Hitachi HDD warranty

**leezer3** · July 5th, 2005, 04:16 AM

Hi all,
Have just picked up an 'untested' Hitachi HDD from E-Bay. Quite predictably, it was DOA

However, manufacture date on this disk is Oct 03, and as it is a Travelstar, this puts it within the warranty period.
Things just get worse though- Even though the seller stated no bent pins both in the description, and in a mail I sent him, I have found two bent pins (Relatively minorly, will still go into the 2.5==> 3.5 adaptor I used to test) at the end, next to the jumper. Any ideas whether Hitachi are likely to reject warranty because of these?
Final point, can someone please point me in the direction of a UK site that will sell me the packing that Hitachi want for warranty service (New anti-static bag, the one he used was over 6 yrs old!!! and foam padded cardboard box)

Oh, finally, is it worth pursuing him through E-Bay for crap packing (6yr old antistatic bag & bubble wrap) and mis-description? This is the item:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...tem=5212421104

Thanks

-Leezer-

**confus-ed** · July 5th, 2005, 04:53 AM

Personally I just don't use ebay unless I can pick it up, or pay after delivery & those happen as often as you find rocking horse pooh !

& I rate your chances of recompense as none, but moan anyway

& worse of worse, I don't think any manufacturer will honour for obvious physical damage, bent pins being that, but it depends

how well returns look at it & whether they do that before or after sending you a replacement ..

Originally Posted by hitachi returns policy

There should be no visible physical damage to the drive such as:
Foreign Material on drive (Adhesive, oil, dirt, gum etc.)
No writing on drives
Damaged covers
Dents of any kind
Visible scratches
Missing parts (screws, interface cards, components, etc.)
Evidence of tampering (e.g.. broken seals, the Exception is Data Recovery Labels)
Covered breather holes
Bent or broken connector pins
Broken connectors .. yada yada yada !!!

So if you want to try & send it back, having put some fairy tale on your rma form you need to follow the instructions here for packlaging, & if you really can't find the things anywhere (my post office has 'em !) try PC world who definately sell it all, but I'd have thought any 'office' servicing type place would have the right stuff.

ray of light: if its only bent or broken pins stopping it, a bit of nifty soldering can soon sort that out, close work ('solder glue' is perfect for this), but not impossible by a long ways..

**leezer3** · July 5th, 2005, 07:57 AM

It's not that bent (I hope

)
I only actually found this after a good look for possible reasons why it wasn't recognised- You actually have to look up & under the drive to see what you are looking for, becuase it isn't actually visible from the front, and it is very minor. Other than that, the drive is in mint condition.

Sounds like this drive may be for the bin though- Hitachi won't accept the serial on the drive (Drive model is HST548040M9AT00), and while the label is slightly different to that on thier site, all I can get is Invalid Serial

((I'm presuming that the serial is that marked as HDD S/N))
(Edit: Any chance thier tech support might be of any use here?, contacting them now)

Any thoughts before I junk this?

-Leezer-

**leezer3** · July 5th, 2005, 11:42 AM

Even more fun- They tell me it's an OEM drive.
Any ideas on possible fixes etc; Neither desktop or lappy see it full-stop, and we have no power on etc. Dunno if this means that static has got to it or what?
Anyway, if something might get this to work, I'm willing to have a fiddle, but not hopeful at this stage.
Also, any idea where this might have come from (They won't tell me), might give some ideas as to whether can RMA it to them?

-Leezer-

**confus-ed** · July 5th, 2005, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by leezer3

Even more fun- They tell me it's an OEM drive...

Unless the ebay'er happened to send you the original receipt with the resellers details I guess you are s.o.l. on rma'ing it .

Re-ebay it

!

**slgrieb** · July 5th, 2005, 07:21 PM

Can you say "Why do I want to paint a bullseye on my chest?" There is a reason stuff on EBay is really cheap.

**dfritz** · July 5th, 2005, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by confus-ed

Re-ebay it

!

Shame on you Ed

**confus-ed** · July 6th, 2005, 02:59 AM

Originally Posted by dfritz

Shame on you Ed

Well what did you expect me to come up with ?

.. oh hang on .. confus-ed idea forming ! ... Ah I have it .. Advert should go like so:-

For offer :- one 'doorstop' class Hitachi HDD previously described as 'untested' & now correctly identified as DOA & I bet you (insert the price a working one would cost) that you can't get it going ...

now

my :butt: ..

**leezer3** · July 6th, 2005, 06:13 AM

I am actually considering re-ebaying it :P
(Small print- Powers up in test machine, but not recognised; Caveat empetor!)
At least with a little pin twiddling, I have the drive powering up now. Seen by the Hitachi stuff, but nowt else. Most of the problem here seems to be the pins, so mebbe a careful bit of work may do summat?

-Leezer-