MacBook user upgrades and Apple Warranty

netdognetdog
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
When I bought my MacBook yesterday in London, The Apple Store told me that if I upgraded myself, I would void my warranty. They also told me that if I ever upgraded the drive myself, I would also void my warranty. In saying this, they relieved me of a rather large sum of money to upgrade the unit to 2GB of RAM.





A) Are we allowed to upgrade RAM ourselves without voiding the warranty?



B) Are we allowed to upgrade our easily upgradeable hard drives ourselves?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    archstudentarchstudent Posts: 262member
    thats ridiculous
  • Reply 2 of 8
    netdognetdog Posts: 244member
    Ridiculous or not, is what they told me true?
  • Reply 3 of 8
    yoseyose Posts: 62member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by netdog

    Ridiculous or not, is what they told me true?



    No
  • Reply 4 of 8
    netdognetdog Posts: 244member
    I called tech support. Not sure about the drive, but the RAM, according to them is definitely user upgradeable so I went down to Regent Street and swapped for a stock "Better" white model. Turned out they had given me the wrong unit anyway...a 1.83 with 512MB instead of 2.0 with 2GB. They were quite nice about it. Anyway, RAM on order from Crucial to change this 2.0 machine to 2GB. Seems a bit sluggish with 512. I expect that the ram upgrade will change that.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by netdog

    Ridiculous or not, is what they told me true?



    They probably don't realize yet that the drives and RAM are user-serviceable. User-serviceable parts don't void the warranty because there's no way they could know they were replaced. No seals to break.



    Anyway...you won't ever need to upgrade the RAM on that computer now.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    It depends on the region.



    In the US, no company can void the warranty if the user or a third party gets inside the product unless the act of getting in there caused a problem that requires repair. Swapping the hard drive on even the MBP does not void the warranty unless you broke something getting in or out, or the part you put in damaged the unit.



    To not uphold the warranty for these reasons is in violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    Those 3rd party add ons don't void the warranty. However, if the machine is going wrong and the technician finds out the source of problem is the add-on (RAM, HD, video cards etc) by 3rd party then the user will have to pay for the service.



    That happened to me before. My add on HD got problem and I experience tons of kernel panics. Then the apple technician found out it was that HD. I had to pay $150 for the time (2 hours) he spent. Ouch
  • Reply 8 of 8
    fireemblempridefireemblempride Posts: 149member
    Last January, I took my first revision Mac Mini to my local Apple Store to get an airport installed into it. It turns out that there was a stripped screw on the hard drive that prevented it from being removed, so that placement of the airport card couldn't be made.



    The manager asked me where I got the RAM (I had previously upgraded the stock 256MB to 512MB bought from Best Buy), and he mentioned that I technically voided my warranty having opened the Mac Mini up. Still, they just replaced my Mac Mini with a newer one with an airport card on the condition that I returned the stock 256MB RAM to them -- which I did. So I ended up with a 1.5GHz Mac Mini with 512 stock RAM and an airport. They were very nice.



    In the case of my MacBook, I was given the option of either installing it myself or having them do it for free by waiting a day. I couldn't wait so I did it myself.



    I can kind of understand why they would be strict with the Mini, given the odd nature in which it is opened, but luckily they knew about the MacBook.
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