To facilitate running Fusion 360 and to give in to the inevitable and start dealing with Win 10, I bought a refurbished Dell via Amazon for $280. Win 10 Pro, 16GB RAM, 500MB SSD.

Spent most of a day setting it up, transferring files and downloading software, reasonably pleased with the performance. I noticed on first boot up that the fan was kind of noisy. Three days later, it died completely.

The folks I bought it from are happy to honor the warranty, but I have to send the box back to them, I'm assuming exchange. I really, REALLY don't want to go through setup/transfer again and I damn sure ain't sending the box with all my data on it.

Replacing the fan is a trivial task, but I have to break the seal on the case to do it and that voids the warranty.

For $280, I'm thinking effit, I'll fix it and not worry about the warranty. A lot less painful in the long run.

Opening the case breaks the warranty? I purchased a Dell 3070 from B+H early last year, then installed a 1Tb Samsung SSD in it for data. I certainly hope I didn't break any warranty!

But yea, for what you paid I'd just install a new fan.

Find some cloning software and copy the boot image to an external drive.

quote:

Replacing the fan is a trivial task, but I have to break the seal on the case to do it and that voids the warranty.

There's an actual 'Seal' (Tell-Tale Label across the Case Cover) on the Case?

Are you not allowed to upgrade the machine (add'l SSD/HDD, add'l Memory) w/o voiding the warranty either?

Break the seal. It's not that much money.

quote:

Replacing the fan is a trivial task, but I have to break the seal on the case to do it and that voids the warranty

I never knew any Dell computers that have a "seal" but whatever.
How are you going to add anything with a seal-break-void-warranty?
Anyway for a $280 computer just replace the $10 fan and move on.
YMMV

Yup. Break the seal and repair the fan.

It’s not like you’re ripping the tags off if mattresses and pillows.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:

quote:

Replacing the fan is a trivial task, but I have to break the seal on the case to do it and that voids the warranty.

There's an actual 'Seal' (Tell-Tale Label across the Case Cover) on the Case?

Are you not allowed to upgrade the machine (add'l SSD/HDD, add'l Memory) w/o voiding the warranty either?

Yup.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
Yup. Break the seal and repair the fan.

It’s not like you’re ripping the tags off if mattresses and pillows.

Welll....

Are you sure it's a standalone vent fan, and not the fan built into the power supply?

One is trivial to fix/replace...the other, you need a replacement power supply.

Break the seal, change the fan yourself.

The 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act pretty much makes those seals a non-issue. A manufacturer can't deny warranty coverage unless the work you did causes the damage that is being claimed under warranty--sticker or no.

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
Welll....

Are you sure it's a standalone vent fan, and not the fan built into the power supply?

One is trivial to fix/replace...the other, you need a replacement power supply.

It's the one that mounts to the heat sink on top of the processor.

And, of course, it's Dell-Specific, with an odd-ball connector. Fortunately, Fee Bay has them. Unfortunately, it'll be a week or so before it arrives.

This not being my first computer rodeo, the ol' Win 7 box is still fully functional and sitting on my computer desk. Crowded and not real ergonomic, but it'll do for now.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Break the seal, change the fan yourself.

The 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act pretty much makes those seals a non-issue. A manufacturer can't deny warranty coverage unless the work you did causes the damage that is being claimed under warranty--sticker or no.

Pretty sure that applies to vehicles and not electronics. Could be wrong, but...

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Break the seal, change the fan yourself.

The 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act pretty much makes those seals a non-issue. A manufacturer can't deny warranty coverage unless the work you did causes the damage that is being claimed under warranty--sticker or no.

Pretty sure that applies to vehicles and not electronics. Could be wrong, but...

Interestingly enough, FTC agrees with Aeteocles here.

From FTC.gov: FTC: Businessperson's Guide to Federal Warranty Law
Here's what the FTC are the exceptions to where the Act applies:

quote:

In order to understand how the Act affects you as a businessperson, it is important first to understand what the Act does not require.

First, the Act does not require any business to provide a written warranty.

Second, the Act does not apply to oral warranties. Only written warranties are covered.

Third, the Act does not apply to warranties on services. Only warranties on goods are covered.

Finally, the Act does not apply to warranties on products sold for resale or for commercial purposes. The Act covers only warranties on consumer products. This means that only warranties on tangible property normally used for personal, family, or household purposes are covered.

So, written warranties on personal computers are definitely covered by the Act.

