Last week I wrote how my laptop seemed to have issues and my guess was a hardware failure. Was I correct?

My laptop is still under its original, 3-year warranty. (It expires in December.) As luck would have it, a Lenovo authorized warranty repair location is located in my home town. So I packed up the laptop and headed over to that shop.

The nice receptionist had me fill out — by hand, on a triplicate form &mdash my name, the laptop’s name, serial number, and a description of the problem. I handed that form back to her, which she then typed into the computer.

Begin rant. Why do places make you fill in a form when they just retype everything into a computer? Why not just hand you the keyboard? or a tablet? The 21st century can really frustrate me. End rant.

After I described the problem, she cutely replied, “It sounds like you have a virus.”

I don’t boast about who I am or how much I know computers. I just sat there and took it. After all, if she really could diagnose the problem that swiftly, she’d be working in the back fixing the computers not re-typing my triplicate form into her computer.

“Do you run anti-virus software?”

“No,” I replied. Now, that’s really a fib. I run a firewall and I run Windows Defender. I did a complete scan just two weeks ago. Besides, the intermittent hardware issues I’d been having are not telltale signs of malware.

“Would like us to install antivirus on your laptop?” she asked.

Again, I replied in the negative. She then reminded me that if the problem was a virus, I would be charged an extra $90 to remove it.

I fully understand and accept that probably 90 percent of the business this place gets is from people who stupidly invite malware into their computers. That’s great! More business. But when Nick the Tech called me, he was puzzled as to my laptop’s woes.

Apparently the laptop had no issues when he booted it using a Linux thumb drive; no problems at all! Then Nick the Tech asked me the poignant question:

“Did you update this system to Windows 10 from an older version of Windows?”

Why, yes. Yes, I did.

And that was the problem.

Apparently a few PCs are experiencing Windows 10 upgrade woes. They all follow a typical pattern: Weird seizures, hardware malaise, and other maladies. The hardware is okay, but for some reason the Windows 10 upgrade just coughs up blood and the computer ceases to work properly.

Upon reflection, I recall just performing another Windows 10 update (or patch) before I took my laptop to the coffee shop last week. Et voila!

Nick the Tech says others, including himself, have experienced the same woe. His brilliant observation, “That’s what happens when an upgrade is free; you get what you pay for.”

After paying $130 dollars for the reset and repair, I have my laptop back. And so it goes.