Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[DJ_Aura]

Just yesterday, my computer was acting up due to an update, so I decided to turn it off to inspect what the problem is.  Upon opening up the computer, I noticed that all the surrounding copper around the motherboard, as well as the copper on the cover over the motherboard was discolored, and smelled burnt.  I went to open the computer up to clean it off with some compressed air, and lo and behold, ALL the copper looked and smelled the same way.  To top it off, the hinge managed to crack the covering on the ventilation, so that a piece is now sticking out and won't let me close the laptop properly.

Now, I was planning on swapping out the hard drive in order to make the data recovery easier on myself and wallet (Read that BB wanted $250 for recovery), and was told by a Geek Squad representative that as long as the computer had a hard drive in it, that they would be able to repair it.  Simply put, I was going to buy a new, fresh hard drive and give it along with the laptop for repairs.

Was the information I got from the representative accurate?  Am I allowed to do just that?

[AaronE]

How old is this DV6? Some of them had faulty GPUs and if you're paying for the repair aren't really worth repairing.

If the HDD is functional a backup at the store level is $99 to a provided external HDD or $170 for the backup and including an external 500 GB HDD.

[xl]

Ouch... would your warranty be void by opening the case?

[DJ_Aura]

It's from 2010. And I was asking if I can just put in a brand new one for repair purposes.

[AaronE]

is the repair something that you're going to have done as a COD repair or is the machine under black tie protection?

[DJ_Aura]

Under black tie. And it shouldn't void the warranty by opening it, considering that's the only way to clean it.

[AaronE]

Opening it and breaking the hinge is going to be an issue though.

A can of compressed air is usually good enough to clean out the heatsink.

[DJ_Aura]

Well...the hinge has been off for quite some time. No clue how/why it decided to break off right when I tried yo clean out everything.

And I tried compressed air for the heatsink, but there wasn't enough dust that came out of it, so I had to try and get it as clean as possible so it wouldn't die out like my previous computer.

[AaronE]

Ok. To answer your question yes you can put a new HDD in the computer but if the unit gets deemed uneconomical to repair or parts are not available and it is authorized for replacement that HDD becomes Best Buy's property.

Ultimately the service center will determine coverage. They typically don't like when people go opening up their computers because most consumers do more harm than good. Self repair can void the service plan.

[DJ_Aura]

Well shoot...that's going to be a problem. And good to know on the HDD thing.