Here's what the FTC says on prohibited actions - specifically noting manufacturers can't void warranties for having service done not by particular service providers:

quote:

What the Magnuson-Moss Act Does Not Allow
There are three prohibitions under the Magnuson-Moss Act. They involve implied warranties, so-called "tie-in sales" provisions, and deceptive or misleading warranty terms.
...
"Tie-In Sales" Provisions
Generally, tie-in sales provisions aren’t allowed. These are provisions that state or imply that a consumer must buy or use an item or service from a particular company to keep their warranty coverage. Here are some examples of prohibited tie-in sales provisions.

“To keep your new Plenum Brand Vacuum Cleaner warranty in effect, you must use genuine Plenum Brand Filter Bags. Failure to have scheduled maintenance performed, at your expense, by the Great American Maintenance Company, Inc., voids this warranty.”

“This limited warranty shall not apply if the warranty seal has been broken, removed, erased, defaced, altered, or is otherwise illegible,” where a device cannot be repaired without such effects.

TL: DR. See Aeteocles post, above.

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Break the seal, change the fan yourself.

The 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act pretty much makes those seals a non-issue. A manufacturer can't deny warranty coverage unless the work you did causes the damage that is being claimed under warranty--sticker or no.

Pretty sure that applies to vehicles and not electronics. Could be wrong, but...

Interestingly enough, FTC agrees with Aeteocles here.

From FTC.gov: FTC: Businessperson's Guide to Federal Warranty Law
Here's what the FTC are the exceptions to where the Act applies:

quote:

In order to understand how the Act affects you as a businessperson, it is important first to understand what the Act does not require.

First, the Act does not require any business to provide a written warranty.

Second, the Act does not apply to oral warranties. Only written warranties are covered.

Third, the Act does not apply to warranties on services. Only warranties on goods are covered.

Finally, the Act does not apply to warranties on products sold for resale or for commercial purposes. The Act covers only warranties on consumer products. This means that only warranties on tangible property normally used for personal, family, or household purposes are covered.

So, written warranties on personal computers are definitely covered by the Act.

Here's what the FTC says on prohibited actions - specifically noting manufacturers can't void warranties for having service done not by particular service providers:

quote:

What the Magnuson-Moss Act Does Not Allow
There are three prohibitions under the Magnuson-Moss Act. They involve implied warranties, so-called "tie-in sales" provisions, and deceptive or misleading warranty terms.
...
"Tie-In Sales" Provisions
Generally, tie-in sales provisions aren’t allowed. These are provisions that state or imply that a consumer must buy or use an item or service from a particular company to keep their warranty coverage. Here are some examples of prohibited tie-in sales provisions.

“To keep your new Plenum Brand Vacuum Cleaner warranty in effect, you must use genuine Plenum Brand Filter Bags. Failure to have scheduled maintenance performed, at your expense, by the Great American Maintenance Company, Inc., voids this warranty.”

“This limited warranty shall not apply if the warranty seal has been broken, removed, erased, defaced, altered, or is otherwise illegible,” where a device cannot be repaired without such effects.

TL: DR. See Aeteocles post, above.

But, and this has nothing to do with the OP, the Great American Maintenance Company could legally require the use of Plenum Brand Filter Bags during the warranty term if they were provided for free by the service provider.

If the fan was making a noise then the noise stopped along with the fan it could be a wire inside the chassis moved or came loose then, scrapped on the fan blade, making the noise, till the wire wore through and broke.

quote:

Originally posted by houndawg:
But, and this has nothing to do with the OP, the Great American Maintenance Company could legally require the use of Plenum Brand Filter Bags during the warranty term if they were provided for free by the service provider.

Well, free bags .... that changes everything!

So what it boils down to is that cutting that seal won't void your warranty. So feel free to cut the crap out of that seal. Heck go all in and cut the labels off your pillow cases and mattresses.

So, wait - you have to replace the filter bag on your new/used computer?

A little update:

1) Initially I guessed wrong on which fan was causing the noise. There are three: one in the front of the case drawing air in, one in the power supply enclosure and one on the CPU heat sink. The error that popped up said "rear fan failure" so I assumed (silly me...) that it was the one on the CPU as that's the only fan in the "rear" of the box. Fortunately, the fan that was actually bad (the one in the front of the case...???) was the same type and with a little creative re-routing of the power cable I was able to use the one I ordered for the CPU. All nice and quiet now.

2) As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm starting to like Win10. Well, not the actual OS so much as the new software it allows me to run. I'm dipping my tootsies into Fusion360 as my 3D CAD platform (oy, what a learning curve!) and was able to upgrade the slicer for my 3D printer to the latest version of Cura. I just printed an object that would have required a lot of internal support structures and probably 2 or 3 tries before I got a good print with the old version. Perfect first time and I suspect the print time was shortened considerably as well. And NO internal honeycomb to carve out!

3) Between the extra RAM and the SSD drive, this thing boots up in under 10 seconds vs. 2-3 minutes for my old Win7 box.