Voided Warranty

[Jaxom120]

I had a curious question go through my head today. Many times I have seen on technical products (computers for example) a sticker that says not to open or the warranty is void, now the question is: If the items is returned it is normally opened up by a preffesional to see whats wrong and the warranty is not voided, but is the warranty still voided if you open it up at home while having a diploma for the subject?

 

For example I have an ICT certificate and i've seen quit a few pcs come with that sticker, but I still have to open the pc to perform upgrades, is the warranty still voided because I opened it at home even while having the certificate or not?

[jaydo1]

Yes, because any upgrades can compromise the system (best to build your own) thus meaning your new more potentially expensive parts cannot be replaced and nor can any other due to the fact that your upgrades may have been the reason to damage your pc in the first place.

 

Honestly if you have a degree you might as well build your pc as warranty is limited to the company who made your pc's engineers, it's cheaper and much more stable in my experiences similar to the comparison of a MAC and a standard pc parts and performance vs price, a standard pc for the same spec as a MAC is cheaper because it lacks the MAC os (worse in my experience, mind you windows ain't much better linux is better but alas there is not much support for gaming) you could build a standard worktop pc built for gaming to a very high spec for as little as £800, this is much cheaper than paying for a pre-made pc for which they charge almost £50 for connecting your cpu to your motherboard, basically putting a chip in to a socket, and you could easily do this, my brother who has little experience with pc's was able to build a high spec gaming pc with some internet guides and some elbow grease and unlike his pre-made old pc it does not crash regularly in fact its never crashed or frozen bar power cuts.

 

But back to your question unless its say for example an Acer pc and your warranty is with them or a company which provides warranty for pc's bought from Comet and such, you must be a registered engineer with said company and bring it in for diagnostics to open it.

 

In short your degree is not enough, upgraded pc never have full warranty your better buying parts with warranty, Btw if there is no warranty stickers open it put your upgrades in if something buggers up replace the stock parts and use the warranty.

 

Sources: Experience.

[Ghogiel]

A company can only 'guarantee' a product, if work is done properly to a company code of practice, with the right parts, by the right people, and only as long as it can verify no one else has tampered with it. Also for fear of getting sued and insurance purposes, ie using non manufacturer recommended brakes on a car could be quite costly or just uninsurable.

[Nintii]

A company can only 'guarantee' a product, if work is done properly to a company code of practice, with the right parts, by the right people, and only as long as it can verify no one else has tampered with it. Also for fear of getting sued and insurance purposes, ie using non manufacturer recommended brakes on a car could be quite costly or just uninsurable.

 

Ghogiel has hit the nail on the head ... that's the truth of it ... my company used to deal with power tools ... and it didn't matter how experienced you were in repairs, unless the "rip-off's" and by that I mean the brand company from or through whom you purchased the product from "repaired" the product, the warranty and or guarantee became null and void.

We would all like to avoid the ridiculous costs that accompany any repair, but that's how business operates.

If they don't get you on the swings they'll get you on the rounds.

That's what keeps the wheel turning in many a company.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Nintii

[bben46]

It's going to vary from company to company what they actually allow you to get away with. I am a long time electronic tech. (since 1964) My basic rule of thumb is don't open it unless you are willing to put up with having any warranty claim denied. On the other hand, I have opened things to see if it was something I could fix myself, then sent it in and had the warranty honored with no questions asked.

 

As far as having any kind of certification, usually not even relevant if they chose to refuse the warranty.

BTW, I have worked with EEs that I wouldn't trust with a soldering iron. They may know theory and design better than me, but EE school doesn't teach much practical application or troubleshooting.

 

As for building your own computers - actually it's just assembly, not much tech ability required. What's the fun in being a tech if you don't roll your own. :tongue:

[Vagrant0]

For example I have an ICT certificate and i've seen quit a few pcs come with that sticker, but I still have to open the pc to perform upgrades, is the warranty still voided because I opened it at home even while having the certificate or not?

A PC with a sticker like that would be, to me, a sign of a bad computer or manufacturer. While the average consumer is an idiot and probably has no business even trying to look at the internals of a computer, most hardware is not that fragile and you have to pretty much do something else stupid to cause a problem. With the exception of Apple computers.

 

Apple is an exception not just because many people using them have little understanding about what a computer is and just want to be able to get their Facebook... But also because almost every single piece of hardware and software is locked down and is heavily restricted by the company. Part of what makes Apple more successful than Microsoft is that they have what is essentially a 100% consumer culture that is entirely dependent on Apple to fix any problem that might come up. It doesn't matter if it's a hardware failure, a virus, user error, or just someone wanting their computer to be faster... The answer is always the same because there really isn't any alternative other than taking it in to be looked at by a certified technician employed by Apple.

 

For PCs you see a similar situation, but usually only in the case of situations where hardware is actually not working. In the case of broken motherboard, processor, or harddrive, the computer HAS to be shipped away to a certified repair place due entirely to the pre-loaded software (which is now always on a read-only recovery partition). Since the operating system and most of that software is locked to that specific hardware, any change to that hardware renders the OS and post of the base software worthless.

 

 

Meaning that the issue really isn't that they don't want people poking around under the hood... Just that usually there is relatively little that the average person can accomplish by doing so, even if they were sure enough in their belief of what was wrong to do something risky.