how do companies know if you over clocked?

last year, i had a desktop that i over clocked, i bought it from some computer store and it is custom built by them. i over clocked for a while, then stopped. after like a month, something in the motherboard failed and continued to do so. i just returned it and had them fix it. they never asked me anything about it being over clocked or anything, im not even sure if thats the cause.
so i guess my question is, how do they know? if you just turn it back to its stock speeds and stuff. how will they know that the warranty is void?

 

They can only look for things like burns on perfectly seated heat sinks or obvious things like volt mods, otherwise they cant. (though the ATI CCC has an unlock feature, but you can just re-install them).

 

clear the log in the bios before you send it in.

But really, no they can't tell unless you leave changed settings in place. And burn marks won't happen likely.

 

thats what i thought. good over clocking without leaving physical traces, as long as you turn back the settings before getting it repaired and such, are totally ok?!

 

And as long as you don't mind the moral implications.

 

haha, no. not at alll

 

I'm sure the techs will recognize the signs of damage casued by overclocking in many cases. They may or may not see it should you run into problems on your particular system. If they do, however, they may simply refuse to cover said damage under warranty.

And not all resellers will automatically void your warranty if you overclock. But just about all of them will not cover damage caused by doing so.