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Cyrax-Sektor
Official Battlefield fanboy
+240|6147|San Antonio, Texas
Hello tech people,

Long story short: Yesterday, my HP dv9xxx laptop had its video card burned out. It's useless, except in safe mode. Luckily, I backed up my data.

I reside in the US and the product recall (overheating system) on this series of laptops extends my warranty by a further two years, plus my initial one year warranty hasn't even ended yet. That means free customer service; free laptop (or lap parts) replacement, free box to ship to HP, free shipping to get it back. So many other people got this problem too.

Now this is what I wonder . . . if they don't replace the whole laptop, and they only replace the motherboard, do they mess with the hard drives as well, such as replacing them?

I'm thinking no, as the hard drives are located in separate compartments from what I can see. And they wouldn't do extra work if they didn't need to, they'd waste money and time with new hard drives. But I'm not 100% sure. Perhaps someone else has had parts of their laptop replaced here or has knowledge of this process.

Last edited by Cyrax-Sektor (2008-10-12 22:16:26)

Scorpion0x17
can detect anyone's visible post count...
+691|6764|Cambridge (UK)
Why do you ask?

They'll probably just send you a new one.
Cyrax-Sektor
Official Battlefield fanboy
+240|6147|San Antonio, Texas

Scorpion0x17 wrote:

Why do you ask?

They'll probably just send you a new one.
Well I'm curious to see if I need to reinstall everything, such as Spy Sweeper, BF2, strategy games, Vista 32-bit Home Premium (unless I can somehow get a 32-bit ready one from them). It's mostly laziness on my part. I also don't have the fastest Net speed, so I may have to re-download some mods.

Now, if they send a new one, that'd be nice. It could have a working LCD display with 60hz refresh rate, so BF2 will be truly portable. Either way, the fate of the laptop's out of my hands this Monday.

Thank you.
Scorpion0x17
can detect anyone's visible post count...
+691|6764|Cambridge (UK)

Cyrax-Sektor wrote:

Scorpion0x17 wrote:

Why do you ask?

They'll probably just send you a new one.
Well I'm curious to see if I need to reinstall everything, such as Spy Sweeper, BF2, strategy games, Vista 32-bit Home Premium (unless I can somehow get a 32-bit ready one from them). It's mostly laziness on my part. I also don't have the fastest Net speed, so I may have to re-download some mods.

Now, if they send a new one, that'd be nice. It could have a working LCD display with 60hz refresh rate, so BF2 will be truly portable. Either way, the fate of the laptop's out of my hands this Monday.

Thank you.
Right, I see - yeah, in that case, just do it - If they do replace the mobo, it'll probably just be that they do, and you'll get it back with all your old stuff still there. Though they may also wipe the HDD(s) - just in case (or for testing purposes). But I doubt they'd replace them for no reason.

Not got any specific experience with HP laptops myself, and different companies handle things differently, but bottom line is they're most likely to do whatever is cheapest.

Last edited by Scorpion0x17 (2008-10-11 16:20:09)

TimmmmaaaaH
Damn, I... had something for this
+725|6438|Brisbane, Australia

When I had my Dell M1330's mobo replaced (twice I might add, lol) the harddrive was left alone.

The tech just came to my house, opened it up, replaced the mobo and then put it back together and left. It then broke 3 days later. Then an "engineer" apparently more skilled than the tech came, and replaced everything except the harddrive. I mean everything, he had boxes and boxes of that shit.

Long story short, if it was a Dell - no. Hp, I have no idea. They surely would tell you beforehand to backup if they were going to, but who knows.
https://bf3s.com/sigs/5e6a35c97adb20771c7b713312c0307c23a7a36a.png
Freezer7Pro
I don't come here a lot anymore.
+1,447|6196|Winland

Mail them?
The idea of any hi-fi system is to reproduce the source material as faithfully as possible, and to deliberately add distortion to everything you hear (due to amplifier deficiencies) because it sounds 'nice' is simply not high fidelity. If that is what you want to hear then there is no problem with that, but by adding so much additional material (by way of harmonics and intermodulation) you have a tailored sound system, not a hi-fi. - Rod Elliot, ESP
Catbox
forgiveness
+505|6714
they shouldn't have to touch your hard drive to replace your motherboard(other than disconecting it and re connecting it)
... as long as it's the same motherboard they replace... they should be able to replace and your ready to go...

you or someone could do an image of your drive(Norton ghost/Acronis etc) in case something happens to the laptop in transit... that way they could send you a new laptop and you could use the image of your drive to make the new laptop have your files and programs back the way they were on your old laptop...
Love is the answer
Benzin
Member
+576|5997

[TUF]Catbox wrote:

they shouldn't have to touch your hard drive to replace your motherboard(other than disconecting it and re connecting it)
... as long as it's the same motherboard they replace... they should be able to replace and your ready to go...

you or someone could do an image of your drive(Norton ghost/Acronis etc) in case something happens to the laptop in transit... that way they could send you a new laptop and you could use the image of your drive to make the new laptop have your files and programs back the way they were on your old laptop...
best option
Titch2349
iz me!
+358|6351|uk

My experience with Dell replacing Mobos are the same as with TimmmmaaaaH- only the mobo gets replaced, no other parts (again, not sure about HP though)
{uscm}Jyden
You likey leaky?
+433|6677|In You Endo- Stoke
They will never replace more than they have too.
Normally when i have to send my lappy back,they would ask before hand if they could wipe the harddrive for a fresh install.
Benzin
Member
+576|5997
Never assume they will ask or replace useless stuff.

Make images of the drive(s) and then data backups of all your files. Then send it in. That way no matter what happens, your stuff is saved. Even make copies of the Program Files folder if you can. Backup as much as you can and in as many different ways as you can. You can never have too many backups.
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