open pc affect warrenty

Tivoli

well anyone know for sure if opening a pc case affects the warrenty

my landlady asked me to look at her pc,

it hung after about 30 min of light usage, frozen with no error, reboted hung in 2 mins, opened case graphics card had no fan and a painfully hot heatsink.

there were 2 fans at the back, one sucking and 1 blowing, so i guessed the hot air was just circulating in and out of the case, i turned the fan around (both sucking out of the case now) and left it playing unreal tournament all night, it was still running in the morning,(i was loosing by about 850 frags:( )

gave it back it worked for 2 months and started freezing again

its a time pc, time are gone now in dublin, but they are gonna bring it to a shop up north now to get it fixed


anyway....
does opening the case affect the warrenty on tims computers?

joePC

As far as I know if you remove any cards e.g. Graphics/PCI then your warenty may be void.

How do they Know?

Certain companys spray a liquid over the cards, dont ask me what it is, but if this seal is broken they will know, by using a UV light or something.......

I dont think TIME do this so you should be OK.

Thanks joePC.

RicardoSmith

I'd say turning it on voids the warranty on a Time PC. I'd say its ok. Ring Time and ask no? BEFORE driving up there.

Taking it all the way to the north seems a little extreme. It would be cheaper just to drop it into a shop in Dublin. But driving all the way to the north to save what 50-60 at most.

Unless of course they live near the North. I didn't think of that.

Caliden

i think its only if you mess with the PSU the warrenty may be void but not by taking the case off no

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Caliden
i think its only if you mess with the PSU the warrenty may be void but not by taking the case off no

Depends. Some companies put tags so they can see if the case has been opened.

gmt

Caliden is correct. You would void the warranty if you open a part that doesn't need service (power supply in the computer, open the casing of your monitor, take apart your mp3 player...). You can certainly open your computer case to clean out the dust or upgrade components like a dvd-burner or a graphics card.

Your seller might argue that the upgrades you performed cause the malfunction. All you got to do the is remove them and restore the original configuration (to be on the safe side). Lots of companies tried this to not have to honour the warranty periods, some even tried stickers on the case that say "warranty void if seal broken". They all lost in court.

Hope this will put your worries to peace.

RicardoSmith

If the machine is as it was purchased, and theres no tag or bios function to detect that the case has been opened. Then they are not going to know.