Vista - Vista lap top from HELL

Greetings, I have an Equium A200 Toshiba lap top running Vista Home Premium. All was well untill a month ago when I broke the screen. After being repaired it has started playing up. Sometimes the touch pad wont work, the screen flickers and today when I turned it on the whole screen was on its side. To see it the right way up you would have to hold the lap top like a book, with the keyboard on your left. I hate sending things of to be repaired and do you think someone could have mucked about with it? Or is it just that it will never be right after being broken? Is there anyway I could check to make sure no-one has done something bad to it. Since we have had it back someone keeps trying to hack into it from the same IP address. When I try to trace it, it sais the address is private. Am using zone alarm fire wall. Can someone please give me some sort of idea as to what is up!!!

Thanks

Ali

alison: It is possible someone is trying to hack you. Your situation sounds strange. I work for a Toshiba certifed service center and I have replaced my share of Displays. Using Zone Alarm(free version?) makes your computer especialy vulnerable to hacking being its poor quality. The pro versin fairs much better. You need to return your laptop to the service center which repaired it last. If its(still) under warranty you should contact Toshiba ASAP. They will get you set back up the way you need to be.

I have tried to upgrade to zone alarm pro but its not available in vista yet. Would windows firewall be better? How would toshiba help? It is still under warranty so would I need to send it back to them or would they help over the phone. When the screen was repaired they ran checks after and said it was working fine. Really dont want it sent of again, I am lost without it.

I'm not sure how Toshiba would help you solve this, if it is a hacking issue. If there is a wiring issue at play, then that would explain the display and the touchpad. If it's hacking, then you'll have to solve a lot of it. I agree with Joel, though; if you are still under warranty, you might as well have Toshiba fix it. Just make sure you tell them exactly what is wrong. As Joel says, displays get replaced all the time and the computers work fine after that.

As for the "hacking" address: Are you networked with computers in this location? From personal experience, some legitimate interactions with other computers (or wireless routers) are interpreted as hack attempts by some firewalls and have to be allowed. You can give Window Firewall a go if you'd like. There are others out there, but you should look in the security forum for information about those.

If your still under waranty a phone call to toshiba will get you a case number and then a trip to the local authorized service center should get your laptop back to its old self in a day...tops. When we order parts from toshiba they are always next day aired to us. If you are under waranty and your problem is all software related your waranty will NOT cover you.

Oh! I forgot. Ditch zone alarm and google "Vista firewall control" and download the free version that matches your version of vista(32 or 64bit). Install and relax.

I think it is a software problem. When I turn it on, twice now it has said there has been a problem starting up and to select a system restore point. It is slow and seems to have a mind of its own. Feel like getting a new one and binning this one.