Not impressed with HP customer service

[True Dough]

I'm on my 6th laptop in my lifetime. First four were Toshibas. Generally served me well, all lasting 5 years or so. When I went back for a 5th laptop, I found the Toshibas felt like they'd declined in quality, seemed cheap. Went with a Lenovo instead (my dad and sister each have one and they were satisfied). Long story short, the Lenovo lasted me only 4 years and had touch pad issues from the start, which required sending it in for repair.

Anyway, in my latest quest for a new laptop, in January, I settled on an HP Pavilion. Within a month of having it home, it went to a black screen on three occasions after I removed the AC adapter. This didn't occur in succession, it was intermittent.

I was too busy to call support and finally got around to it earlier this week. What ensued was a BIOS update, a CMOS update, an update of drivers, a batter test and an AC adapter test. Probably a few other things but I cannot recall.

The two technicians I dealt with on the phone both made repeated attempts to sell me extended warranty. I declined because I never go for that. Then came the kicker: the second technician said, "Okay. Everything has been updated. Just to set expectations, I notice you don't have an anti-virus program on your laptop. If you experience this problem again, it is because viruses and malware have already infected your computer."

Uh, no. I told her I wasn't going to stand for that "explanation" because the problem has only occurred immediately after I have removed the power cord. That has nothing to do with a virus or malware, I'm sure. She backed down and said I could call again with my case number if the problem persists.

I don't expect HP to fix any virus or malware I might get (it should be noted, I use NoScript and I'm very careful about what I download/browse and I've never had a virus in 4 years). But this occasional problem that I've experienced doesn't strike me as being due to some malicious code.

Could I be wrong about that?