Just got my Dell XPS 1530 but...

I LOVE the feel of this laptop; i installed XP on it without a hitch w/ the drivers n' stuff; now i also installed SpeedFan and it says that:

I had it for less than... 5 hrs now; Should i call it in and get the HDD replaced? I might get a refurb, but is it worth it? And if i do call it in, the shipping is paid for by their end right? they send me the part first, and then i send the broken HDD? Or will i be sitting here for another week for it? Thank you!

Edit*
Unless someone knows of a program to fix the sectors?

 

They will just replace your hard drive. If you are in the U.S you have in home repair as a part of your warranty.

 

Yes, get it replaced. My sister had a similar problem with her Vostro 1500's HDD and they replaced her 120GB 5400rpm hdd with a 160gb 7200rpm one without asking questions.

 

Oh, sorry; forgot to mention its a 250GB 7200rpm Free Fall Sensored Samsung drive

 

Uh.... yeah... get the hard drive replaced.

 

The harddrive is user replaceable, they can overnight you a new one which you can replace and then return them the faulty one back. They will pay for shipping both ways.

 

Oooo.. i better check that too when i get my M1530.. How do you check that? with SpeedFan?

 

I don't know what program the op used but you can check that with HD Tune.

 

Definitely return it.

 

I used speedfan:

http://www.almico.com/speedfan434.exe

When installed go to the S.M.A.R.T tab, select the HDD, then "Perform an in-depth online analysis of the harddrive".

HDTune also works fine for this sort of thing as well; I'm gonna call it in later today, yay for finals....

 

Okay i am getting the HDD replaced; but i ran speedfan again and now its up to 378 Uncorrectable sectors, WTH? Will the other hd be like this? Are these drives that fragile? Its under normal use, i just installed xp and am browsin the net, havent even installed a game yet...

 

I think the software you are using is giving you bogus info. I am 90% sure nothing is wrong with your HD...

If your computer turns on and the HD capacity shows what it is supposed to in your computer properties, nothing is wrong. Your laptop is brand new, of all things

 

I actually talked with a Dell Tech Rep, and he asked me to run a diagnostic (the one that comes with the laptop) and there was an error of some kind, said it is rare.

What would you suggest, then, to test the harddrive and see if all the sectors are working correctly? It cant just be "its on, it goes into windows, so it works"

 

run a disk error check, and select "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" and "automatically fix file system errors"

 

Alrighty, will run it in a bit, why didnt i think of that? XD
I always sort of run to a chkdsk/r

 

Just becuase it shows the correct capacity does not mean there are no damaged sectors on the hard drive. I have an old 120gb desktop drive from 2002 and the drive is about 30% bad sectors, though it does display the correct 111gb capacity of the drive I wouldn't dare use it as it's so badly damaged.

Also, a brand new laptop does not mean it is going to arrive flawless or without any problems, if anything the first week of use will be the teller of if it has been assembled properly with working hardware.

Look at the grainy screen problems, audio jack problems, build quality issues and dead on arrival problems that you encounter on forums such as these.

 

Hello,

This is Richard from the Dell Community Outreach group. You had mentioned that you installed XP with no issues, thus removing the originally installed Vista. But, on this computer there is an Image Restore option that will reload the original factory image (Vista), which is stored on a hidden partition. There is also a diagnostic partition as well.

So, I wonder when you redid the OS did you completely clear the drive with Kill Disk, Fdisk, etc? I am thinking that the hidden partitions are still there and SpeedFan is not interpreting them correctly.

Regards,

Richard B
Dell Online Community Outreach

 

meh, I'm just a skeptist when it comes to things like this. A lot of time I se someone get a new laptop, and one itty bitty little thing looks wrong on it, they freak out and think it's a major problem.

funny story:

I have a friend that got a new laptop a few years ago and he wanted me to tweak it, speed it up, etc. so I did, and he was happy. except that a couple of days later he came to me and was like "SOMEONES HACKING INTO MY COMPUTER, THEY MADE IT TO WHERE I CANT DO ANYTHING GET OVER HERE QUICK" so I went over there to see what all the racket was and it turned out that he himself had tried to change the password but accidentally gave himself limited permissions in the user account...

lool

 

I deleted all partitions and formed two seperate ones (OS drive is 40GB, the Storage drive is 200GB) I then formated it to NTFS (not the "quick" option); I am quite sure i deleted everything (including the backup drive and the mediadirect drive)

Software based issues are one thing, those i can handle; if its a faulty HDD, theres nothing i can really do about that brerben; this is why i am making sure nothing is wrong with the laptop.

