Too Much Damage Done

I go away for a week and what happens?

I come home to find that my daughter's laptop has "died". Some lights are on, but there's nothing else happening. No spinning of disks, CDs or anything resembling power hitting the screen. Nothing. Nada. She claims she was in the middle of recording something using Audacity, when everything froze. One 13 month old Samsung R520 is now ornamental!

I also came home to find that the built-in DVD player in the television in our bedroom is making funny noises and refusing to recognise any disk. One 23 month old television which cannot play DVDs (which was one of the reasons it was bought).

What is it with manufacturers these days? Both of the aforementioned items are less than 24 months old. Both of them have failed spectacularly with very little use! And it would seem that "fixing" them will cost almost as much as replacing them completely.

What to do. What to do. I do wonder if the likes of Samsung can offer any advice as to what I should do!!!