Will this void my warranty?

[jbg232]

OK, I've searched the forums and can't seem to find a straight answer. I want to replace my optical drive with an internal drive (using a data doubler or MCE optibay).

Now, if I break the parts during installation that obviously voids the warranty (I highly doubt this will happen though). It also likely voids the warranty if I send it in and there is no documentation that I did this and they open it up and see a nice little data doubler in there.

However, my main question is: If I have an apple certified repair center do the upgrade (or send it in to OWC or MCE) is the apple warranty immediately voided?

 

[S.B.G]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Hard to say but I would venture to say yes. Usually the only thing you can change without voiding a warranty is the RAM.

Perhaps others can clarify better.

 

[jesterscourt]

Optibay HDDs are a no-no from the warranty side, at least everytime I've mentioned such to a Genius. I don't think it's accurate to state you can only change your RAM, on a MBP, you should be able to switch out the regular HDD just fine, it's not all that intricate of a process. And with the optibay, unless you completely bork the install, I don't know why you couldn't hook back up the optical drive if you needed to take it in for AppleCare.

 

[blackbinary]

Your allowed to change any products you have access to, without voiding the warranty.

Some people say your voiding it with Optibay, others say your not.
It's a moot point as long as you put the superdrive back temporarily when sending it in for repair. It should be impossible or very difficult to tell you've done anything if your careful both times.

 

[jbg232]

I'm not saying that I can't install it on my own and then uninstall it if I have a problem that I need to bring the computer in for, but legally I would like to keep the warranty legit and I'm wondering if having an authorized repair center do the upgrade would keep the warranty legal and active.

 

[alust2013]

I'm not saying that I can't install it on my own and then uninstall it if I have a problem that I need to bring the computer in for, but legally I would like to keep the warranty legit and I'm wondering if having an authorized repair center do the upgrade would keep the warranty legal and active.

If you can get an authorized place to do it (probably not going to be easy to do, if they are even allowed to under their certification), then it should be legit with the warranty.

 

[dmccloud]

Apple specifically lists the HDD and RAM as the only user-replaceable parts. So based on that, I'd lean towards installing an optibay as violating the terms of the warranty.

 

[quasinormal]

In my opinion, the only factor as to whether your warranty will be voided by a certain modification is the attitude of the genius you are seeking help from who is highly likely to be guided, inadvertently or otherwise, by your attitude.

If he is having a bad day (which I highly doubt when you consider Steve himself probably sets the selection criteria and methodology) or he thinks you are playing him, they can just say the modification indirectly caused the fault.

Be totally up front about what you have done, and don't bother getting it back to spec. Consider the genius. I still feel terrible about being so self absorbed about my dead firewire ports on a Powerbook, that i forgot it was Christmas Eve and he was from a colder climate in the northern hemisphere. I could have cracked a few really distasteful jokes that pertained to the season.

 

[ThirtyThr33]

Your allowed to change any products you have access to, without voiding the warranty.

Some people say your voiding it with Optibay, others say your not.
It's a moot point as long as you put the superdrive back temporarily when sending it in for repair. It should be impossible or very difficult to tell you've done anything if your careful both times.

Are you kidding dude? Apple definitely does not say that. If you modded or upgraded your MBP you're openly manipulating it in a way it wasn't meant by Apple to work. And at the end of the day they have the right to say wether your warranty is void or not.

As for the OP, I wouldn't pay an Apple Authorized business to replace it. They probably wouldn't do any better of a job than you would. I have a feeling Apple would definitely try and void your warranty if they found out your swapping out and replacing drives but as long as you clean up your trail if you ever send it in it shouldn't be a problem. Just don't write anything like "Jason wuz here" underneath your HDD lol

 

[craighton]

Unless Apple says that you can do it or offers it in a Apple store then it will probably void your warranty.

 

[bizzle]

Just take it out if you ever take the machine in for service. Problem solved!!!