Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!ames!sdcsvax!nosc!humu!uhccux!cm450s02
From: cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (Jeff T. Segawa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Commodore loses a customer!
Keywords: stupidity
Message-ID: <1425@uhccux.UUCP>
Date: 11 Jan 88 06:36:36 GMT
References: <517@ra.rice.edu> <6081@oberon.USC.EDU>
Reply-To: cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (Jeff T. Segawa)
Organization: U. of Hawaii, Manoa (Honolulu)
Lines: 42

In article <6081@oberon.USC.EDU> papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes:
>
>Sorry, but opening the case and doing what your friend did is EXACTLY what
>will VOID a warranty, whether Commodore, IBM, Apple or whatever.  He should
>have read the warranty.  That kind of work is supposed to be done at an
>authorized service center or Commodore dealer.
>
This does not seem right to me. It makes sense in the case of the A1000
and A500 which do not have expansion slots inside, but an A2000 DOES
have slots, and there's no way to get at them without opening the case.
And I would hardly have expected the mail order company to install the
cards, since I would imagine that it would be more vulnerable to damage
in transit if sent fully loaded with cards. And opening the case of
a Mac II, Apple //e or GS does not void the warranty. In fact, the 
manual that comes with Apple's expansion cards for the Mac and Apple II's
is geared to guiding the user through the installation and trouble
shooting process. The only exceptions to this rule are the older Macs
and the //c, which either have no expansion slots, or else expose the
user to dangerously high voltages and/or require some technical 
know-how. To date, I've opened my Mac II to install a hard disk
and the video card and it's expansion RAM chips, and so far as I've
been able to tell, the dealers could care less as far as my warranty
was concerned, so long as I didn't actually modify the thing or touch it
with a soldering iron.
>
>Note that the IBM warrantly is ALSO voided by the type of action that your
>friend executed.  Many IBM dealers won't touch a machine that has been
>fooled with by a customer.  In fact, many IBM dealers will require that you
>take out all foreign (non-IBM) boards when you carry a machine to the
>daler for repair.
>
Not so sure about this, but when I got my PC Convertible (don't laugh--
it was cheap), the expansion parts (internal modem, backlit supertwist
screen, upgraded power supply card) did include manuals instructing the
user in the installation process, though the modem's manual DOES suggest
that a dealer do it, because it involves digging pretty deep in the machine's
innards. I don't believe that any of this voids the warranty, so long as the
instructions are carefully followed. The power supply card/backlit screen 
upgrade kit seems to be only available from the IBM Direct center, and 
they ship the things out directly to the end user. I think the only 
exceptions to this might be cases where the hardware is covered by some
sort of service contract/extended warranty, such as AppleCare.