Haven't yet dealt directly with Toshiba service

[wynand32]

Haven't yet dealt directly with Toshiba service on my M200. I'm wondering: what are the chances that they'll send me a new hard drive to replace mine that's currently failing? That is, as opposed to requiring me to send the unit in for shipping...

I'm assuming that horrible whine (that happens in "upright" portrait mode) is bearings failing in the drive. Doesn't seem to be the fan (doesn't happen when the machine's cool)... Plus, I've had a great deal of "extra" drive activity and pauses, which might be the drive compensating for errors. Bummer, but at least I'm getting some warning...

[WNewquay]

wynand32,

I think the odds are pretty good as long as you can convince them that the problem is the drive.

In Device Manager - look for the Hard Drive and if the device name starts with HTS this is probably an OEM Hitachi Drive

If it is a Hitachi Drive you can download the Drive Fitness Test here:
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

This requires that you have a floppy disk
http://www.hitachigst.com/downloads/dft32_v373_b25.exe

or there is a bootable CD ISO image
http://www.hitachigst.com/downloads/dft373_25.iso
that you can use if you have a CD burner.

I have used this in the past with other vendors (not had to do this with my Toshiba).

Tou can run Drive Fitness Test and it will report all kinds of errors if they are there to be found. You can share the error report with the service technician and this should speed up the process.

[wynand32]

That's encouraging, I hope you're right. Unfortunately, I have the Toshiba drive, and can't find a single utility on the Toshiba site. I get your point, though: without some sort of "official" report that the drive is failing, I'll likely have to wait until it fails completely.

Perhaps if I made a call and described the symptoms, they'll work with me... Hmmmm... Let's see how good Toshiba's support is, shall we?

[Jonathan Schmidt]

I had problems with my hard drive in the past. They wouldn't ship the drive directly to me even though they confirmed that the drive was going bad due to harsh scratching noises it was making. They said that it had to be repaired by an authorized repair representative. Hopefully, you'll have better luck than I did.

[wynand32]

Nope, exact same experience here. I have to either ship it in (intolerable!) or take it to a local authorized dealer (fortunatley, there are plenty of them here in Chicagoland). I'm hoping to coordinate with a local firm and try to squeeze this (incredibly simple) repair into a single day. I know I could personally do it (as I'm sure could most of us) in about 15 minutes.

Grrrrrrr... Although, I suppose in all fairness, I shouldn't really expect Toshiba to just "trust" me. I could be a complete hack (heck, maybe I am!) and butcher the thing, then try to get them to fix what I've broken. Still, it's a pain...

[Randyspawn]

Would it even matter if you were a hack? Right now, they're just shipping the whole computer back and forth rather than just a hard drive. I think customer service at Toshiba just doesn't have a clue. They could easily just take a credit card number as collateral if they don't trust you, and if other companies can do this, I don't see any reason why they can't.

But sadly, I've tried very hard to get them to exchange parts. No go. I think you should harrass them a bit though, maybe after a bunch of calls they'll finally get their act together.

[wmadan]

When the hard drive in my m200 fried, I took it in to an authorized Toshiba service center here in L.A. I had it back by 5:00pm the same day.

[tfootball33]

I have had my own problems dealing with rude and unknowledgable service reps in the warranty department, so I know how frustrating this can be. However I was looking through the warranty aggrement and it said

quote:Toshiba may service Customer-replaceable parts, by
shipment of new or remanufactured replacement parts to
Customer on an exchange basis. Upon receipt by the
Customer of the replacement part, the original part
becomes the property of Toshiba, and shall be returned by
Customer to Toshiba at Toshiba’s expense. Customer
shall pay Toshiba the retail value of the replacement part
if Toshiba does not receive the original part within ten
(10) days after Customer’s receipt of the replacement
part.

In my opinion this should mean there's no reason why they can't send you a new hard drive as long as you send back the old one. Maybe you can use this against them and convince Toshiba to send you the hd.
Anyways, I hope this helps.