Help! Does taking a hard drive out of a HP computer void its warranty?!

[Deleted member 4644]

Can I open it w/o voiding the extended Warranty?!

It's a laptop...

Stupid broken computer...

 

[quackerww]

Should not, who makes it? Is there a void waranty sticker?

 

[phisrow]

Drives are generally considered to be user servicable parts, unless buried behind nonserviceable stuff(ibook, Powerbook, etc.)

 

[1sk8er]

Actually I think it would void the warranty. I went and looked up the warranty information on laptops and it says :

"This Limited Warranty does not apply to expendable parts. This Limited Warranty does not extend to any product from which the serial number has been removed or that has been damaged or rendered defective (a) as a result of accident, misuse, abuse, or other external causes; (b) by operation outside the usage parameters stated in the user documentation that shipped with the product; (c) by the use of parts not manufactured or sold by HP; or (d) by modification or service by anyone other than (i) HP, (ii) an HP authorized service provider, or (iii) your own installation of end-user replaceable HP or HP approved parts if available for your product in the servicing country."

It would actually depend on whether they considered the hard drive to be an end-user replaceable part. I know when I worked tech support for HP for desktops (a long time ago though and things may have considerably changed) we were told to inform customers that if anything was added (video card, another HDD, another optical drive, etc.) or changed the warranty would be voided if not done by a HP service center. Of course we are talking 6 - 7 years ago though. I would definately speak to HP first.

 

[Viditor]

Opening the case yourself voids the warranty...that's why they have a sticker on it.

 

[shoRunner]

they will never know nor enforce it.

 

[shoRunner]

*double post*

 

[1sk8er]

Actually they are quick to enforce it if known. We got many many calls back in the day when I worked there of customers that would send their computers in for repair and forget to take out the extra RAM they installed or whatever only to get their computer shipped right back to them untouched and now out of warranty.

 

[corkyg]

I have an H-P lappy, and the HDD is user replaceable. There is a door on the bottom with two captive screws. Release it and the drive, mounted in a caddy can be simply lifted out. There is absolutely no voiding of the warranty, as the whole procedure is in the user's manual.

What model is your H-P lappy?

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

I'm pretty sure corkyg is right. The ram and hdd are user serviceable parts on laptops, at least for HP laptops.

I replaced my HDD and added a stick of ram in my HP laptop, and when I got a bad BIOS flash, I sent it in to HP and they fixed it under warranty.

 

[1sk8er]

I stand corrected. Thanks to the guys that have personally dealt with this particular situation for jumping in. It's great to have a place like this to find out the information you may need.