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Message |
Werner R Schilling
Guest
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 Posted:
Sat Nov 05, 2005 9:23 pm Post subject:
Warranty on replacements under warranty? |
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Hello Group:
The Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 is already famous for its design flaws.
Mine is a wonderful machine -- as long as it works. What I don't like
is its heavy "consumption" of hard disks. Mine got a new one after
little less than twelve months of use. That lasted less than eight
months. The following lasted less than five months. Now I am working
already six months with the fourth HDD on this machine and I expect it
to fail anytime.
The computer was bought in the US in March 2003 together with an
extension of the warranty for three years. All the replacements were
done under warranty by a local Toshiba dealer in Costa Rica (for this
matter no complaints so far about the service). Last time they also
changed the motherboard because they were guessing that the board
caused the HDD failures. But still the drive is permanently working at
the upper end of the rated operation temperature of 55° Celsius, often
much hotter up to 64° Celsius. Especially during the frequent backups
of the drive (guess why ...) it gets much too hot.
The extended warranty for the whole laptop ends in March next year.
Now somebody told me that the replaced hard disks also come with a
warranty (of twelve months?). My question: is that true? Let's assume
that I get the fifth HDD under warranty in February next year. Would
Toshiba really have to replace that disk in case it fails before
twelve months of use? And what's about the next if they also fail too
soon? Would this really run in to a "chain" of replacements under
warranty?
I'm not familiar with the legal system in the US and the consumer
rights. Could somebody give me a clue?
Werner |
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BigJIm
Guest
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| Posted:
Sat Nov 05, 2005 11:22 pm Post subject:
Re: Warranty on replacements under warranty? |
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it depends some come with 90 days some a 1 year and some more.
"Werner R Schilling" <lobo@spamfence.net> wrote in message
news:3t41qvFqujl7U1@individual.net...
| Quote: | Hello Group:
The Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 is already famous for its design flaws.
Mine is a wonderful machine -- as long as it works. What I don't like
is its heavy "consumption" of hard disks. Mine got a new one after
little less than twelve months of use. That lasted less than eight
months. The following lasted less than five months. Now I am working
already six months with the fourth HDD on this machine and I expect it
to fail anytime.
The computer was bought in the US in March 2003 together with an
extension of the warranty for three years. All the replacements were
done under warranty by a local Toshiba dealer in Costa Rica (for this
matter no complaints so far about the service). Last time they also
changed the motherboard because they were guessing that the board
caused the HDD failures. But still the drive is permanently working at
the upper end of the rated operation temperature of 55° Celsius, often
much hotter up to 64° Celsius. Especially during the frequent backups
of the drive (guess why ...) it gets much too hot.
The extended warranty for the whole laptop ends in March next year.
Now somebody told me that the replaced hard disks also come with a
warranty (of twelve months?). My question: is that true? Let's assume
that I get the fifth HDD under warranty in February next year. Would
Toshiba really have to replace that disk in case it fails before
twelve months of use? And what's about the next if they also fail too
soon? Would this really run in to a "chain" of replacements under
warranty?
I'm not familiar with the legal system in the US and the consumer
rights. Could somebody give me a clue?
Werner
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William P.N. Smith
Guest
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| Posted:
Sat Nov 05, 2005 11:37 pm Post subject:
Re: Warranty on replacements under warranty? |
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"Werner R Schilling" <lobo@spamfence.net> wrote:
| Quote: | The computer was bought in the US in March 2003 together with an
extension of the warranty for three years. All the replacements were
done under warranty by a local Toshiba dealer in Costa Rica
|
In general (and only your warranty paperwork knows for sure),
replacement parts are only warrantied for the life of the original
system warranty (or sometimes 90 days, whichever comes last). Check
with your dealer for details.
