Upgrades and Warranties FYI

[brendu]

So I was at the apple store last night and was talking to the manager for awhile.. Turns out I was dead wrong with what I thought regarding applecare and do it yourself upgrades. I was under the impressions (thanks to the advice of some members here) that if I upgrade the hard drive or ram myself, those components will no longer be under warranty but the rest of the machine would still be covered. He said pretty much nope thats not true. If I do any upgrades myself and something goes wrong that they could very well say my warranty is no longer valid.

If something does go wrong (logic board mainly) im just putting the factory hard drive and ram back in and hoping they cant tell.

Keep this in mind anyone who plans on upgrading things themselves and has applecare.

 

[miles01110]

I was under the impressions (thanks to the advice of some members here) that if I upgrade the hard drive or ram myself, those components will no longer be under warranty but the rest of the machine would still be covered.

If I do any upgrades myself and something goes wrong that they could very well say my warranty is no longer valid.

How are these mutually exclusive? If you screw up during the upgrade it's considered user damage and not covered...no surprises there.

 

[brendu]

How are these mutually exclusive? If you screw up during the upgrade it's considered user damage and not covered...no surprises there.

no no.. im saying I install a hard drive and ram... everything works fine for 6 months.. all the sudden the superdrive / trackpad / logicboard / speakers etc. fails... apple can tell me its my fault and they will not replace it.

im not upset, I just want others to understand the risks before upgrading themselves.

 

[miles01110]

no no.. im saying I install a hard drive and ram... everything works fine for 6 months.. all the sudden the superdrive / trackpad / logicboard / speakers etc. fails... apple can tell me its my fault and they will not replace it.

Oh, yeah that's always been the case. If that happens you have to argue, but it's pretty much a losing battle. That's why you keep the stock RAM and hard drive as you mentioned.

 

[GGJstudios]

Apple Warranty: Installing Memory, Expansion Cards, User Installable Parts Does Not Void Warranty

 

[brendu]

that is a great link to have.. im bookmarking it and questioning the apple store manager next time im there. thanks

 

[miles01110]

that is a great link to have.. im bookmarking it and questioning the apple store manager next time im there. thanks

Questioning him about what? It says the same thing he already told you...

However, if in the course of adding an upgrade or expansion product to your computer, you damage your Apple computer (either through the installation of, or incompatibility of the upgrade or expansion product), Apple's warranty will not cover the cost of repair, or future related repairs.

 

[brendu]

Questioning him about what? It says the same thing he already told you...

no. again he told me no matter what they could tell me it voids my warranty, even if it worked fine for months after the upgrade and I clearly did not cause the problem. me installing ram would not cause screen or superdrive issues. however they could say it voids my warranty according to the applestore manager, this is conflicting with what apples site says. according to the site my warranty is only void if the error is a direct result of me f****** something up while I am installing it or installing incompatible parts.

do you see what im saying?

 

[SDub90]

It depends on the computer. Some systems have user serviceable parts and on some those same parts are not.

the black and white macbooks you can change the hard drive and the ram without voiding the warranty, but upgrading the ram or HDD on the new MBP voids the warranty (same goes for the mini).

It goes by what apple considers to be user serviceable. Basically, if it requires somewhat serious disassembling, it voids the warranty, but if they have easy access slots (such as the RAM or HDD), then it's fair game.


I always keep the parts being replaced and just swap them again whenever I bring my macbook or mini to the apple store. As long as I don't screw up, problem avoided for the most part.

At this point, I think the only thing that is user serviceable is the Mac Pro. Everything else, if you open it, the warranty is void.

 

[nigameash]

If theres an issue later on with your machine and apple can prove that its due to the defective RAM or HD, only then will the applecare be void. Not unless they can prove it I had a conversation at length with the engineer doing the repairs at an apple store