Is it a purchasers legal right to be able to upgrade the RAM/HDD on their laptop?

Richdog

Richdog

Richdog

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Hi guys,

I recently bought a HP Omen gaming laptop and have read some quite frankly baffling information saying that if a user upgrades the SSD/HDD that they void their warranty. To purposefully design a large gaming laptop so these basic things cannot be replaced seems ludicrous, and I was under the impression that it was a buyer's legal right in the UK/EU to be able to upgrade these essentials themselves.

Can anyone please confirm this, and do you have any links to hand back it up? :)

Cheers,

Rich.
 
I have no evidence either way but I can't see how you would think that this would NOT void the warranty. Imagine the amount of ham fisted people that would try this and then break things, RMA/returns would go through the roof.

Ultimately, either do it yourself and void the warranty OR buy the correct spec in the first place.
 
http://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c04507976 (Might not be for your exact model, but I think you can get the jist of it).

"Procedures in this document are provided by HP for qualified service agents and as a courtesy to its customers. Servicing internal components increases the risk of damaging the computer which might not be covered under warranty. Understand the risk and refer to the product's warranty before attempting to service the computer."

I believe RAM is generally a User Replaceable Part, but I think HDD/SSD might not be.
 
One would assume that doing it yourself would void the warrenty if it could be proved the work you did was the cause of the fault. Or at least from a moral perspective, and ofc whats legally ok and whats morally ok dont always align.

Although i suppose its strange that doing this on a laptop is a warrenty fail when doing so on a desktop (custom builds at least) wouldnt be an issue.
 
Your warranty for a custom build you did yourself applies to individual parts of the computer.

In situations like these its usually:

If you can replace it without them noticing, then it's fine. Its quite obvious why it would void the warranty. You can always just swap the old one in whehn an issue comes up and you need to send it back.
 
I know when I had one of the MSI gaming laptops even though you had to destroy the "void" sticker to open it and replace RAM/SSD/HDD they would still honor the warranty as long as the issue wasn't obviously caused by you being a ham fisted hammer wielding monkey when replacing them.

Now I don't imagine MSI would be that nice unless they had to be so that says to me that there's some legislation buried somewhere that means you can get away with it, although I never dug deep enough to actually find out if they were forced to take that stance.
 
So whether they allow it or not, it seems that the best course of action is to do it and not tell them. As long as you dont break or have an inability to stick an adhesive sticker back down, you should be fine.
 
Thanks guys for the input. I would also hope that as long as I directly damage nothing doing the swap, that it would be ok to do so. I am just worried that in the worst case if it develops an unrelated fault, that I would be penalised if HP for any reason ever noticed that I changed the HD. :)
 
There's nothing saying it's not you right to do so - it's your property. What they're saying is it'll void the warranty, which makes perfect sense, as they've no idea of each buyer's technical nouse.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
Your warranty for a custom build you did yourself applies to individual parts of the computer.

In situations like these its usually:

If you can replace it without them noticing, then it's fine. Its quite obvious why it would void the warranty. You can always just swap the old one in whehn an issue comes up and you need to send it back.
Click to expand...

My point is simply that with custom builds its just as easy to be ham fisted as with changing a laptop hdd, so the warrenty differences is kinda strange.
 
Not at all strange.

Its less about being ham fisted and more about how a build is covered. A laptop is covered as a whole single product and a DIY custom build is individual. If you developed an issue with the RAM, you would send the RAM back but on a laptop you would send the whole thing back. Anything they get back due to fault has to be returned in full working condition as you bought it (same specs and bits).

I will also say that pre-built custom made PCs are often advertised as up-gradable, where as laptops are not and some laptops can be very annoying to open up requiring to go through the front LCD panel, undo ribbons and melt adhesive and even harder to put back together. That is why if you develop a fault on a prebuilt machine, they can send you just the replacement part if its easy enough but this will rarely happen with a laptop.

Internet posts seem to suggest voided warranty due to replacement/upgrades from hp are done on a case by case basis and warranties usually accepted if the fault is unrelated. That said, it offers the retailer a clear layer of protection against DIYers.
 
The only way they can tell if you have opened it up is the warranty sticker. But removing it completely, returning to stock and sending it back for repair/replacement has worked for me in the past.

Or be even cheekier and buy some of the "tamper proof" warranty stickers that they use off ebay :p
 
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Nasher said:
The only way they can tell if you have opened it up is the warranty sticker. But removing it completely, returning to stock and sending it back for repair/replacement has worked for me in the past.

Or be even cheekier and buy some of the "tamper proof" warranty stickers that they use off ebay :p
Click to expand...
Hah, wouldn't I have to find HP specific warranty stickers though? I guess I can check when I ope it. :)
 
I am doubtful. There is good reason to apply that to the automotive industry but seems very exploitable in the tech industry. Samsung and other phone manufacturer companies will void warranty if there is a sign of repair/tampering from a third party, be it yourself or a professional.
 
Why would it not void your warranty? You're within your rights to do it, but if someone opened up their laptop and broke it by snapping a RAM slot, why should a company take responsibility?

You have to remember also, whilst there may not be physical damage to it, you can easily run static through the components and destroy them that way even if you are careful, and this may not necessarily affect it straight away, it may be months down the line.
 
When I bought my Alienware M14X years back the first thing I did when it got delivered was tear it apart, remove the dvd drive, put in and additional SSD and upgrade the ram.

Warranty didn't even cross my mind
 
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