Color me impressed. The laptop’s already back in my grubby paws, with a new motherboard, and all is in working order again. The timeline:

• Sunday (July 13, 2008): First noticed funky behavior in the wireless card.
• Monday: It actually died; found HP’s support article about the problem. Called HP, scheduled a repair pickup.
• Tuesday: HP ships out an empty box to me.
• Wednesday: Empty box arrives, via FedEx Standard Overnight. I disassemble the notebook (removing hard disk, memory, and battery as instructed), pack it in the box, and drop it off for shipment.
• Thursday: It arrives at HP. HP evaluates, repairs, and ships it back to me, all in the same day.
• Friday: The repaired unit arrives back at the house. Purrs like a kitten now.

Damn. That’s good service — two day turnaround, and they actually fixed it. Spiffy. Great job, HP!