How much...leeway...does MSI give on their warranties?

In roughly 3 hours, I'll be picking up an MSI GX620 that I set up for a guy just short of 2 years ago. I know for a fact it came with a 3 year warranty.

But, all indications are that it got struck by lightning or something. While I'm hoping that just the AC adapter died and the battery is completely drained, and the guys at Geek Squad were totally incompetent with their diagnosis(didn't have a spare AC adapter to test with, as they never heard of the brand before), I have a feeling I'm not quite that lucky.

Odds are that the PC will simply have the HDD pulled and used for a backup on the guy's new laptop we ordered a couple days ago.



But, as it's still under warranty, I have to wonder if failures like this are covered, if it's worth sending it in. If so, I'll get a really nice laptop out of it, right at the time I was contemplating getting a higher res laptop for work to replace my x201, and contemplating a system that could game better than my 8440W. This could do both at once.

 

So what are you asking?? I'm not sure what the question is?

1) Never take it to geek squad because they know absolutely nothing.
2) MSI DOES have 3 years but it's not on all products (make sure and have your documentation ready)
3) MSI is very good for repairing almost anything minus damage by the end user (drops / spilled liquid etc)
4) When you send it back, just pull the hard drive and put the original one back in. MSI won't fault you for changing the memory or HD. Just don't expect to get it back when / if you send it back in.

 

Wow those Geek Squad people must really not know what they are doing as the ac jack on every msi laptop is generic and any universal ac adpter would have worked. Now about that warranty if the laptop apparently just died and there is no physical damage saying that it was dropped or something like that, you will be fine. Just register your laptop on their warranty website and place a repair request. A tech should reply to you within 24 hours.

 

I did that yesterday. Registered it, as the original owner never did, and put in an RMA request. Warranty intact through 6/8/12. RMA was approved last night, so it's getting sent back.

The thing was pristine, other than some stickers that screamed "bag", which a little goo gone takes care of.

It was tested against an MS1651 (the whiteboxes that were leaked on eBay) and a black/silver GX620, and they verified that it wasn't the AC Adapter and battery. (By they, I mean the owners I sold all the laptops to)

When I got it, I tested it against a friend's MS-1722, and found out that the battery was completely drained, but only had 6% wear after 2 years, and the AC adapter did work.

I also found the computer actually booted up with a non-dead battery...neither his AC or mine would charge a battery. So, it'll be sent in under warranty to get whatever is messed up with the motherboard fixed, and I get a GX620 as payment to set up a new laptop.

As far as sending it back in, I don't have the original hard drive. I live 2 hours away from the guy, so I couldn't stop him from taking it to Geek Squad, and quite frankly, whomever he paid to replace his hdd charged less than I would to drive back there and do it for him. That drive is gone. It will likely be sent back with no hard drive, as he has his replacement drive in an external enclosure at home.

I had to open up the main panel to unplug the CMOS battery to clear the BIOS password, as I know they say to clear all passwords, or write them down.

Everything is looking good.

 

Just a quick update. I got an email this afternoon, the MSI's been shipped back to me, and I'll be seeing it some time next week.


Essentially it was a 5 business day turnaround from receipt to shipping. Not much I can do about the 8 business days it will have spent in transit or the 4 weekend days...but for the $16.43 or whatever it was I spent on insured shipping, it seems like I got a good deal.