Swap hard drive, void warranty?

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Hi all. I was thinking about getting a new Mac book - my first mac- and would like to swap out the hard drive to a 250 or 320 GB myself to save some $$$$. Any experience with this voiding the Apple warranty? Anyone take a Mac Book in for warranty service and refused based on having a non-OEM hard drive?

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Todd
 
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yes this would void your warranty. apple could and likely will refuse you warranty service if they believe you opened the machine up, because (in their opinion) you likely caused the problem.
 
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So, how about upgrading RAM? Same deal? Looks like you pretty much have to remove the same screws to do either. Weird how Apple would provide you instructions on their website on how to do something if doing that would void the warranty.

Thanks,
Todd
 
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RIDE is absolutely correct. Upgrading the RAM and the hard drive on a regular Macbook does NOT void the warranty. It is only for the Macbook Pro where upgrading the hard drive would void the warranty (though you can still upgrade the Pro's RAM without any issue)
 
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here here !!!

I've upgraded BOTH and still took it to my genius bar when it all went hopelessly wrong xD (my bad not apple's) I now have a 250 GB HDD and 2GB RAM and I got this bucket of magnificence for a good £200 less than it would've cost me had I had my mac configured to start with.

Needless to say those geniuses had my machine running in no time (turned it off and on again xD I just had the startup disk reassigned)

it's one of the best things you can do for your first ever mac (the one i'm using is my first too :) so love it muchly)
 
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I asked apple about the ram and hard drive today and was told that upgrading the ram ourselves is fine. They said as long as we take it to a mac authorized provider they can install the hard drive and it will not void the warranty. They said doing the hard drive ourselves will void the warranty.
 
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I asked apple about the ram and hard drive today and was told that upgrading the ram ourselves is fine. They said as long as we take it to a mac authorized provider they can install the hard drive and it will not void the warranty. They said doing the hard drive ourselves will void the warranty.

The moral of that story is that not every "Genius" is a genius.

Replacing the HDD yourself does NOT void your warranty... Now if YOU say spill water in the HDD bay while doing the swap... Apple certainly won't (and shouldn't) cover that under warranty :D
 
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I had to take my macbook into the genious bar today and was again told that it would void my warranty if anyone other than an apple authorized place installs HDD. That makes 4 apple people telling me this. So if it does not void the warranty if I install my own HDD, than apple needs to get their stories straight to their "loyal" customers...

* They said anytime the customer opens the computer up other than ram to do a modification it voids the warranty because we can not prove that we ourselves did not create the issue....That makes sense to me as I would feel the same way if I were the manufacturer responsible to replace a product or parts...
 
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Read the Manual... :D
 
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It's been stated a few times in this thread, but I will reiterate it. Replacing the hd in a MacBook does NOT void your warranty.

I don't understand why so many people are misinformed about this.
 
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RIDE is absolutely correct. Upgrading the RAM and the hard drive on a regular Macbook does NOT void the warranty. It is only for the Macbook Pro where upgrading the hard drive would void the warranty (though you can still upgrade the Pro's RAM without any issue)


Here are the instructions straight from Apple's website

Hard Drive Replacement Instructions (Do it Yourself Manual)

There is also a RAM upgrade guide

Macbook: How to Install Memory

So as you can see, with Apple providing detailed instructions for both, it's clearly not a violation of the warranty.


I'm new here, and actually stumbled upon this topic looking for the same information. I'm planning on buying a Macbook Pro for graduation and didn't want to spend $200 extra from 320GB to 500GB when I could upgrade it myself for significantly less.

While you were only linking to Macbook URLs, and that you stated that it would void the warranty of a MBPro, RiDE is correct, it won't void a MBPro's warranty either.

In the mid-2010 User-Guide for a 15in Macbook Pro (which is the current guide) Apple gives detailed step-by-step on how to swap hard drives, and then states towards the end that:
Your MacBook Pro does not have any user-serviceable parts, except the hard drive and
the memory.

So the answer, like previously stated multiple times in this thread (but for added clarification), to the OP's and my question: No, it doesn't void the warranty.
 
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Ha ha...funny bump of a 2 year old thread! By upgrading my RAM and HD my 4 year old MBP is running like new....but whenever I do need to buy a new one it's nice to know I can go no frills and upgrade it myself to save money.
 
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Haha I wouldn't have bumped, but Google said the last post in the thread was three days ago.

...And I definitely didn't read the timestamps. :p
 
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Yeah, that is what I was really looking for when I found the user-guide.

Thanks.
 
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does opening the plate at the bottom affect the warranty? i had a small dent i made with me knee and was able to smooth it out with my fingers. just wondering if that affects it at all?
 
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Back to my old 2.2GHz C2D MB after selling my MBP and wondering what my next Mac will be :)
does opening the plate at the bottom affect the warranty? i had a small dent i made with me knee and was able to smooth it out with my fingers. just wondering if that affects it at all?

What small plate?
 

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