Does swapping the CPU in the P-6831FX void the warrenty?

Note: I am not a Lawyer and this should not be considered legal advice. Follow this advice at your own risk. The laws mentioned below are on the books in the United States. Customers outside of the US should do some research to find if their countries have similar laws.

Does replacing the CPU in a 6831FX void the warranty? A couple of Gateway reps people have spoken to have said yes, there is nothing explicitly stated about which component upgrades do/do not void the warranty, and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (paraphrased): "A company cannot void a warranty for a product with third-party enhancements or modifications to their product. The only exception to this rule is if the company can determine that the modification or enhancement is responsible damaging the product in question".

Now the fact that Gateway has a LIMITED warranty and not a FULL Warranty on their product may get them around this, but the terms of the warranty do NOT mention voiding the warranty by installing third party hardware. Under the M-M act, the company must explicitly state that fact.

The warranty does state that Gateway is not responsible for:
Link To Warranty Page
DAMAGES CAUSED BY SERVICE NOT AUTHORIZED BY GATEWAY
and
DAMAGES CAUSED BY COMBINATION OF GATEWAY OR EMACHINE BRANDED PRODUCTS WITH OTHER NON-GATEWAY OR NON-EMACHINE BRANDED PRODUCTS, ACCESSORIES, PARTS, OR COMPONENTS.
(these were taken from the 1-Year Limited Warranty for Products Purchased at Authorized Third Party Retailers, the others should be the same, but I didn't check those )

The key words in those two points are DAMAGES. They do not say the simple act of INSTALLING voids the warranty. Granted, if the new CPU blows up your laptop, you are SOL. Obviously Gateway won't warranty the replacement parts, but if your Power Supply dies while you are running a T9300, it appears that legally, Gateway cannot deny the warranty claim.

The M-M act also states that in ambiguous cases, the benefit of the doubt automatically goes to the Consumer (or "against the draftee of the warranty" in their words).

I say, UPGRADE AWAY!! (I'd still keep the T5450 around and swap it back in in case something does happen, a little less chance of Gateway trying to deny your claim.)

 

Yes a cpu upgrade usually nullifies your warranty.

 

I would ask this direct from Gateway tech support. On the dells it "depends".

As above, I don't think a CPU would be a normal user replaceable part?

But it's not stopping me

 

Let be honest here - if you upgrade your CPU, just keep the old one. If something goes, slap back in the old one, and you are set. Now, don't be a cheeky bugger and try to claim warranty if your CPU upgrade goes. But if you do nothing wrong, and something else later fails, I see nothing illegal or immoral about replacing the original CPU and claiming warranty...

 

"The key words in those two points are DAMAGES. They do not say the simple act of INSTALLING voids the warranty. Granted, if the new CPU blows up your laptop, you are SOL. Obviously Gateway won't warranty the replacement parts, but if your Power Supply dies while you are running a T9300, it appears that legally, Gateway cannot deny the warranty claim."

FWIW, the T9300 and T5450 have the same TDP of 34/35 watts. I've seen way more damage due to OC than memory or CPU swap. I killed my old 9600 - entirely my fault

 

Or do What I did and get the Best Buy Accidental Warranty. You will be good so long as you did not damage the laptop while upgrading or drop the laptop in a lake.

 

So the best buy accidental warranty allows you to upgrade the laptop as long as the damage does not occur while you are in the process of upgrading your laptop?

Because I have taken out 2 years of the Accident covered warranty and I would love to get a t9300 in my laptop.

 

Yes that is correct, when in doubt go in bestbuy and ask a friendly GeekSquad agent if it will be covered. Or if you can spare 39$ just pay the GeekSquad to install the CPU as that will be an "Authorized Technician".

If they say they can not install the CPU then they suck, and or their management team has them on a leash. hehe.

PS. I work for teh GeekSquad.

 

Now would swapping the CPU in a laptop from Gateway directly void the warrenty?

 

Maybe call Gateway..

Not that anyone here would try to mislead you.

 

Awesome, thanks for the reply DanteDrac...

Now if I could only find a t9300 from a reputable seller!

 

I would at least going in and verify that with your local bestbuy. As we all know things can vairy from store to store with retail. But I intend to send this very question to our corporate head quarters and see what the official stance on such things as upgrading a CPU would be.... It will take a few days but I'll post their response.

 

Thanks again DanteDrac...

Yea we have a few BestBuy's near by, I live in NJ but work in Philadelphia, PA so I am in the general area of 5 BestBuys. Too bad your probably not in the area otherwise I would definitely come to you if I had any problems...

Half the time the guys at BestBuy look at me like I have 4 eyes on my head because I work in IT and tend to know a good bit about this as well... Though this is my first laptop that I have owned personally I have swapped a mobo on a laptop in the past and have done other work in them so I am comfortable with swapping the CPU myself... Just afraid of voiding the warranty which I mainly took out just incase the screen has issues or becomes damaged at any point.

Thanks again,
Fred

 

You can't go wrong with TankGuys: http://www.tankguys.biz/product_info.php?products_id=1811

And their ResellerRatings feedback speaks for itself: http://www.resellerratings.com/store/TankGuys_Computer_Parts_tankguys_biz

 

That is where I got mine =^.^=

 

Great! To be honest I have used mwave and newegg up until this point, use to use zipzoomfly but they don't have the rep that they use t to...

From what I have read on TankGuys it sounds like I will be buying my processor from them...

Now I just need to convince myyself that I can wait until my next pay check to buy this thing.... Instead of putting myself in a hole and buying it now lol...

 

Got mine from here, ordered Sunday, installed yesterday. New in sealed box, 3 year Intel warranty.

http://www.lagoom.com/INTEL_CPU_CORE_2_DUO_T9300_2.50GHZ/BX80576T9300/partinfo-id-579832.html

 

Thanks hydra, it's nice to have options.

 

2 weeks and I'll have that bad boy! newegg ended up sending me an ATA scorpio, so no raid as of yet D=

 

Ouch!

I have been looking at these 200GB 7,200 RPM Hitachi drives... Getting two of them and a T9300.... Should only take me a month and a half (thats if I don't ignore my bills for a bit)...

 

i don't think it would void the warranty from Gateway, is kind of like upgrading the ram. u are just improving its performance.

 

If only warranties worked that way. But it makes sense, we're not pushing the hardware beyond its limit. Nothing beyond manufacturer's suggestions.

 

..still nobody wants to check with Gateway for an official answer?

For some us it's "after the fact" and it would not have stopped us anyway