Just wondering if anyone has any tips for my friend...I know some here have had to fight manufacturers on other issues before, and this seems pretty dangerous to me. It also scares me, because I have one of these drives in my computer.
Anyways, on with the story...
My friend was having some intermittent bootup issues. At random, his BIOS would forget one or several of his four IDE drives, all of which worked perfectly fine with his old motherboard. He soon found the cause, however: his Seagate Barracuda ST340014A 40GB hard drive. He had come home, went to turn on his computer, and it shut itself off almost immediately. He opened the case, checked all of the connections, and started it again...and heard a bang and saw fire erupt from the bottom of his Seagate. The computer promptly turned itself off again, fortunately. One of the chips on the bottom of the drive had exploded (pictures to follow, when I get them).
Now, I can understand and accept an issue like this. It happens - the drive was, after all, perfectly fine for the majority of its life before this. What bothers me is that he has phoned and emailed Seagate many times and the answer has been the same: because the drive is physically damaged, his warranty is void. He cannot get them to budge. In the face of potential lawsuits, these tech "support" personnel refuse to help my friend at all, when if his computer had not shut off the first time and he had walked away, he probably wouldn't have much of a house remaining. It also caused minor damage to the drive below it, possibly shortening the life of that drive and also possibly voiding its warranty, if Western Digital's policies are similar. This really disappoints me, because until this incident I was very happy with my Seagate drive, but I do not want my own, personal, hard-drive-shaped paperweight. It isn't even any good for that, because it smells bad.
Would anyone have any suggestions for him, like how to get his drive replaced or a reputable manufacturer with reasonable warranty support for his next purchase? He's not looking for millions, all he wants is a new hard drive. He also probably couldn't afford a lawsuit, whether he would have grounds for one or not. I'll be helping him write a letter, but is there anything else we should do? Thanks in advance.
Anyways, on with the story...
My friend was having some intermittent bootup issues. At random, his BIOS would forget one or several of his four IDE drives, all of which worked perfectly fine with his old motherboard. He soon found the cause, however: his Seagate Barracuda ST340014A 40GB hard drive. He had come home, went to turn on his computer, and it shut itself off almost immediately. He opened the case, checked all of the connections, and started it again...and heard a bang and saw fire erupt from the bottom of his Seagate. The computer promptly turned itself off again, fortunately. One of the chips on the bottom of the drive had exploded (pictures to follow, when I get them).
Now, I can understand and accept an issue like this. It happens - the drive was, after all, perfectly fine for the majority of its life before this. What bothers me is that he has phoned and emailed Seagate many times and the answer has been the same: because the drive is physically damaged, his warranty is void. He cannot get them to budge. In the face of potential lawsuits, these tech "support" personnel refuse to help my friend at all, when if his computer had not shut off the first time and he had walked away, he probably wouldn't have much of a house remaining. It also caused minor damage to the drive below it, possibly shortening the life of that drive and also possibly voiding its warranty, if Western Digital's policies are similar. This really disappoints me, because until this incident I was very happy with my Seagate drive, but I do not want my own, personal, hard-drive-shaped paperweight. It isn't even any good for that, because it smells bad.
Would anyone have any suggestions for him, like how to get his drive replaced or a reputable manufacturer with reasonable warranty support for his next purchase? He's not looking for millions, all he wants is a new hard drive. He also probably couldn't afford a lawsuit, whether he would have grounds for one or not. I'll be helping him write a letter, but is there anything else we should do? Thanks in advance.
). What's interesting is that 
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