Problem with Hard Drive of Refurbished Laptop

Laconic

Hi

This is one of those borderline issues I'm hoping I can get some guidance on. I bought a refurbished laptop off Dixons on the 9th of September, just over 6 months ago. I did not buy an extended warranty.
Recently, I noticed that the hard drive has started making rattling noises which have been getting worse. So far, it's working, but no guarantee of how much longer this happy state of affairs can be expected to last. Thus far, I'm backing up my hard drive religiously and have the disk imaged, but I'm concerned, particularly as I'm trying to submit my master's thesis.

Ideally, I'd like Dixons to send me a replacement hard drive as I'm well able to replace it (and take responsibility for it), though I'll be just as happy if they can repair it for me. Have I any hope?


Any and all opinions valued.

CoolHotCold

First Off Backup all the data as sure as sure that puppy will fail and it will cost you a pretty penny to recover the data.


Refurbished or not (so long as it wasn't purchased from ebay pcworld/currys) all laptops come with a standard 12 month warranty. Without knowing the make I cannot say exactly what happens. But either contact Dixons through the online contact form
http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/s/contact-us.html
Or Contact Knowhow on 08445611111 (Which is the Dixons specific contact number with 08445610000 for pcworld and 08445611234 for currys) and they will do a diagnostics and if what you suspect is true they'll usually arrange for a pickup and pick the laptop up from work or home and redeliver to same address.

Like I said without a brand I can't say if they'll just send a hard drive out in the post, usually most manufactures want to replace the hard drive and claim back the cost from the HDD manufacture (if they have that sort of agreement) whereas others believe it's cheaper just to send a replacement one out in the post. Ask when you phone or email.

Alternativly pop into a PcWorld or 2in1 Store and let the Knowhow guys arrange the repair. They'll sort everything and give you a ring when it's ready for collection.

If the laptop has to be picked up for repair/inspection it'll usually be 7-10 days after its picked up before it's ready for collection.

Hope that helps.

Hintza

Laconic wrote: »

particularly as I'm trying to submit my master's thesis.

Sounds like you are very time restricted and if they won't supply a replacement for you to replace (they will want it back to test, repair etc all taking time) you might need to just bite the bullet and buy your own replacement.

You will need to decide which route to go down, if they say it will take 14 days double that at least.

Jakg

I don't think they will send out a new hard drive - the repair centre like to inspect the items before repairing them (which makes sense when you consider all the mis-described faults they get).

Hintza wrote: »

You will need to decide which route to go down, if they say it will take 14 days double that at least.

You don't need to double their estimations - they will quote around 28 days - 6 weeks to make sue it comes back quicker than you think...

Hintza

Jakg wrote: »

I don't think they will send out a new hard drive - the repair centre like to inspect the items before repairing them (which makes sense when you consider all the mis-described faults they get).

I would agree but the OP might get lucky.

Laconic

Thanks for that -- that does lay out my options most clearly. It's good that I can expect a hard drive to last 12 months.

It's an Acer Aspire 5750. In retrospect I should have complained about this earlier: the G-Shock Rate sensor has long been running high, but it appeared to have no effect on the hard drive and I had no idea what it meant (save leave it on the desk). So far, scanning the hard drive for errors turns up no critical failures but the spin up time is getting steadily longer. I think it's safe to assume it'll fail.

Well, time to move some programmes to run off my external hard drive and shift to another computer while I get this one repaired.

CoolHotCold

Quick note, unless you are talking about imaging the hard drive or moving the install file you cannot easily backup programs.

How are you scanning the computer?

The Best program for scanning the system is SeaTools (Choose the DOS Version) and you need a CD or DVD to burn a image to.

Or some Acers have a built in system to test, turn on the computer and press F2 to enter the Bios when the Acer splash screen appears and navigate through the menu.

Whatever you use (the Acer built in system if it has one) or the Seatool Dos version choose extended and that should tell you one way or another if its a faulty hard drive.

Also while they will replace the hard drive if faulty and reimage it (so it's like its just out of the box) it is a VERY good idea to create a set of recovery media incase the new hard drive fails and you need to replace it yourself.

Also about 90% to 98% (depending how busy the repair centre are) all repairs are done within a 7 day period when they are received by the repair workshop. The time it will take is a maximum of 28/21 days before you can request on a replacement system.

Jakg

CoolHotCold wrote: »

Also about 90% to 98% (depending how busy the repair centre are) all repairs are done within a 7 day period when they are received by the repair workshop. The time it will take is a maximum of 28/21 days before you can request on a replacement system.

Are you getting WEH and the standard warranty terms confused?

System

Or just bite the bullet, fork out £65 for a new 500GB disc and swap them over. Downtime of a day rather than weeks.

CoolHotCold

Jakg wrote: »

Are you getting WEH and the standard warranty terms confused?

WEH is defiantly 21 days (or 7 days premier), but I don't work for Currys or Dixons so can't say exactly what their standard warranty t&c say. But I believe its 28 days max before a exchange is provided.

Jakg

CoolHotCold wrote: »

but I don't work for Currys or Dixons

Really? I thought you did... KH?


Whatever Happens is 21 days / 7 days, but I don't think the "standard" warranty has such a condition on it...