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Retailer Refuses Hardware Repair Due To Linux
Tikka writes "Today I visited PC World (London, UK) because my 5-month-old laptop has developed a manufacturing fault: the hinge to the display has started to crack the plastic casing. Anyone in the know will know that this is due to the joint inside, and it means that in time the screen will separate from the keyboard. Repair was refused, because I have Gentoo Linux on my laptop, replacing the Windows Vista that was pre-installed. PC World said that installing Linux had voided my warranty and there is nothing they will do for me. I spoke to a manager, who said that he has been told to refuse any repairs if the operating system has been changed. I feel this has really gone against my statutory rights and I will do everything I can to fight it. I will review comments for your advice."
Are you absolutely sure Linux did not cause that crack to form? Think about it, the laptop was rated obviously Vista® capable... did you see anything on the case to indicate Linux capable?
I think the best thing to do would be to publish as broadly as you can the make and model of this laptop and its shortcomings, better to serve others to avoid this vendor.
Everyones knows with Linux you've been bashing your laptops shell. Of course your hinge is messed up.
The poster must be leaving something out, like the big spoiler on the screen, neon lights, and the Type R sticker that he riced^Wmodded the laptop with.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Can we please start keeping all posts regarding kdawson in a single thread? That way he won't overload the server, while using the search function to troll for his name.
<voice=Shatner>KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKDAWSON!!!</voice>
The laptop was designed to be unusable, that's why it had Vista installed. If you can't use it, it won't break. By installing an operating system that could make use of the hardware, you subjected the laptop to use it was not designed to take and voided the warranty. If you read the EULA closely you'll see that any computer with Vista installed is not actually intended to be used.
#emerge display_hinge_2.0
You stuffed a damn penguin into the thing and you wonder why the hinge broke!?!?!
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
Sure linux would cause this kind of problem, since it would actually be able to work with linux you would be opening and closing the screen a whole lot more than if it had vista on it :P
Seriously though, call the manufacturer, they should be able to help you.
...
It's "You're an arrogant clueless fool" ;)
You could burn a bunch of live cds ,sneak in while the help is touching each others bottoms 'round back and reboot all their boxen to live cds .Shout "Fix that morons!" as you leave.
Check back later to see if they really figured it out.
(Remember kids,recycling old live distro disks is fun when the jokes on them.I like to recycle at *est *uy because they really go into convulsions)
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Gentoo was so difficult to install that it forced him to hit the laptop in frustration, breaking the hinge. :)
I recently took a Tablet PC purchased at CompUSA in for service (screen problems). I, of course, removed the hard drive for privacy concerns and they said it is corporate policy to not perform repairs without a hard drive. I asked for clarification and was told it just needed to be "a hard drive," not necessarily the original. So, I returned home, found an old, dead laptop HDD and drove a nail through it for good measure. Brought it in, they sent it away, and I got it back with a brand new HDD :)
Unfortunately that is somewhat difficult in the UK as the Thatcher regime allowed them to establish a virtual high street monopoly by buying Currys.
Did Maggie allow them poppadoms as well?
Would it have been any better if they'd been forced to buy Kebabs?
Sorry, Dave Lister moment there...
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Hey look, they have Wii's in stock!
You have much to learn about slashdotting young grasshopper
Ah yes. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, enacted in the 1970s in the USA. I'm sure the British stores are quaking in fear that they might get this thrown in their faces.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Of course it's:
# USE="hardened" emerge gfx-hardware/display-hinge
He didn't emerge it with the hardened flag the first time, which is why it broke. Duh.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
When you bend someone over and service a guy like that, its gay.
Unless of course its a girl getting serviced, and thats then being anal.
or a girl servicing a guy, and that being strapped.
or a girl servicing a girl, which is awesome.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
I do consulting work for a small electronics shop in Salt Lake City, and we do waranty/service center repairs. There was a Tablet PC that came to us from CompUSA about 2 months ago. It fit this description - and bugged the living hell out of us as to what could have possibly gone wrong with the drive to cause that. There were *no* tooling marks otherwise on the area... do you know what it's like to find a harddrive that EXPLODES on a head crash, man?
www.isoHunt.com
I clicked it and the idiots picked me out for a survey. I dont think it went well for them. :)
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
It is difficult to imagine though why anyone who reads slashdot would buy a laptop from PC World in the first place.
it's like changing the car radio and then getting a problem with the exhaust. PC World have taken a look at that radio and said - "we don't support that radio, we can't fix your exhaust.
when you have a modern car, it could be that the entire car is controlled by a single board computer system. the radio could be interfaced to that, or even be part of it. this is useful because it enables the control of the radio by events in the car (e.g. turning up the volume when the engine noise increases).
now, when you replace the radio by an uncertified one there may be an effect on the board computer system.
with sufficient integration this could affect the engine management (e.g. because it is running as a task on the same system) and thus the exhaust gases.
this could destroy the catalitic converter, which one can consider part of the exhaust system.
so, your problem with the exhaust can well be caused by changing the radio.
similarly, running linux on a laptop could destroy it. and that is much less theoretical than the above example, as explained in the parent article.
(for example, I have seen many reports about graphic card chips running hot in laptops running Linux that ran flawlessly under Windows)
So please don't claim that changing the software has no effect on the hardware and should not affect warranty.