Asa Jay's weblog

My HP ze2315us notebook computer recently developed a problem and it’s going to be a pain to get fixed.  The display has developed a single-pixel wide vertical line about two inches in from the left edge of the screen.  It’s enough to be annoying, but not enough for me to let it loose at the moment.

At first, I tried to find anyplace in town that might service the computer while I waited.  I figured a qualified service center could get a new display on order, then have me in, replace it and we’d be good.  The computer is still under warranty and as it turns out, there are -no- HP authorized service centers that can do warranty work.  What?!  I turns out I have to box up and ship my notebook to some other place for warranty work.  I’m really not a big fan of such practices, especially when I’m fully capable of replacing the display on my own.  To make matter worse, they have this nice disclaimer that you have to sign prior to them working on it.

In short, HP has this disclaimer that tells the consumer, that’s me, the make a thorough backup of all files on my hard drive.  That being a good idea anyway, you read on and find out why.  HP will erase, reformat and install “test software” on your computer, for testing, prior to shipping it back to you.  What that heck, over?  I’m not to keen on that at the moment.  Not to mention how long I would be without the computer as well.

So now I’m stuck.  A new display is darn near $500 all by itself, and I don’t know if that comes with new rubber bumpers to cover the screws, or new screws, or what.  I won’t be replacing the display on my own which is too bad.  I have however, determined that I can easily remove the hard drive.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  I think it best to simply take out the hard drive (four screws) and ship the notebook without it.  If HP really needs a hard drive to test the operation of the display, then they can install one, test and then remove the hard drive.  I think it’s silly for me to send my own back when I now perfectly well the hard drive works and it’s just the display that needs fixing.  But then again, I’m a bit miffed that I can’t just take it to a local HP authorized repair shop and have it fixed under warranty.

Mind you, this isn’t a reflection on the quality of HP products; the notebook I have was a demo unit that sat on the shelf, used and abused by passerby for who knows how long.  The notebook operates great; I was able to install Linux and everything works.  For some reason and I think it’s because of me tweaking the case once when I picked it up, the display lost a vertical line.  For now I’m living with it, but I know soon I’ll have to give it up and send it in.  I just hope it comes back in one piece, fixed and no worse for its time in a service center.

Asa Jay

This entry was posted on Monday, May 22nd, 2006 at 15:38 and is filed under Computers, General, Hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.