Dell and their warranty on laptops with Windows.

English Open Chat
#1

I was thinking about buying another laptop and of course installing OpenSUSE. I wanted to make sure if I got the extra warranty if would not be void it I install Opensuse

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9:43:09 AM Roger Barry
I need the link for university students to buy computers , I know we get a discount
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I have lost the link .
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9:45:08 AM Roger Barry
Secondly, if I remove Windows and run Opensuse would I void any type of warranty?
9:46:01 AM ATG Dell Agent
Yes, it will void the warranty.
9:47:50 AM Roger Barry
I’m sorry I meant “OpenSUSE”, so you mean the hardware warranty or the service warranty that comes with the computer? Normally you get about 12 months of free coverage.
9:50:17 AM Roger Barry
I don’t understand how removing Vista and running OpenSUSE warrants voiding the hardware warranty. I’m not talking about removing hardware just running a different operating system then Windows.
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For better assistant on this, please contact our technical support department at 1-800-695-8133 option 3.
9:53:52 AM Roger Barry
I’m asking about the warranty, I don’t need technical support. My questions are technical in nature. This has to do with the warranty.
9:55:13 AM Roger Barry
If I spend almost two hundred dollars for a warranty, I want to be sure that the hardware is going to be covered no matter what operating system I decide to install on it.
9:56:38 AM ATG Dell Agent
Let me check.
9:56:53 AM Roger Barry
Thanks
10:00:24 AM ATG Dell Agent
The warranty will be valid for hardware only.
10:01:14 AM ATG Dell Agent
You can see more information through Dell’s Online Policies
10:02:56 AM Roger Barry
So I need to buy on of the laptops you guy offer with Ubuntu in other to be about to run whatever OS I want and still keep my warranty valid then?
10:03:44 AM ATG Dell Agent
Yes.
10:04:52 AM Roger Barry
Thank you, have a nice day.
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#2

On Tue, 2009-05-12 at 15:56 +0000, vwbond wrote:
> I was thinking about buying another laptop and of course installing
> OpenSUSE. I wanted to make sure if I got the extra warranty if would not
> be void it I install Opensuse

Dell has always (ALWAYS) fixed my SUSE only boxes without question. Dell
doesn’t actually do the work, it’s all farmed out by them anyhow.

However, technically, your statement is pretty much ALWAYS true no
matter who the vendor is… so I usually DO keep a drive around in case
it matters to the particular tech so I can boot up Windows (the original
install) for them… in case they need this.

Linux distros are wonderful… but it leaves a lot of rope for the user
to hang themself with… not sure I’d want to deal with that either if
I were the vendor. Difficult enough to deal with Windows… (need more
vendors that are “Linux Distro” only).

#3

Quite. I’ve got unrelated issues with Dell (although it was ten years ago or more, so perhaps I should just drop it :)), but that sounds utterly reasonable. The warranty will be valid for hardware only; you weren’t expecting them to warranty other people’s software, which in theory could have been written by absolutely anyone, were you?

#4

Seriously, I just wonder how many of us would even consider sending anything back to any Vendor?
I was in a chat with M$ Vista technician not long ago and though it wasn’t my machine, guess my reply when he said: “Do you mind if I take control of your machine?”…:stuck_out_tongue:

And seriously how the guy ever qualified as a tech I’ll never know.

I bought a Lenovo 6 months ago or so, and if something fails I’ll fix it myself. But so far, in all my years, never one serious issue/failure with anything hardware.

#5

I have few Dell 1U servers on the rack and they have never seen Windows. But, as caf4926 said, I never contacted any such vendors to fix problems - may be, I am just lucky :slight_smile:

#6

I have put linux on 3 Dell laptops completely overwriting the windows; it does not destroy the warranty because they give you reinstall disks for windows. As long as you do not tamper with anything which does destroy the warranty like low level formatting your hard disk then why would anyone be concerned with this problem?