On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 11:53:48 GMT, kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:

>My general philosophy about warranties is to test a product
>fully when new then ignore the warranty if you find it
>useful to mod a part... otherwise you become a slave to the
>warranty. There may occasionally be some part that fails
>and you have to take a loss due to voided warranty, but then
>we're not taking about a $500 video card let alone entire
>OEM system.

Thats my general POV since I cant remember the last time I actually
got anything replaced under warranty. Maybe 7 things in the last 8
years.

Four were motherboards - two mine, two neighbors with one a bad cap
problem.

I did one hard disk a WD eons ago and that was actually recalled, it
didnt fail. And a digital camera where the battery compartment lid
broke.

I think the scariest thing is digicams if they are expensive though it
still follows the same scenario where most are well built so they
probably wont break unless you drop it , get it wet etc in which case
its not covered by a warranty anyway and the value drops like a rock
after a short time like any digi device. Id still probably pay
nowadays a bit extra for an extended warranty since there are a few
digicams with problems like the Oly 5060s mode dial that may break
after the 1 year warranty.

Even my NEC /Maddog for most it wouldnt be worth sending it back. It
would probably cost 8-12 bucks to send it in and by the time it breaks
after the usual year warranty , itll be outdated and a new faster one
will probably be on sale for $40 and it may take 3-4 weeks so youd end
up buying one anyway.