Warranty Issue

fadsarmy

Hello,

I just feel guilty about making a warranty claim. I had a problem with the electrics in my house where the RCD kept tripping. I had a HTPC and a skybox connected to the same tv via two HDMI ports. When I switched the pc on, something went pop in the skybox and it never worked after that. I took it apart to recover the 2TB HDD and noticed the pcb around the HDMI port had burnt out. Since then, all my TV and PC HDMI ports no longer work. My TV is out of warranty but the motherboard is. There is no physical damage on the motherboard. Would it be dishonest to claim warranty on the motherboard?

Kesuke

If the motherboard is broken then I don't think it would be dishonest to RMA it. If the motherboard is not broken then clearly it would be dishonest to RMA it.

fadsarmy

The hdmi is definitely not working but there is no physical damage. It's just that the motherboard hdmi port stopped working due to a voltage spike because of faulty home electrical wiring.

Kesuke

How sure are you that the wiring was faulty? Could it be that the motherboard or TV was faulty and that was what was causing the RCD to trip?

It sounds like the device stopped working during what would be considered normal operation on your part. For starters your HTPC's PSU (and your TV) will have some level of built in overvoltage protection that should prevent this sort of thing - and the RCD tripping is designed to offer a layer of protection for devices (and humans) from electrical shock.

If they keep getting warranty returns for this reason then perhaps the manufacturer should consider incorporating better over-voltage protection onto the motherboard?

Unless there was a fault with your electrics, which you knew about and didn't act on, this doesn't seem (to my conscience at least) like it is your fault.

fadsarmy

We were aware of an electrical fault in the downstairs sockets for several days and were waiting for our trusted electrician to fit us in. The rcd would just trip then we'd just switch it on again and the sockets would work again without problems for up to 24 hours. What happened was when I plugged in the pc, the sky box went pop taking out the tv, sky box and motherboard hdmi ports.

Kesuke

I suppose the other option would be to see whether this is covered by your contents insurance?