If, however, you buy a drive with a 5-year warranty, you could keep
swapping that one out for the next 5 years, though you'll have to ship
it back for RMA service, so you might want to buy two... 8*)
Only you can decide if trying to keep a 3-year-old laptop with known
reliability problems running is worthwhile. [Are you sure you aren't
particularly rough on it? Do you treat it like a carton of eggs or a
textbook?] |
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Werner R Schilling
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:32 am Post subject:
Re: Warranty on replacements under warranty? |
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"William P.N. Smith" <news05@compusmiths.com> wrote:
| Quote: | In general (and only your warranty paperwork knows for sure),
replacement parts are only warrantied for the life of the original
system warranty (or sometimes 90 days, whichever comes last). Check
with your dealer for details.
|
As this is a known problem with the Satellite Pro 6100 I hoped for
some specific experience from members of this group.
| Quote: | If, however, you buy a drive with a 5-year warranty, you could keep
swapping that one out for the next 5 years, though you'll have to
ship
it back for RMA service, so you might want to buy two... 8*)
|
This is interesting. Where can I buy a HDD with a 5-year-warranty? And
if I would continue to return those disks before only one year,
wouldn't they ask where and how I use them? And if I tell them about
the Satellite Pro 6100, wouldn't that constitute a maltreatment of
that HDD and therefore void the warranty?
| Quote: | Only you can decide if trying to keep a 3-year-old laptop with known
reliability problems running is worthwhile.
|
At the time when I bought it, it was a top-performer, and it still is.
No other problems yet.
| Quote: | [Are you sure you aren't
particularly rough on it? Do you treat it like a carton of eggs or
a
textbook?]
|
I treat it more gentle than a carton of eggs. 98 percent of the time
it is used as a desktop replacement and it is not moved around. I use
it with an external keyboard and an external pointing device, so it is
barely touched. But HDD Thermometer and HDD Tune, both show me a
temperature of 56° Celsius at the disk while I write this and no other
programs are running (ambient temp is 25°, comp on dock, no
obstructions for the airflow). When the computer is totally idle, the
temperature may go down to 53°, never lower. As comparison: I have a
second HDD already that I run in the second bay for backup. On that
disk the temperature is always - under any load! - 12 to 15° lower.
The same result when I swap the disks and run the spare disk in place
of the original one. Then the spare disk gets too hot. The compartment
for the original disk is obviously put too close to hot parts and is
not well ventilated.
Werner |
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Paul Rubin
Guest
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William P.N. Smith
Guest
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William P.N. Smith
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:21 am Post subject:
Re: Warranty on replacements under warranty? |
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"Werner R Schilling" <lobo@spamfence.net> wrote:
[I wrote]
| Quote: | If, however, you buy a drive with a 5-year warranty, you could keep
swapping that one out for the next 5 years, though you'll have to
ship
it back for RMA service, so you might want to buy two... 8*)
This is interesting. Where can I buy a HDD with a 5-year-warranty? And
if I would continue to return those disks before only one year,
wouldn't they ask where and how I use them? And if I tell them about
the Satellite Pro 6100, wouldn't that constitute a maltreatment of
that HDD and therefore void the warranty?
|
They don't require you to tell them about how and where you use it,
and their warranty doesn't limit it to "not for use in laptops that
might break it".
| Quote: | HDD Thermometer and HDD Tune, both show me a
temperature of 56° Celsius at the disk while I write this and no other
programs are running (ambient temp is 25°, comp on dock, no
obstructions for the airflow).
|
56 is a bit high, I'd not want to see anything over 50C for long
periods of use.
If you've cleaned out the air vents, that's about all you can do
unless you want to start adding vents or external fans, which gets
ugly fast. |
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William P.N. Smith
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:23 am Post subject:
Re: Warranty on replacements under warranty? |
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"Werner R Schilling" <lobo@spamfence.net> wrote:
| Quote: | The Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 is already famous for its design flaws.
|
I assume you have been going through Toshiba hard drives, trying a
different vendor might be worthwhile.
Look at (for instance) IBM/Hitachi, Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor. |
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Barry Watzman
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:35 am Post subject:
Re: Warranty on replacements under warranty? |
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Toshiba sets the policy. Replacement drives might or might not have a
warranty which would extend beyond the original laptop warranty, but if
provided by Toshiba under warranty this is at their discretion.
Some drives have 5-year warranties, for example I have a Seagate 100GB
5400 rpm laptop drive with a 5-year warranty IF BOUGHT AT RETAIL.
***BUT***, if the drive is overheated, this could be considered abuse,
and the warranty could be voided. Note that the SMART system may record
the drive temperature.
If this is a systemic problem with this model, the only real solution is
to demand a new laptop of a different model, a demand which will
probably be rejected (laughed at, even). In that case, the only
remaining remedy would be a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of all
owners of that model. This has happened in the past, both to Toshiba
and others, so it may be worth looking into, but you need a class-action
attorney.
