NP8662 Hard Drive Failure

I'm angry and a bit confused. I received my NP8662 a week ago and this morning the hard drive failed. And I mean failed hard. Like the BIOS froze unless I removed the HDD and it made a horrible clicking/grinding noise.

I've been monitoring temps since I started using it, and though the CPU/GPU temps were wonderful, I experienced the annoying HDD heat problems. After a weeks of use and monitoring, ranging from minor web browsing to long/intense gaming, to overnight downloading, the lowest temperature I managed to record was 50C and the highest 61C. 60+C was only occasionally reached.

So I want to know, did I just get a bad HDD or are those temps enough to kill it.
If the heat did kill it, should I worry about it happening to the new HDD Sager is mailing me?

 

I had similar temps on the 500 gb 7200 rpm, and nothings wrong. I emailed xoticpc, 60 is considered to be withen bounds of operating temps. I got a notebook cooler anyways.

 

50-51c is perfect for your config. 60-61c while defraging or while running a virus scan is also normal if you are not using a cooler. it also depends on your ambient suroundings with room temperatures.
above 60c for long periods of time will shorten the life of your hard drive but not within a week.
quite a lot of us also have a slight clicking sound every few seconds and weve been told this is normal.

have you run a error scan using HD Tune HERE

 

It was not a slight clicking by any means. It was loud and it sounded like something was grinding and it lasted as long as I kept the laptop on. And as I said, while the hard drive is in the laptop, the computer freezes at the BIOS loading screen where it shows the Sager logo. I don't have a spare hdd to load windows on so there is no way I can perform any tests on the malfunctioning hdd.

 

sounds like it is knakered then. not nice i know with a new machine but it sounds like the only option is to get a rma to return either the whole laptop or just the hard drive.

 

Sounds to me like the hard drive was bad from the start.

 

Ok, thanks. I called Sager this morning. The guy on the line said I could either send the bad drive to them and then they send me a new one or I could give them my credit card number to hold so that they could send me a new one before I have to send the bad one in. I just moved to college this morning (which makes this failed hdd a real pain) so I chose to have them send it first. He said the system was down and to just give him my credit card number, my shipping address, and my serial number and he would input them later. Is there any way to check the status of this and when it will ship?

 

just went to look if they had an order status page but their website is down so cant check.
as long as they have it in stock i would say give it 3-5 days or maybe a week. this is just a guess though. also with the website/system still down lets hope that it doesnt prolong the order for you.

 

Sorry to hear about your hdd. You are definitely in bad luck because you're the first I hear that experiences hdd failure like that. I would like to know what brand was the hdd?

 

Yeah, talk about bad luck. My hdd and Sager both crash the day I move out

It was a Seagate 7200.3 320GB.

 

Ask for a 7200.4 version. 7200.3 are last gen.

 

im running the 320gb 7200 western digital black and have had no probs.

and i dont think you are the first. im sure ive read on here about a couple of other failures with seagate.

 

I actually persistently asked for a WD black when it was being built. They said no guarantees but they'd try. I ended up with the seagate 7200.3

I guess I'll be more persistent this time...

 

Though I got it through XoticPC and Sager is the one replacing the HDD...

 

how come your not dealing directly with XoticPC
send a pm to justin@xoticpc and see if he can pursuade sager to send a western digital.

 

oh, i thought i had to deal with Sager since the warranty certificate is from Sager. Darn. I'll pm justin and see what happens.
Thanks a lot for helping me out!

 

no worrys mate. hope it works out for you.

 

The HDD on my Sager np9262 failed about a month ago (Hitachi drive). Sager promptly sent me a Western Digital HDD replacement. So maybe that is what they are stocking now and that will be your replacement drive too.

 

I agree with this. Those temps are fine for a notebook drive, and it wouldn't be a within a week. It sort of sounds like someone dropped your notebook - did anyone touch/use your notebook and might have done this? Those are badly crashed heads you're hearing.

As for dealing with Sager, just call them up and give them your number and they usually get back to your promptly (even if their systems go down every now and then). (I got mine from Xotic too and actually had better luck dealing with Sager directly, accents and all - they're very competent, assuming you don't confuse them ).

 

Just so those of you who commented here know:
Sager sent me a new hdd, unfortunately exactly the same kind

It still idles around 61C
Climbs well above that when listening to music.

I'm sick of these heat issues.

 

glad you received your new HD but thata a bummer its still running hot.
where do you live and whats your ambient room temperature.
im normally idleing at 50-51c but its quite hot here in the uk today (makes a change) so its idleing at 54c wile just forum brousing.
if i play a game it will go down a couple of degrees as the fan will kick in fast.

email justin tomorrow and explain sager sent the same HD and its still hot.see what he suggests.

 

Check if foil (if any) is blocking vents.

 

Do you have the Intel Matrix Drivers installed?

 

Wich intel maxtrix drivers has to be installed? my HDD is running quite hot aswell max temp i had was like 64° today in class after playing like 15-20mins of nfs shift (where like 20 people have also their laptop on and it is quite hot in classroom). I tried some drivers but all the version i have downloaded said it aint compatibel with my laptop (vista 64bit os on it atm)

 

Have you tried Sea Tools and check for errors?

That temp is a little high, mine runs anywhere from50c-60c . You have done about the best you can do by contacting Seger and XoticPC and letting them know there is still an issue...

The matrix drivers do help...You can find them on XoticPC site under support...

 

Just install this, then this.

 

Agreed on both counts. My 320GB WD has always been excellent. I want a larger drive, but the Seagate has too many mixed reviews.

 

I installed the inf program and what do i need to do next?
I have the IATA89ENU.EXE but still got an error: the computer is not compatibel etcetera.

 

I don't know what's going on. I even installed it, just to test it out, and everything went through without issue.

 

I have been researching the whole noise / heat issues with the Seagate HD. and supposedly some random clicking sounds is normal. Also temps 50c-60c is normal. I was told that the noise and heat issues are not necessarily sign of a bad HD and the only sure sign is an error or failure.

I have been told to install the Matrix and have seen slight to nominal success so I guess I will wait for the drive to fail and I lose everything to get a replacement.

 

Sounds like your machine is not in AHCI mode. Google for a guide to enabling AHCI mode after windows install, the option in the M860/M570 BIOS is badly misnamed "Installed OS: Vista"

 

when I enalbe AHCI mode I get a blue screen for 1 sec then restarts.

 

Did you enable the driver in the registry?

If not Google it like theriko said...

 

finally found it and installed the newest matrix drivers, what does windows sucks for sata drivers.

 

HHHMMMmmmm I did a backup using Windows backup and restore and got this and many other errors in the log...

Windows Backup skipped C:\ because is it on corrupted drive C:\

Now should I be worried?