Hi James,
Not necessarily Linux related, but I just got off the phone with a certain large computer manufacture trying to resolve a failed harddisk on a 3 month old computer, and they claim that installing an alternate OS has voided the warranty. In this case the computer shipped with Win7 and the "alternate OS" was XP, but I find the claim ludicrous as I install Linux on all sorts of PC's and the warranty callcenter has never skipped a beat as long as I can demonstrate the fault in an obvious way. This particular computer is a different brand though...
What's my best avenue to force the issue? Or are they within their rights to say that I have voided my warranty?
If appealing to their sense doesn't help (the above is illegal and either they know it and just try it on, or they're numbnuts and should realise they're over the edge when told off): Office of Fair Trade for your state. But aside from your statutory rights, you're not interacting with people who understand the details of hardware vs software and the like, and thus sometimes avoiding the issue is easier. So say you buy a new laptop and you intend to put Linux on it anyway, buy it with the right specs and smallest HD then replace the HD. Probably saves you $ effectively, and it'll give you a neat pristine HD to put in for warranty purposes. Since we do know our stuff on this list, there are examples where software can mess with hardware, and examples of this are Android/CyanogenMod and for instance the Canon alternate firmware (Magic Lantern, CHDK). Because they can do things at the chip level, it is quite possibly to fry stuff. The way CHDK work is by overlaying on the existing firmware (IXUS/PowerShot cameras) rather than replacing the original firmware. This has avoided issues. Putting original Android back on a CyanogenMod phone just for a warranty issue is of course a bloody pest, but whether it makes sense depends on the claim. Let's say the screen is stuffed - pointing out to the shop that you're simply asking for your statutory warranty rights should bypass the nonsense. But again remember that the people you're talking to are not tech savvy - they've just been trained to follow specific steps and if the question "has the device been modified from the original" can in any way be answered with "yes" then they will give their standard line. You may have to ask for their manager if they don't want to take the proper responsibility for providing you with service as required by law. Anyway with computers I've found that the HD swap trick works well. Regards, Arjen. -- Exec.Director @ Open Query (http://openquery.com) MariaDB/MySQL services Sane business strategy explorations at http://upstarta.com.au Personal blog at http://lentz.com.au/blog/