On Fri, 8 Oct 2010, Tony Duell wrote:
  IIRC, 1701 is a hard disk problem. 
That is correct
  I assume the drive spindle is not accesible outside
the HDA. If it is,
 try giving it a tweak (but don;t blame me if it rips the heads off ;-)) 
Most of the Hardcards did not have an accessible spindle.  But, the
"stiction" of those could often be broken loose by shaking it in a
circular arc.
Which model Compaq luggable is this?