Hi all I was wondering if I was to switch the video card in my new dual 867 would i violate the 1 year warranty that came with the computer? Also does adding ram if not by a specialized technician violate it?
In other words... no, it won't void your warranty. Anything that goes in a slot and is meant to be removable (e.g. graphics cards, RAM, PCI cards, hard drives) is your domain. What voids your warranty is when you start messing with the non-removable components, like overclocking your processor for instance.
... many computer makers void your warranty if you even open your box to take a peek inside. I know GateWay is one of those. If you break the seal on the tower then your out of luck. A budy of mine has one... it is a hunk of junk and when he asked me to fix it...his dad flipped out because I planned on opening the box.... the warrenty if long past.. but he still wants to keep if vergin incase he wasnts to pay gateway to fix it some day....
when i got my first compuer at home, it was a gateway. it was a pentium 133, and still is. i was on tech support with them a good bit in the first year or so, and it never voided my warranty to open the case. that must have been added later. i remember being impressed actually, since they let you fool around inside.
i actually still use that computer too. it is a samba server serving a 60GB hard drive that is waiting until I pick up an older G4. runs slackware just fine.