I have a notebook that likes to periodically die and I'm trying to
determine my best initial course of action.

When it dies, I can hear the drive begin to spin when I press the power
button, but it stops within a couple of seconds and nothing happens.
I'll leave it for an hour/day and try again and eventually it will start.
The strange thing is that once it's up and running, there are no problems
with it.

My guess it that it's a harddrive issue, but I haven't ruled out RAM (any
other possibilities?).

Anyone know if there is a way to test the drive (while it's up and
running)? I'm not looking for bad boot sectors, as much as I'm looking
for mechanical issues withing the drive. Most of the diagnositic tools
I've seen are stricktly for scanning the drive and don't focus on the
mechanical capabilities.

I'd test the RAM with a new stick, but HP was kind enough to make it
impossible to access w/o taking the notebook apart (there's no access
cover on the bottom).

Any direction or suggestions would be appreciated.

A