HP Wipes Hard Drive To Fix Broken Keyboard

Yeah, when I worked for a small computer shop a decade ago it was standard practice to wipe the harddrive (but with phonecall consent) on certain things that really probably did not need to be wiped.

If there was a single unrecoverable bad sector (which happened a lot in the <1GB drive era) it was a recommended wipe (and new harddrive too).

Kinda extreme.
 
Am I the only one that has a tech come to me to fix my problems or just send me the parts for me to do it myself?

Screw mail in warrenty, I don't want to wait 4 weeks for repairs.
 
UnderLoK said:
Sending in your laptop without a drive in it will just give them reason to blame the failure on your screwing around with it or create an even bigger headache.
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You are wrong. I have sent 10 to 20 PC's per year to HP for warranty repair for the last 5 years. I have never sent one in with the hard drive unless the hard drive was the problem. I have also never gotten any grief over not sending in the drive.

Believe it or not, not all big companies our out to screw you. Many want to leave their customers with good impressions and therefore actually try to be nice and helpful.
 
arentol said:
You are wrong. I have sent 10 to 20 PC's per year to HP for warranty repair for the last 5 years. I have never sent one in with the hard drive unless the hard drive was the problem. I have also never gotten any grief over not sending in the drive.

Believe it or not, not all big companies our out to screw you. Many want to leave their customers with good impressions and therefore actually try to be nice and helpful.
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but you have to keep your HDDs away from these nice, helpful companies; otherwise they will wipe them when replacing a keyboard

makes sense
 
Did anyone check to make sure it was the same hard drive that it was sent out with? I'd be worried about employees swapping the drives with a new clean one and using perusing the old one for personal information.
 
SelousSizzle said:
Did anyone check to make sure it was the same hard drive that it was sent out with? I'd be worried about employees swapping the drives with a new clean one and using perusing the old one for personal information.
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Sadly this is true and have seen people do this thinking it is al rite and they wont be caught.
 
If a company I sent my laptop back for repair didn't specify, Id remove the hdd, battery, and ram just to screw with the people for making me wait on the phone for such a long time. Hell, I'd even remove the cpu if that didn't void the warrenty. wiping a hdd is not acceptable, yeah I'd back it up, but it takes a day or two to reinstall the os and get everything tweaked and working the way you want it.
 
What happened to backing stuff up before you send it out? Remove personal data and such... geeze.
 
himmy said:
Um, you think they do not have hard drives there for each model that they can just pop in and boot up with? that's some funny shit that you think that way.

lets remove the manufacturer maybe formatting your hard drive, pretend that is not even an issue.

You are sending a computer with a hard drive that contains PERSONAL DATA via a carrier you are hoping delivers it to the correct place. yes, you are a fucking idiot for leaving your hard drive in there.
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When I shipped out my wife's dv6000z, they asked that I send the power supply as well. You'd think they have those, right? Apparently not. HP covers repairs (not even warranties) on such a plethora of machines that I really can't blame them for not taking the chance that some dipshit misplaced the repair depot's power supply for that model laptop and instead using the one that came in the box with your laptop. Having dealt with HP as a technician sending laptops for warranty repair, I really have never had a problem with them.

What sort of uber personal stuff are you actually storing on your hard drives? Sure, I have a lot of porn stored, but it's all legal stuff, and that's the only thing I'd worry about.
 
If I EVER had to send in a laptop I would DEFINITELY remove the HDD (unless it was the problem of course)

ON that subject does anyone know where to send a Dell that is out of warranty for repair (got a free one, P4, 5! battery's but overheated either the screen/or video card (colored pixels only-no info..think back to arcade machine bootup but stuck at that screen)
 
I had this problem with a laptop I sent in for my niece to HP for a motherboard replace a couple months ago. I asked if I could pull the drive before sending it in and they told me no. I pulled the drive and cloned it to a backup drive and sent it in for repair.

They sent it back and it was a fresh OS install. Thank goodness I cloned the drive, she would have lost everything, including her college work she was in the middle of.
 
This is why I backed my hard drive up before I sent it in for repair. That person should have backed their stuff up before sending it in. Yes is was stupid for HP to wipe the hard drive for a simple keyboard problem, but the customer was just as stupid for not backing the data up from the start. Always leave it to the warranty department to screw something up anyway...
 
