HP Repairs - To Send In, Or Not To Send In?

Well, some of you may have seen my thread about my crazy CPU and GPU temps in my laptop while playing Call of Duty 4. I've talked to HP loads about it, and they're now suggesting I send in the laptop to get repaired.

A few things I have on my mind:

1) Does it really only take 7-9 business days?

2) I've heard that laptops come back really battered - is that true?

3) What if they don't get the 106 C temps I get while playing Call of Duty 4? Then what will happen?

That's all I could think of for now, but I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some things.

 

There are reports of horror stories about HP keeping notebooks for months, sending them back not repaired or worse damaged further. Others had had good experiences. I am fortunately in the last category.
I sent mine in for a bad display connector and they replaced the display and the motherboard. I mailed it via the FedEx box they sent me on a Monday. I put it in the mail on a Tuesday and got it back on the Friday of the same week with it working just fine and no further damage.

That said, others have had the opposite so it seems like a crap shoot with most probably getting acceptable service but too many people getting bad service.

 

They say 7-9 business days because if it takes longer than expected they are covered. You will probably end up getting your laptop back in 5 business days or so. They always say a longer amount than they expect so if it takes longer people don't complain.

As far as the horror stories with HP, you'll have these with any company. I've sent in my laptop 4 different times, and I've never had any problems with it. Anyways, what is the point of the warranty if you are never going to use it, it's there for a reason. So don't worry about that, and send the laptop in.

 

You may have a problem with them not doing anything at all if they get it and they just power it up and let it sit to see if it gets overheated. They most likely will just check to see that everything is functioning and send it back saying there was not an issue. What you may have to do is when you talk to the agent who is setting up the serivce is make sure they put in the service notes that the notebook gets overheated and crashes when running multiple applications.

 

Also, should I remove my hard drives from the notebook? I'm not sure if that would void the warranty though...but I really rather not give them access to my information...

And what's a good hard drive cleaner / whatever?

 

1) Does it really only take 7-9 business days?that time starts from the time it gets to service center also it is possible that it could take longer up to several months this is rare

2) I've heard that laptops come back really battered - is that true?again this is rare but I will say this in my exp most damages from service
the box is damaged as well and the carier policy is to not accept damaged packages from hp repair centers so if you get it back and box is damaged it is best not to sign with carrier
also ins for shipment is not done through hp if you wish to get extra coverage you must contact carrier for ins for package

3) What if they don't get the 106 C temps I get while playing Call of Duty 4? Then what will happen?going into this issue if you do take out HDD from unit the service center may only power on without hdd and then they have no os or applications to run on unit so if they cannot get the heat issue to reoccur they may send back without repair

ragarding removing hdd when you set up service with hp you can ask the agent you speak with and verify with him but it will not void if you remove from most of the notebooks because this is considered a customer replaceble part

 

HP says I can take out the secondary hard drive, but I should leave the primary HD in.

I guess it's backup time...

By the way, anyone have a guide to removing a secondary hard drive from a laptop?

O and I need a good hard drive cleaner too, for my primary HD.

 

I've had terrible experiences with HP repair - my nearly new laptop was mutilated (still fighting with them after 2.5 months of stonewalling and denial). So if you haven't already, inquire as to what HP believes is wrong and Exactly what they intend to do. Then I would post that here for review by some experienced HP owners. If it syncs, I would then write it on the repair form that goes with your unit. I honestly don't think the repair techs read any of your case file, except what you write on that form (you have about 5 lines). You don't want some HP tech doing component-swapout troubleshooting just to get it out the door. No, they won't play Call of Duty to duplicate your experience.

It would be nice if HP repair was competent enough to just do a diagnostic, find out immediately what's wrong - if anything - and fix it, and all is right with the world. But HP farms out the repairs and many techies don't give a S*** and don't really understand all the HP configurations. I know they don't read the tech manuals.

AND be sure to take photos of your laptop with the FedEx label next to it, so you will have evidence when it comes back banged up. Good luck!

 

they had my first one DV9030ea that long they ended up buying it back off me,,,, nearly a year after i bought if.... the in 11 mnth... they had in the workshop for 9 of those months.... i and a service engineer i work on HP and Fujitsu laptops and i know if it took me and or my company that long to fix something, i would be either sacked or sent back to school to train over again.... workshop poor,,, customer service excellent, IMHO

 

I would send in any device to the manufacturer for repairs, even if they end up causing more problems when it gets sent back to you. The reason is that this entitles you to 90 days service warranty when you get it back. So, if something goes wrong, you can get additional support even if the original warranty expires after a service repair.

 

Really? That's pretty awesome. I just sent my laptop back yesterday and the 1yr warranty will probably end in about 2 weeks. It's good to know that they're going to extend that for another 3 months, it'll give me time to save up for an extended warranty.

Also, are they replacing dv9500t's with 9700's? or other 9500t's?

 

They only extend the warranty on the parts that were fixed or replaced, they don't extend the warranty on the entire product. Also, you have to purchase the extended warranty through HP before the 1 year standard warranty is over.

 

Ah, my bad. Thanks for the clarification, Envision.

 

I had some recent issues with HP that's still on going. I was originally told over the phone by technical support that repairs would take 7-9 business days from the day they recieve the notebook which I was comfortable with. Turns out they can't repair the issue and need to replace the entire motherboard which happens to be out of stock and on back order until August.

Check out my thread for more details.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3539916#post3539916

My only advice to you is to send it in if you really have to but expect the worse. Also make sure you have a backup computer/notebook to use while it's sent in for repairs or you'll go crazy.

 

Any dates that they give are always just an estimate and are computer generated.

 

1) My GPU replacement order took like 9 days
2) Sometimes this does happen, take good pics before you send it in (didn't happen to me though, guess i got lucky )
3) They will probably replace it anyway

 

><" shippped laptop on Monday, arrived at HP on July 1st, expected delivery date of July 14...

And I was hoping I could get it back by the 7th ><"