 

Holy crap get the Nazis off the board!

 

Well, that comment was completely unnecessary and not helpful to anyone.

Richard B

Dell Online Community Outreach

 

Just like you, your employer, and all your coworkers.

How about you go comment in the Support section. People getting their orders canceled when they didnt want them to be, people being in Boxing stage for a week THEN getting delayed because of a back ordered part.

Yeah I dont put much respect in Dell sending propaganda commies to community forums to act like they give a ****.

 

Calm down man...The guy is just doing his job and trying to be helpful. He is on these boards in an attempt to help people and his posts reflect this. How would you like people making ignorant, ill-founded conclusions about you whilst you are attempting to do your job?

YOU are the one that is not being helpful here; in fact, you are being antagonistic, and nobody here, especially the original poster, appreciates it.

 

If I worked for Dell, which I wouldnt after knowing the experience people go through, the lieing, that manipulation, the overcharging, this is crap I experienced myself. I wouldnt put my name with a company that has to get class action lawsuits against it to stop ripping people off.

But yeah, I think sending a PR guy over to anwser a few easy questions and ignore all the bad and not say a word is kind of a jab in the side to people getting pushed over by Dell.

 

Way to be a complete ass. You obvious have no clue.

 

Newsflash! All large companies get sued for something. You can't please hundreds of thousands or millions of people with the same business practices.

 

So you're saying its not possible at all to not have people like Sales Rep Adrian, who tried to gouge 200 out of me by ordering my laptop again with 9 cell promising an earlier ESD when infact it would of pushed my ESD back two weeks. Its impossible to have Tech support that tells you they will do NOTHING about your grainy LCD screen and to have a good day when you are infact entitled to a new screen? These are impossible things? Its Impossible to NOT put the status of your laptop in Boxing, then get delayed because of a backordered part? When it was in BOXING?

I didnt know being fair and honest was impossible. Thanks, duely noted.

I say money spent on sending out "Community Outreach" people would be better spent trying to fix production problems and rude lieing CSRs and sales people out to rip you off.

 

you're allowed your own opinion, just don't be an ass about it when they are trying to help

 

Sounds like a case of sour grapes to me. And you use this to justify attacking someone trying to help on these boards when they had nothing to do with you. In my experience with any customer support, if you don't get what you want, call back. All CSRs are not the same.

 

If you have nothing helpful to say regarding the ops problems, you should zip it

Everyone has issues with whatever companies they deal with or else you will never hear about on these forums and yet you criticize someone who comes here to help? Stop being a child

 

I'll say what I wish until someone of authority tells me I shouldnt. I dont like the fact that stupid "Community" people come here and cherry pick a few anwsers in hopes of netting postive PR they dont deserve.

And you dont get to tell me to feel otherwise.

 

Yes, well returning to the original poster and his issue, my suggestion is to have Dell cross ship you a replacement hard drive. A modern hard drive with that many bad sectors is a drive going bad. I'm sure Dell will swap that out for you without any trouble.

 

Whoa! dudes, calm down, the dell guy was just trying to help; any singular company cannot be perfect in everyway, as a previous poster stated, its difficult to please everyone they attempt to, though.

Anyway, yes i am currently doing a cross ship; but my main concern is what program can i use to accurately scan for the good/bad sectors; i have HDtune, but have yet to use it; I will be recieving the HDD tomorrow, so i'll see how that ends up (hopefully its as silent as this one, this one purrs, you cant even tell this thing is on...)

 

You can use the Windows built in chkdsk utility.

 

Tuneup Utilities 2008

 

well i recieved the new harddrive and on it was labeled "refurbished", so my initial reaction is "Aww crap..."
Well i popped it in, installed XP; its actually more silent than the last one, it runs slightly warmer though; Also, speedfan found it had 46 offline sectors, which i consider great as opposed to the 1086 that the other one racked up in three days.

Also i put some OCZ Freeze on both the GPU and CPU; it says it has not cure time, but i dont really see a noticable different in temp, if anything, it runs a little warmer...

*edit*
Ugh, WTH, seriously seriously; i partitioned the drive into two parts, 37GB and 195GB; i am currently formatting the 195GB in windows, and as i do it, i check speedfan and the offline sectors continually increase; WHAT? Okay, think theres something wrong with the stats speedfan is giving me?