My Sony Vaio from Circuit City, same thing.
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Author | Content |
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Bob_Robertson Mar 26, 2007 1:26 PM EDT |
My hardware warrantee from Circuit City says that if I run anything other than the OS it came with, the hardware warrantee is void. I wonder, however, if, since it came with XP "Home", if I had put XP Pro or Vista on it, would they have still canceled the warrantee? I don't think so. It would be very, very interesting to see if, buried somewhere in the OEM sales agreements, is a clause about hardware warrantees being canceled for running non-Windows and who (gosh, who?) put it there.... |
dinotrac Mar 26, 2007 1:53 PM EDT |
Now here's the irony -- What better definition is there of a computer that doesn't work well than to say it's a Windows Machine? OTOH - If we're talking about a store warranty instead of a manufacturer's warranty, I have a tiny shred of sympathy (note -- that's very tiny) if only because the "geekfiresquaddog" folks have to content with people bringing it in and saying "it's broke!". The customers may just have screwed the OS pooch, and the geekdogthingy might not know enough to check out hardware seperate from the OS. |
tracyanne Mar 26, 2007 2:01 PM EDT |
It's fairly standard in my experience that you don't get good service from retailers if you change the OS to something other than another Windows. There has been one exception to this, and that was Harvey Norman - the Australian Walmart type Mega store. They gave me excellent service when I dropped my laptop in for some hardware problems. |
dinotrac Mar 26, 2007 4:39 PM EDT |
>They gave me excellent service when I dropped my laptop in for some hardware problems. Sounds like another entry for my "Reasons to move to Australia" list. |
jdixon Mar 26, 2007 4:45 PM EDT |
This is why it's good to keep a small Windows partition on your laptop and to set it up to dual boot. :( Of course you can always order a laptop from one of the vendors in LXer's preinstalled Linux database. :) |
bigg Mar 26, 2007 4:49 PM EDT |
So if Dell sells Linux laptops, does that mean installing Vista will void the warranty? |
tracyanne Mar 26, 2007 4:58 PM EDT |
quote:: Sounds like another entry for my "Reasons to move to Australia" list. :: Yeah. But don't tell everyone, we like to keep things pretty exclusive. |
Bob_Robertson Mar 26, 2007 4:58 PM EDT |
What I did was buy a new 7200RPM HD to replace the stock 5400RPM HD. Then I restored Windoze to the old disk, and put it in an anti-static bag. When something seems broken, swap disks. If it stays broken (and so far it always has) then I just take it back as is. The Vaio has been in the shop something like 7 times to get the DVD drive fixed. Once, before I bought the new HD, the DVD drive broke so bad it wouldn't reinstall Windows. So I sent it as-was, with Debian, and (funny thing) it came back with Windows on it. Never, ever, send a machine in for repair with un-backed-up data on it. |
jimf Mar 26, 2007 5:04 PM EDT |
> Of course you can always order a laptop from one of the vendors in LXer's preinstalled Linux database. :) Yes, you can. There looks to be some good hardware at decent prices out there. My suspicion is that the independents will work hard to get your dollar. |
bigg Mar 26, 2007 5:13 PM EDT |
The database is good for personal purchases. I'd have a hard time convincing my employer to buy from one of those companies. |
dcparris Mar 26, 2007 5:50 PM EDT |
Um, some of those companies actually tend to cater specifically to businesses. Of course, the key was to make the DB home-user friendly, so... |
bigg Mar 26, 2007 6:25 PM EDT |
Perhaps, but it's hard getting anything other than Dell from my employer. Maybe HP and Gateway are the only possible others. |
jimf Mar 26, 2007 7:34 PM EDT |
> it's hard getting anything other than Dell from my employer. I suggest they eat more bran... |
purplewizard Mar 27, 2007 1:38 AM EDT |
If they advertise it as suitable and you buy it for that purpose and they know it (and you ideally have good evidence to prove it) then unless they specify a different warranty when you purchase (or other comparable contractual conditions) then they still should be honoring it. Through the EU you have a funny thing in law giving you that expectation as a final resort. |
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