Okay. In waiting for my laptop to continue to NOT get fixed, my substitute laptop has also developed a fault which I like to call 'LOL, Eff You'.
You'd think I was throwing these things off my roof. But in actual fact my only misuse of the laptops in question is being stupid enough to use them 'as intended'. Maybe if I started placing them underwater they'd develop less out-of-nowhere fatal faults.
So there's no fall-back for me this time. Skip me in threads I can be skipped in. For the foreseeable future I am without a laptop. It'll take about the time necessary to get rid of curse this apparent voodoo curse I've been landed with.