Steve said:
What happens when you have a stuck “P” key on you HP laptop? Send it in for warranty work and get a free hard drive wipe while you are at it. Ouch.
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Yep that's their policy alright, same stunt pulled at Fry's (is it really a year and a half ago I voluntarily quit, without volunteering, or being present for the decision...ah happy memories) when we would send them back to HP for warranty repair, come back so new even your tax , housing, car, real estate, information was scrubbed clean off....just in case you know....the physically obvious broken keyboard/busted LCD was I dunno...a software glitch?:confused:
 
arentol said:
You are wrong. I have sent 10 to 20 PC's per year to HP for warranty repair for the last 5 years. I have never sent one in with the hard drive unless the hard drive was the problem. I have also never gotten any grief over not sending in the drive.

Believe it or not, not all big companies our out to screw you. Many want to leave their customers with good impressions and therefore actually try to be nice and helpful.
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Pretty much.

Big thing here is that we have no way to know if the guy had software problems. When I was a notebook tech a few years ago we would have systems that we would reload all of the time because of issues with them. We were shooting for a 1 visit repair. Send in a computer loaded with spyware that you want us to repair and guess what we were going to restore it. Give us one with a password and not give it to us and the same thing would happen.

When we use to send out notebooks to HP for repair under their warranty we always got a piece of paper in the box to fill out with the contact info and issues with the system. On it they would have a warning about backing up your data. I wonder if they still do it?
 
GilmourD said:
Yeah, because everybody's going to remove their hard drive... How are they going to test the repair if there's no hard drive with an OS?

Maybe you should modify your statement to make some actual sense.
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lol ur kidding, right?

when I did laptop repair for a major OEM, we had hard drives for each model series predoaded with the approperiate OS and test software. once loaded the test sofware would detect the options and test accordingly......i seriously doubt things have changed much
 
That is a strange policy but the guy really has no one to blame but himself for not backing up. Cannot stress that enough but people just don't seem interested until they loose all of their stuff. Oh well.
 
i feel bad for the guy, but every time i have called hp to send a laptop into HP they have warned me to remove the drive because this could happen.
 
Bigbacon said:
no they really don't because the vendor shouldn't be that stupid. Most people wouldn't even want to think about having to take the machine apart. Yes, I know laptop hard drives are normally very easy to remove but most people would be too afraid to break something.
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This. Not everyone is a fuckin geek.
 
This is standard and nothing to be shocked about. I used to work firedog at circuit city. And we were a warranty center for several brands. HP ALWAYS wipes the hard drive if you send a PC off to service. They want to resolve ALL problems. If they send the laptop back and this doesn't work, or that doesn't work, it cost a lot of money to ship it back and forth.

NO MATTER WHAT THE PROBLEM, they tell you to back up all your data, you send it in, the replace what needs to be replaced, whether it be a keyboard or a motherboard, wipe the hard drive, reload the OS and send it back.
 
On the warranty itself, they said that all information will be erased, i think it is to prevent any viruses from spreading, it will also make any slow machines faster to work with. (slow as in alot of junk/adware crap on it)
 
If you're going to send in a computer for repair, ALWAYS assume it's going to be wiped and backup your data, you'll be happier.

I do tech support for a computer company, not HP, and I always tell my customers to backup any critical data before sending in their computer, just in case. More than once I've seen computers sent in for case issues, and the depot ends up replacing the hard drive too for some reason. Plus who knows what gorilla is going to shake your system while in transport.
 
Since I don't know every mfg's policy, I can't say it's standard policy for any of those. What I do know is that the company doing the service repairs has every right to format the person's hdd.

1) There should be a clause in the warranty that legally allows them to do it
2) You can't fix the P key if the software prevents it from working correctly. I've had many cases where the customer would come in saying that their computer is defective because some of their keys didn't work, but in fact, it was due to malware.
3) They test ALL your hardware when they send it off. They will do hardware scans to make sure your product is in standard working order before sending it back. Standard shipping rates for laptops (as far as I know) is $35 dollars for ground/2nd day UPS.


The person wanted hp to replace her anti virus because her key was on ther computer? WTF? ALL major brands of malware software comes with the key included in the packaging. If the person had lost the key, it's the person's fault.
 
I sent this laptop in to HP for a wireless card problem. I asked them to send me a new card but no deal. I knew they would restore it because I had WinXP on it. I also had some files on the recovery partition and lost them too. After reading the thread I can see why they do it though. Why send back a problem.
 
UnderLoK said:
OMG SOMEONE MIGHT STEAL PIX OF MY DOG!!!!!

Sending in your laptop without a drive in it will just give them reason to blame the failure on your screwing around with it or create an even bigger headache. That is one of the stupidest suggestions I have ever heard, but it shouldn't be a surprise coming from some douchbag that can't even put create coherent sentences. :rolleyes:

Go back to the phone guy, Friday is a busy day on the helpdesk.
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Some people have sensitive information that shouldn't or can't be seen by others. Ex: doctor's laptop- patient info can't just go out to anybody.

