I got the computer back again, and the repair action report stated "Replaced LCD cables BIOS update functional pass test". After being virtually promised that we'd skip right to the motherboard replacement, I was pretty upset. LCD CABLES?! LOST IN TRANSLATION!? OK, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I opened the box, started the computer, and here's what happened:
width='425' height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/90L8kx0VNbw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/90L8kx0VNbw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='425' height="344"></embed></object>

width='425' height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cpzIf2FiNzc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cpzIf2FiNzc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='425' height="344"></embed></object>

Needless to say, I called my case worker pretty frustrated. It had been over two months without a working computer. I uploaded the videos to youtube so my caseworker could see what was going on. Rather than ship my Y550 back a third time, she finally decides to cross ship me a brand new Y550. (THANK GOD!) I was very nice to her, she asked my original order (since I went thru Lenovo direct) and got me setup with a new one.

I got the new computer end of January, with no issues, and Win 7 preinstalled. I was pretty happy, but pretty upset that it took THAT much work to get this rectified.

Thoughts? Ever had a crappy experience yourself?