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I'm going with option #3. Intel sold me a warranted part without these terms. Now they're trying to alter an existing sale after the fact because they need to fix a defect under that warranty. I will do as I please with my property and they can talk to my attorneys.


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I think parent is saying that Asus (and everyone else) will try to enforce illegal terms WRT to unlocking voiding your warranty. From what I understand, this is very much the same with car companies trying to tell you that you void your warranty by not getting all service done at their shops (or failing to get timely service on systems unrelated to the covered part failure.)

Hi Bryan, thanks for the talk. I think we are saying the same thing just from a different point of view.

Your approach is very laudable and I have in fact been fanboying it for a while. I wish you the best of luck and profits for your company. I sure hope this approach is more sustainable than my gut feeling told me after viewing your talk.

One question, if I may: How sure are you that AMD won't sue you at some point over this? Your ought to be in their best interest but that has rarely stopped legal departments in the past.

Where you see an "this is an awesome opportunity for a company, I'll found one", I see an "would I really want to base my business on something that AMD may at any time decide voids the warranty"?


INTEL DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF ANY KIND INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL INTEL OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER ARISING FROM THE PURCHASE OR USE OF THE PRODUCT, EVEN IF INTEL HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS PROHIBIT THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO CERTAIN CUSTOMERS

https://click.intel.com/terms-of-use


There's precedent that they can't do this. If you buy it intending to piece it out and you can't and this was not explained to you, whoever you bought it from or AMD is liable for damages.

Which ownership rights do the sellers retain now that they didn’t previously? I’m not familiar with any ToS that permits a company to repossess your PC or parts of it.

If you’re talking about manufacturers making their devices more difficult to repair or voiding warranties based on minor modifications, that doesn’t mean you can’t do what you want with the item. It just means you can’t force the company to fix or replace it free of charge when you do.


"Of course you void your warranty that way."

Wait.. What? Why would that be the case? And .. why would you state that you'd lose your warranty and prepend 'of course'?

As far as I'm aware you do NOT lose your warranty. That would be rather stupid (of course).


Ahh, so the difference is the voiding of the warranty? If so then this seems to explain why it would be more than a naming issue.

> I'm for Newegg. A policy is a policy

That would be reasonable if newegg listed an OS change as a reason for invalidating a warranty. The problem is their policy and public statements say it is completely ok, but privately they say it is not.

Newegg has stated that:

1. only modifications to the hardware invalidate the warranty

2: and newegg has specifically gone on the record to state that installing linux does not invalidate the warranty.


> I expect the warranty was voided

Like what the siblings said, the warranty is not voided.

In some cases (e.g. Lenovo) even if you change the NVMe SSD or RAM (assuming non-soldered-on ones) your warranty is still there excluding the parts you touched.


How legal are these terms? Dell is forced, by law, to offer certain warranties when a user pays for a product.

Is adding extra conditions like "you may lose data if you use your warranty" legal in the US (assuming op is from USA)?


I guess we should read that as "we would like to void your warranty" then :)

Good to hear! I see a lot of people who don't understand the distinction and think that you can lose your entire warranty if you do something wrong, and I (incorrectly, obviously) thought you were talking like that.

The question of proof is an interesting one. I guess that, like most things, it'll come down to who's willing and able to prove their case in court, or convince the other side they can't win.

That's one reason I find this case to be interesting. Companies often try really hard to mislead customers about their rights, which seems to be why so many people think you can void your entire warranty by making a small change. They usually get away with it as long as they cave in when they encounter someone who actually knows their rights. But all those people who don't know get screwed over.


This reminds me of the kerfuffle with Linus Media Group's reluctance to provide written warranties on their products.

Without a clear contract regarding warranties, returns, etc., the buyer is subject to the whims of the seller.

(Modulo any consumer protection laws that weren't waived during sign up.)


>In the before-times, when you bought something, the seller relinquished all claims to it

and also, all responsibility for it. in the more recent "before times" that you're probably talking about, most things you bought came with a warranty, and if you did unapproved things with that product you would void your warranty. that's what the "warranty void if removed" stickers mean. and yes, when you buy consumer PC hardware there's all kinds of stuff that you can't do with it if you want to keep your warranty.

This hasn't really changed, we just expect more continuing service from our products now, so the list of conditions to recieve those ongoing services from the seller has increased. if you want to buy something and receive no warranty, no software updates, no bugfixes, no cloud sync, no remote access, or all the other modern conveniences, then yeah, you get to do whatever the fuck you want with it.


> Any source I could find says that EXPO does void warranty, as it is overclocking. https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/expo (in footnotes section at the end of page)

> Overclocking and/or undervolting AMD processors and memory, including without limitation, altering clock frequencies / multipliers or memory timing / voltage, to operate outside of AMD’s published specifications will void any applicable AMD product warranty, even when enabled via AMD hardware and/or software. This may also void warranties offered by the system manufacturer or retailer. Users assume all risks and liabilities that may arise out of overclocking and/or undervolting AMD processors, including, without limitation, failure of or damage to hardware, reduced system performance and/or data loss, corruption or vulnerability. GD-106

I am not a lawyer! BUT!

AMD voiding the warranty like that sounds extremely illegal.(Depends on your jurisdiction, obviously.) EXPO is very clearly advertised on the box, documentation, and media coverage. It even comes on by default in a number of cases. That would mean the AMD Processor/Memory would have the warranty voided when you first power it on!

The EU specifically has a law covering that any advertised features are covered by a legally mandated 2 year warranty.

https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers...

Curious as to how that works.


I would argue the warranty is not being honored if the manufacturer who sold it to me has made direct choices that prevent it from being honored.

"If your PSU is still under warranty, expect it to be void after doing stuff like this!"

Ugh, I wish people would stop believing and propagating this falsehood (at least in the U.S.). Your right to warranty service is protected by federal law even if you modify a device, by the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.


I see no problem with this. If you overclock and damage you obviously shouldn't be able to claim warranty. The only thing that isn't as black and white is how they know if an overclocked faulty chip is faulty because of the overclock, or something else.

Generally, the agreements you agreed to allow them to do this. Those agreements tend to be held valid (despite what folks want to happen ;p)

If someone you bought it from made implied warranties around this, you may be able to sue them (They often cannot disclaim implied warranties in consumer transactions)

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