HD died after only 31 days! :( should I be worried?

I bought a ZD8215US on May 15th. I absolutely love the notebook, the only downside I've found is, its a tad heavy - and gets very hot. The addition of an Antec laptop cooler helped ALOT with the heat.

Now, on the 16th of June - the laptop refused to boot........ I would see the HP logo - but nothing passed that. After pressing the ESC key, I got the post data screen and saw the S.M.A.R.T. warning DRIVE FAILURE IMMINENT - BACK UP DATA AND REPLACE HARD DISK DRIVE IMMEDIATELY.

I called the place I bought it from (fry's electronics) to see if they had any more in stock - they did.... BUT: they only exchange notebooks for 15 days after purchase! they might have done it within 30 days the guy at the exchange counter explained - but they wouldn't do jack-sheet after 31 days! Ok, talk to service.

Well, service explained all they could do is send the entire laptop back to HP to get it repaired under warranty, which would take at least 3 weeks -- no loaner, no compasion, no nothing!!!

Well, then of course I called directly to HP. Explained to them the situation, spoke with someone from India who could barely speak english - trying to tech support me on this dead HD issue by making sure the battery was charged, the power cord was plugged in correctly IN THE WALL!, tapping the func10 (yes, func10) key repeatedly... then while she turned the page on the HD tech support 101 booklet to read the next set of instructions, I started the HD self test, which said it would take 49 mins to complete... explaining this to her she initially wanted to stay on the phone with me for that length of time - then about 3 minutes in decided she would call me back. After 10 mins the failure code emerged (07 I think it was), I called BACK to tech, explained everything AGAIN to this indian tech support person, then was asked the very important questions like What OS am I running, XP/2000/MCE/Home/Pro, again to check the AC outlet was properly connected and how I would like HP to contact me in the future!!! Anyway: Finally get HIM to transfer me to someone in warranty control - where the guy said he would send me a new 80gb HD, which I should get by the 21st of June, took some info from me for financial security, and explained to me to be sure to return the defective drive within 30 days or else OK--Not a problem. (BTW: I tried to talk them into letting me upgrade the HD for additional $$$, that didn't fly )

Now: I'm just a little worried about the HD dying so quickly. In all the years I've been messing with computers - I've only have 3 hd's (including this one) die, EVER. And NEVER so quickly after purchase.

My notebook runs EXTREMELY warm - borderline HOT... and by hot I mean almost too hot to touch. I'm not 100% sure all the 3 fans on the bottom actually work - the center one never seems to turn on? but I need to actually verify this.

My main question is: Should I be worried about this??? Could I have simply gotten a lemon HD? or could this have been heat related. Using the Antec laptop cooler under the laptop makes a HUGE and significant difference in temperature on the wrist-rest area where the majority of the heat accumulates--Seriously. I highly recommend one. But still, I'm sitting here with an notebook I can not use until mid-week.

I know heat is a factor in P4 laptops, but do you guys think the heat might have killed this HD?

 

Heat is a very big factor for harddrives. Above a certain temperature the HD will simply clear, but I imagine a few tell all errors would have occured first. 30 days is very fast.

I'd say it's a fluke, but keep an eye on it.

 

Don't unplug your cooler, that's my advice. Check the vents for dust...keep the air flow good. That's as much as you can do with this 2.8ghz frier.
Increasing RAM will help by reducing the need of Windows to access the HDD (virtual memory). Many people disable virtual memory and buy 2gb of RAM.

 

You can monitor your CPU and HD temps with MobileMeter. If the HD is getting much above 50C in light use I'd be concerned. Most likely you just had a bad HD. These things happen.

2GB of RAM and shutting down virtual memory does have a noticible effect on HD temps.

 

Hi Toaster,
Laptops can get warm. If you feel that the heat was excessive was your battery life ok? Was there a hot spot on the keyboard or touchpad where the hd was? The heat (if excessive) could have been an early indicator of a problem with the drive.

As for this being a repetative problem, not likely. If it kills another drive in short order then it its time to send the unit back since the problem at that point would most likely be related to the power supply from the motherboard to the drive or a problem with the hd controller.

 

The new 80gb HD arrived today (wow.. superfast, I only ordered it Friday & today is Monday), I'm backing up what I can from the old HD before installing the new one.

I also purchased a 1gb dimm for the unit... assuming at the end of the day I would have 1.5gb ram, silly me. There are 2 sodimm slots, both filled with useless 256mb sticks! I should go buy another 1gb stick - but I'll wait and see how this works out first (unless anyone wants to buy a couple of 256mb pc4200 sticks of ram )

Hp did offer me 2 kinds of extended warranties... a 2 year parts & labor for $99 or a 2 year P&L with accidental drop & damage coverage for $249

They told me I could buy either of those before the factory 1yr runs out.

 

Well, I just finished installing the new HD, re-installed XP from the provided CD's from HP. Ran through the restore disc and installed all the drivers, etc... left our all the HP enhancement games and junk.

A little disapointed the new HD is a Hitachi Travelstar, and the old (dead) one was a Seagate. I'm a seagate fan -- Oh well.

The CD did install the bluetooth drivers, which is good since I plan on getting the internal bluetooth adapter (if possible) at some point for $40.... only to have it internal.

Wa pretty painless, only took about 90 minutes or so to install everything and get it back to where it was before.

To the right of the touchpad, where the HD is, is still warm, but no where near as hot as it was before - so maybe that older hd was just dying? I guess we'll see.

 

oh, I did notice I could not upgrade the ATI video drivers... I downloaded the newest ones from ATI site, and when I ran the installer it said it couldn't upgrade the drivers, contact my laptop manufacture.

 

Just thought I'd update this....
I decided to bite the bullet and get another 1gb stick of ram, so now its running 2gb of ddr2 (YAY!) and the new Hitachi HD. I have to say, the laptop runs CONSIDERABLY cooler than before - even without the antec cooler underneath.

I have NOT changed any memory (or virtual memory) settings, so I guess that Seagate HD was just a lemon, and was running hot because it was failing? Eitherway: The laptop runs MUCH MUCH cooler now, faster too because of the ram, and a clean install this time with no trial-ware cr@pola.

Should I get the extended warranty?