Taking out the HDD isn't a stupid suggestion at all. It's very easy to do and even the least mechanically inclined person should be able to do it. It's jus ta matter of unscrewing four screws and taking out the caddy and putting the unit in a safe, dry place. Not hard at all, for anybody I know (age range 16-60-ish).
 
450 said:
It's very easy to do and even the least mechanically inclined person should be able to do it.
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You'd be surprised. Besides the use of a computer keyboard, many, perhaps most people don't know how to use their hands very well... well I know all those people have one good use for them :D
 
//[T.0.P]//;1033448268 said:
You'd be surprised. Besides the use of a computer keyboard, many, perhaps most people don't know how to use their hands very well... well I know all those people have one good use for them :D
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You have a point about that, but remember also, people are DEATHLY AFRAID of their computers. We are only comfortable with them because we've been using and abusing themf or years and know what will, and what won't break a computer. The average do-do doesn't really understand the difference between software/hardware and how its all connected.
 
Yeah, there may be a slightly different reason for not testing the keyboard....

At the end of my tech years, I wouldn't ever touch an unknown customers desktop keyboard without latex gloves... If there is something wrong it, I just say - Oh we've got a nice selection of new (clean) keyboards over here if you are having problems.

Laptops, Lysol is your best friend. Female CEO laptop that smells fishy - It happens more often than you might think.
 
//[T.0.P]//;1033448268 said:
You'd be surprised. Besides the use of a computer keyboard, many, perhaps most people don't know how to use their hands very well... well I know all those people have one good use for them :D
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Actually, you'd be surprised by that, too. I've "dated" girls in my past that couldn't even get that right. Some people are so manually disinclined that if they picked their noses there's a risk of a frontal lobotomy.

When I was a CompSci major, I actually had somebody ask me where the Z key was because he couldn't find it. Scary part is that we were in ASSEMBLY programming class! Not a first level course by any stretch of the imagination. You should know where all the keys are let alone how to type very well by this course.

So, in conclusion, there are a lot of people in this world who amaze me because they've somehow survived tying their shoes because they really are that fucking dumb.
 
Thats weird.

In other light:

I had a few worn keys and a bad mobo/HSF perhaps and a cracked lower half of my M1210's case.(I called dell after I did all the necessary work so it was an expedient process)
Well 2 days later, I had a new keyboard, power button, and mobo/HSF/CPU lower case.
I did all the work myself.
 
450 said:
Taking out the HDD isn't a stupid suggestion at all. It's very easy to do and even the least mechanically inclined person should be able to do it. It's jus ta matter of unscrewing four screws and taking out the caddy and putting the unit in a safe, dry place. Not hard at all, for anybody I know (age range 16-60-ish).
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heh-heheh-heheheheheheh!

Dude you are so wrong about this, I work in a medical rehab building with 300+ females and the bulk of them can't install two batteries in a TV remote without screwing it up.

Sad but true.

Good job security for me though.
 
I am a Psychiatric Registered Nurse and work with people like this on a daily basis. Let me just tell you, there was NO way you were going to get ahead with her. Refusing service is the only thing you can do with paranoid people.
 
niconx said:
That's funny because I once had this crazy lady who kept demanding I reinstall her laptop because the keyboard was intermittently producing incorrect characters or not working at all. After the 3rd install and her paranoid clinical psychosis reaching new heights I had to refuse service. She was sure it was a virus sent to monitor her and report back to someone. :eek:
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I am a Psychiatric Registered Nurse and work with people like this on a daily basis. Let me just tell you, there was NO way you were going to get ahead with her. Refusing service is the only thing you can do with paranoid people.

Forgot to quote original message hence the report. Sorry.
 
They probably didn't wipe the hard drive bit sent in a new (or likely refurb) computer. They likely shipped the wrong one by mistake, unless you know for sure that it is the exact same laptop.
 
gdonovan said:
heh-heheh-heheheheheheh!

Dude you are so wrong about this, I work in a medical rehab building with 300+ females and the bulk of them can't install two batteries in a TV remote without screwing it up.

Sad but true.

Good job security for me though.
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I guess my particular circle of people I know is just that good. :p ;)

I remember this one girl in my Algebra 2/Trigonometry class in my 9th grade year who put one of the AAA batteries backwards in her TI-84 calculator and then ended up buying the TI-84 SE the next day. It was really funny when the math teacher came over to her and flipped the battery around and the thing worked perfectly... Fun times...
 
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