I am disappointed with HP

Bought a HP Pavilion laptop a couple of years ago and as the first year warranty got over, this notebook started giving problems.
1. The battery used to get too hot and the system started getting shutdown.
2. I called HP and they told me the system was out of warranty but upgraded the BIOS and asked me to run some Power routines. Neither of the two helped.
3. Just to send the laptop for them to look at would cost me $100 plus whatever fix they do.
4. I opened the section close to the fan and found a lot of dirt/lint which might have been blocking the free flow of air. I cleaned it and the system seemed okay, for a while.
5. It boots and immediately shutsdown if I login.
6. Sometimes just keeping the system running without logging-in shuts it down.
7. The system only boots in the Safemode.
8. Even if the system comes up sometimes, it shuts down in just a few seconds of Symantec virus checker, if run.
9. It boots up right If I remove the power cord and run the system just on the battery power.
10. Looks like something related to the power controller, not sure if MB has a problem.

Overall, my experience with HP has been very frustrating. The so called "cheap" laptops do not turn out cheap anyhow. I have seen a little pricey IBM Thinkpads running for years even if they were dropped on the floor. I only thought HP sucked in the Unix server market but they do in the laptops too. Not sure someone from HP ever reads my blogs and only if they had genuine desire to help its customers.