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RMA Refused due to cooler removal

Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler

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There's been a fair bit of discussion regarding vendors who allow or disallow cooler removal and the potential result in any future RMA process.

Has anyone had a RMA refused due to having installed a water block?

Edit to add: has anyone had a RMA accepted after refitting an air cooler?

It would be interesting to hear of personal experience with RMA requests.
 
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Be aware that some don't have an "official" policy - they "allow" it but if they think the problem was due or likely due to the heatsink being removed will reject it on a case by case basis and you might not have much comeback - sometimes a rep will step in and get a second appraisal but they still might decide you've invalidated the warranty.
 
Sapphire refused me a warranty not due to a water block but an after market air cooler replacement on a stock cooler. This was quite a few years ago on a mid range model.

As I mentioned in another thread I have contacted MSI to ask their policy on this but not had a response so far. They do however exclude "Unauthorized changes of non MSI parts, modifications or alterations , parts removal in or to the products", so officially MSI are saying No in their T&Cs atm.
 
Zotac state in the warranty T&Cs that any modification to the product and/or removal of the cooler fan will void warranty. So just removing the cooler will void it. No warranty stickers on the screws though. I wish they just did a 2 year warranty for aftermarket coolers or something. But you can only get the 5 years with unmodified or no removal of the stock cooler.
 
BigBANGtheory said:
As I mentioned in another thread I have contacted MSI to ask their policy on this but not had a response so far. They do however exclude "Unauthorized changes of non MSI parts, modifications or alterations , parts removal in or to the products", so officially MSI are saying No in their T&Cs atm.
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I have contacted MSI 8 days ago and once again a few days later, neither support tickets have been answered. I have also phoned their help line and it just says use the online support ticket for assistance. The reason for contact is that the 1080ti had a warranty void sticker on one of the screws, I ended up returning the 1080ti and will just buy an EVGA 1080ti instead.
 
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I've returned a Powercolor and an MSI card after refitting the original air coolers, both RMAs were accepted without question.

If I'd damaged the card or cooler while taking the cooler off (or putting it back on) I would expect my warranty to be void, but if I've not caused any damage and the card simply died on me, I think it's only fair to expect the warranty to be honoured and companies seem to feel the same way.
 
Cooler removal IMO is all down to discretion.
I had two sapphire 6870's that died (separate times, months between them) but they had both been watercooled and RMA was successful.

Frankly if we went by official documentation we'd never be allowed to RMA anything.
 
I think if your extra careful replacing the cooler making sure you don't scratch anything. Screws, cooler etc then in the event you need to try and RMA it you may increase your chances of being successful. The only main giveaway would be thermal paste. Id hope they would visually check the card for tampering and if looks okay just test the card and if its a dud then replace or fix it. But we don't know their process of checking cards.
 
ive only ever had to RMA one card which was a Gigabyte 570 SOC

the cooler was removed to replace the TIM only and they swapped it out without issue
they didnt even ask

personally i wouldn't bother with ASUS or MSI if you want to remove the cooler no matter what a random CS rep says if you email them
 
I have Rma'd Evga , Msi, Kfa2 and gigabyte, all watercooled never had a problem , but as said above keep all the screws , take pictures and just be careful removing and fitting the cooler back on and be extra careful with the thermal pads.

If you round off the screws and make it look like its been apart then i would expect the rma to be refused and rightly so,
 
String said:
Edit to add: has anyone had a RMA accepted after refitting an air cooler?
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Yes, my Zotac 970 blew a vrm, the cooler was removed and replaced about ~7 months in, as there are no warranty stickers on the screws and as it had no visible signs of removal it obviously passed a visual inspection.

However, I have seen on here users asking to get stripped screws out because they never used a proper screw bit/driver, so if your not careful then don't expect someone to miss a visual inspection.
 
I had an HIS 4970 X2 that i returned to OCUK, had been watercooled but refitted the stock cooler and i was refunded as card was no longer available if i remember.

XFX 8800 Ultra also WC returned to stock and was RMA'd

fortunately not had to rma anything for a while
 
Besty said:
Msi until recently allowed air cooler removal only in the USA and the policy for U.K. was different.
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They typically do not allow it and is hence why they are placing warranty stickers on the screws.

EVGA 100% fine, Asus are also fine via OcUK, I think Gigabyte are also OK with it. :)
 
Re. MSI
Gibbo said:
They typically do not allow it and is hence why they are placing warranty stickers on the screws.
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This is where it gets confusing! From the Stock Cooler Removal Information thread -
40Four said:
I emailed Msi about cooler removal and they said it is fine.
MSI UK Components Service Department <[email protected]>
13 Jul (5 days ago)
Dear James,

You can remove the stock cooler without a problem.

Warranty will not be voided as long as there is no physical damage to the board.

Should the board ever need to be return for service, the original stock cooler has to be mounted on the board again.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Mainboard and VGA Customer Service
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