Thank you Cringely! Hopefully more folks suffering from this particular problem with their DV9000 laptop will hear about it and take-up HP’s offer for a free repair!
Kudos to Robert X. Cringely: http://weblog.infoworld.com/robertxcringely/archives/2008/12/hewlett_packard.html
UPDATE: Just got word from Robert X Cringely that an HP Representative is interested in “helping to resolve my problemâ€. Most excellent!