Werner R Schilling wrote:
| Quote: | Hello Group:
The Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 is already famous for its design flaws.
Mine is a wonderful machine -- as long as it works. What I don't like
is its heavy "consumption" of hard disks. Mine got a new one after
little less than twelve months of use. That lasted less than eight
months. The following lasted less than five months. Now I am working
already six months with the fourth HDD on this machine and I expect it
to fail anytime.
The computer was bought in the US in March 2003 together with an
extension of the warranty for three years. All the replacements were
done under warranty by a local Toshiba dealer in Costa Rica (for this
matter no complaints so far about the service). Last time they also
changed the motherboard because they were guessing that the board
caused the HDD failures. But still the drive is permanently working at
the upper end of the rated operation temperature of 55° Celsius, often
much hotter up to 64° Celsius. Especially during the frequent backups
of the drive (guess why ...) it gets much too hot.
The extended warranty for the whole laptop ends in March next year.
Now somebody told me that the replaced hard disks also come with a
warranty (of twelve months?). My question: is that true? Let's assume
that I get the fifth HDD under warranty in February next year. Would
Toshiba really have to replace that disk in case it fails before
twelve months of use? And what's about the next if they also fail too
soon? Would this really run in to a "chain" of replacements under
warranty?
I'm not familiar with the legal system in the US and the consumer
rights. Could somebody give me a clue?
Werner
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Werner R Schilling
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Nov 06, 2005 10:42 pm Post subject:
Re: Warranty on replacements under warranty? |
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"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote:
| Quote: | ***BUT***, if the drive is overheated, this could be considered
abuse, and the warranty could be voided. Note that the SMART system
may record the drive temperature.
|
Good point! As well as a S.M.A.R.T.-HDD records its operating hours
(read out with HD Tune) it *could* as well record the max. temp and -
may be - the max. G it suffered before it failed . This would
partially explain the generous warranty of Seagate. "Sorry, we
detected that your disk was overheated to x°C and that it was exposed
to a shock of x G. Warranty void."
In my case I may go the opposite way: put a small and cheap HDD with
just the OS installed in the place of the original disk so that the
computer boots, and then really run it from the disk that is sitting
in the cool and comfortable second bay ;-) That would be less load (=
less heat) for the main disk, and if it still fails it would be cheap
to replace.
| Quote: | In that case, the only remaining remedy would be a class-action
lawsuit filed on behalf of all owners of that model.
|
There were already class-action suits going that referred to the same
problem among others. Sitting in Central America and being a foreigner
I was not sure if and how I could join. I may try to get in contact
with that people.
Werner |
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Barry Watzman
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:26 am Post subject:
Re: Warranty on replacements under warranty? |
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You don't have to join a class action lawsuit, if you don't explcitly
"opt out", and there is a settlement, you are automatically eligible for
the benefits of the settlement. [However, this might apply only to
people in the United States]. The biggest issue is simply finding out
about it. Do a google search on "Toshiba class action", but as there
have been a number of these already, you will get a lot of spurious hits
(maybe include your model number in the search).
Werner R Schilling wrote:
| Quote: |
"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote:
***BUT***, if the drive is overheated, this could be considered
abuse, and the warranty could be voided. Note that the SMART system
may record the drive temperature.
Good point! As well as a S.M.A.R.T.-HDD records its operating hours
(read out with HD Tune) it *could* as well record the max. temp and -
may be - the max. G it suffered before it failed . This would
partially explain the generous warranty of Seagate. "Sorry, we
detected that your disk was overheated to x°C and that it was exposed
to a shock of x G. Warranty void."
In my case I may go the opposite way: put a small and cheap HDD with
just the OS installed in the place of the original disk so that the
computer boots, and then really run it from the disk that is sitting
in the cool and comfortable second bay ;-) That would be less load (=
less heat) for the main disk, and if it still fails it would be cheap to
replace.
In that case, the only remaining remedy would be a class-action
lawsuit filed on behalf of all owners of that model.
There were already class-action suits going that referred to the same
problem among others. Sitting in Central America and being a foreigner
I was not sure if and how I could join. I may try to get in contact
with that people.
Werner
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