ISSUES!! Powering off, powering on, 'sleep' mode, error messages, etc.

[GuessWho]

Ok... I'll start with the first PC that had to be returned to the store.  It was an HP Pavilion dv7-1130 laptop.  As soon as I pulled it out of the box and turned the power on it displayed a black error screen because Windows wasn't shut down properly.  Huh?  Anyway, I was just getting through the computer set up and update screens ... I was at a point where it was updating and said to not turn off the PC while the updates were being installed.  Next thing you know, the $%#* thing powered itself off.  I couldn't figure out what happened, knowing that I did not touch anything to cause it to turn off.  I wondered if the update somehow caused it to shut off.  I restarted it and got that same error message as I did when I first pulled it out of the box.  I continued with the set up and wrote it off as a freak occurence.  A short while later... boom, it powered itself off again.  Now I was beginning to worry.  It had plenty of juice in the battery and it was plugged into the AC adapter as well... so it didn't run out of power.

The second problem with this PC:  it later seemed to go into some sort of idle mode so I tried to wake it up using the touchpad.  Nothing.  Tried to use the mouse.  Nothing.  Tried pushing several different keys.  Nothing.  Wow... I have to do a 'hard' shut-down on a new computer?!  I pressed the power button to power it down.  Nothing.  I pressed it again and held it down.  Nothing.  I pressed it several times, as well as several other keys to try to get it to do something, anything!  Nothing would happen even though all the hotkeys were illuminated and there was plenty of power.  I actually had to flip it over and pop the battery out to get it to shut down.  Never could figure out why this was happening.

Finally figured out computer problem #1....  I was running my finger around the frame of the keyboard sometime later, kind of giving it a light dusting off when the #%@! thing shut down again.  I restarted it and tried to emulate what just happened by gently pushing on the frame around the keyboard in a few different spots and it shut down again.  I turned it on again and was able to isolate the problem area the the metal framing directly below the left 'alt' key.  Any light pressure in that spot was causing this computer to turn off! 

I was able to take the computer back to Microcenter and reproduce the error in front of the customer service rep.  lol... that's a whole different story but I'll include part of that tale... after showing her the problem she took it back to their 'tech' to show him, then she brought the PC back and tried to explain that this was normal because there are 'wires running all around that frame that make it a wireless and the tech showed me how that area is very close to other buttons and sometimes that happens.'  HUH?!?!  Omg... that was the dumbest thing I've ever heard!  I could feel myself getting angry and took the PC back and said 'LOOK... all I have to do is to touch this thing right under the 'alt' key accidentally while handling it or typing on it and it shuts itself off... that is NOT normal!'  I reproduced the problem again in front of her, making sure she was watching the area that I touched.  She said oh... ok, I'll take it back to the tech again.  I was so shocked at their reasoning and was upset thinking they weren't going to take this thing back!  Anyway... she returned and decided I could exchange it for another one.

So... now I have a replacement of the same model.  And although it is not having the spontaneous shut down problem, it IS having the exact same problem as the other one had with going into some sort of power saving mode and not coming back out... forcing me to pop out the battery every time to restart it.  I went into the power saving options and turned off any sort of idle settings, power saving modes, hibernation options, etc.... thinking that would fix the problem but this thing STILL continues to have the same problem .  Screen goes black, power is still on but none of the keys work.  This is ridiculous!  I spent too much time trying to troubleshoot this on my own (and thought I resolved it) and didn't realize that I went ONE day beyond Microcenter's 7 day return policy.  Now what?!  With all the other posts on this site and others, I'm not feeling at all confident with this product and now I'm afraid I may be stuck with it.  =(

Sorry for the long post....  I'm rather frustrated with this ordeal!