Dead Laptop Screen: Removing the Hard Drive before repairs?

There's a bit of story behind this, if you don't mind reading.

On Christmas 2008 I received my HP dv6000 series laptop, the laptop that I used with no problems until about a month ago. It came with Vista and was upgraded to 7 about a year ago.

One day when pressing the power button the the computer hung at the HP screen (which from what I've been able to determine is the POST?) for about 2 solid minutes, when it usually passes it up in a negligible amount of time. After passing that up, the screen began flashing red, blue,green, and I think yellow with about 2 seconds in between each color. It really threw me off guard since the colors were BRIGHT and filled the entire screen, but I thought it was something I could re-approach at a later date (I think I had an assignment due then). After restarting it, it hung at the POST for 2 minutes but eventually pushed through so I could use my computer normally.

After that, my laptop tended to hang at the POST on every startup, though sometimes it would act normally. Also, sometimes when I put it in Sleep mode the screen wouldn't turn on again when I tried to resume working, though it was norwhere near as frequent as the POST problem. During this time nothing was out of the ordinary involving the screen's picture, except for one time when after the POST the screen became distorted like a static channel on TV, and the computer froze.

About a day or two before my computer quit on me, the screen would sometimes stay blank instead of clicking on to show the HP logo, in which case I had to restart it manually. Finally, on this past Tuesday, the screen refused to turn on altogether. I sat with it for a good hour trying to get it on (since I had typed a paper the previous night xD), but with no luck. I could still hear the Windows 7 start up jingle, and was even able to login to my username, but without a screen I couldn't do much with that "progress".

Since I have a 3 year warranty, I eventually got through the power discharge test (which I had done before calling my warranty in) with the representative, which failed, and was notified I would be getting a box to ship off the laptop for repairs.

Said box should be arriving sometime next week, but I am a bit wary. The reprsentative told me to back-up my data, which I later realized wouldn't even be possible without a screen. At this very moment I'm trying an external monitor, but in the case that doesn't work I was considering for a few days just removing my hard drive.

So I'm basically asking for a bit of advice on the matter. Since I don't yet have my own external hard drive (coincidentally, I think someone is getting me one for Christmas), I have not ever gotten the chance to backup my data outside of files that are already on the family computer, and it's stuff that I'm really dedicated to keeping hold of. I looked up a bit on removing hard drives from computers, and the possibilities of ESD, which has me a bit anxious on doing it. I've only opened up Playstation 2's and this desktop before, so I'm not sure how to compensate for any increased sensitivity in laptop hardware. Hopefully taking it out is this easy.

Unless there's the chance that I'm overanalyzing the situation? I never had my laptop serviced before so I'm also anxious as what the results could be in terms of data loss if I leave the drive in there. From reading around the forums a bit, I think the issue is probably with the Motherbord, as my laptop has overheated a number of times when I occassionally render videos. Even if that is the case, what I've heard of sending laptops in for work hasn't always been positive, and the fact that my brother's laptop needed service a few years back and has been out of commission ever since as me on edge (he had his hard drive taken out, iirc).

Thanks for any help in advance, and sorry about the long-winded explanation.

 

i dealt with a few dv6000 series a while ago.. i *think* they have sata laptops... i would recommend removing the hdd, plugging it into your desktop at a secondary drive, and either making an image of the drive(preferable since you dont seem to have viruses or anything) or if you dont have the space for that, just backing up your files to the desktop. Its not that difficult. Just make sure all the electricity is out of the laptop when you remove it (remove the battery and ac adapter, press the power button to disperse any electricity) and do the same for the desktop before you plug it in. Just don't go dragging your feet along the carpet and you should be okay. Do it at a nice table on a floor (not carpet) and you shouldnt have a problem.
Let me know if you need more details.
PS - the dv6000 series has a history of bad power and graphics issues.. that was the problem with the ones i looked at too
*EQL*

 

Hi

Laptops are DESIGNED for hard drives to be removed easily... just make sure the laptop is powered down. There should be an access cover on the bottom of the laptop, held by 1-4 screws, and it's usually about the size of a laptop hard drive (2.5" x ~4"). The hard drive is then usually secured by a screw or two, and then unplugs from the SATA/power port on the computer.

The only issue I see you facing is returning the laptop without a hard drive... that may prevent warranty work. However, I almost guarantee you that the laptop will be returned with the hard drive re-imaged from HP (restored to factory default, with all of your data gone). I highly suggest you get something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...antec_usb_sata_adapter-_-12-232-002-_-Product

You can use that to connect the hard drive to another computer to transfer the data (borrow a friend's hard drive space until your laptop is repaired, or use a friend's computer to burn the data onto DVDs).

 

i agree with msmsc,
you won't be able to RMA the laptop without a HDD, and they will likely reformat it (although not always, but i wouldn't take the risk).
Best bet is to backup everything (pref as an image) before sending it in.
*EQL*

 

No, a complete image backup would NOT be the best, as any hardware replaced in the laptop will likely invalidate the current Windows install. A normal data backup would be the best.

 

*shrugs* I disagree, but to each their own. I prefer an image as you can choose to only restore the data if you wish, should HP decide to upgrade the hardware. However, if they give you the exact same piece an image backup would save the hassle of reinstalling everything.
*EQL*

 

Image backups aren't as easy as drag'n'drop file transfers, and unless the OP is familiar with doing them, not a choice I'd recommend to someone who doesn't have room for error with their data.

 

anyway, i hope the external monitor worked for you, if not, plug the hdd into a desktop and (at a minimum) drag and drop your files over onto another hdd.
I also like to write out a list of favorite programs that i have installed, as i can never seem to remember the name when i go looking for it!! (if your ext monitor works.. much harder to do if it didnt)
Good luck
*EQL*

 

Screen shots of every page of the installed programs listed under Control Panel/Uninstall a Program is what I've used in the past.:major

EDIT: MrMister, in the case you want to do that, ALT+PrintScreen takes a snapshot of the active window, and CTRL+V pastes into your favorite image editing program (MS Paint works fine), then save as PNG/JPG/whatever floats your boat.

 

Fortunately I was able to get an external monitor working, though conicidentally the first screen I tried chose that time to quit on me.

And yea, I totally forgot about the warranty bit, so I guess I didn't have much of a choice. Hopefully tomorrow I can grab a bridged USB cable and transfer what I need to our desktop. Thanks, guys.:major