Smoking Near Apple Computers Voids Warranty

[C0RR0SIVE]

Not all customers are smokers, some have families that do smoke, and they can not control what there family does in other rooms of a house...

 

[KSoD]

I have already stated that i have worked on PC's that have had people smoke 3 packs a day and i do not see anything like Hik said. How is it more electrically conductive? It is tar, just like the stuff used to patch up asphalt for the roads. That isnt conductive. I dont get how it is electrically conductive at all.

Plus if your working on the machine, you have to unplug it anyways. So really how can you get shocked at that point?

It isnt the smoking that is killing the PC's. My friend who smokes 3 packs a day still runs his Pentium III just fine to this day. So why is it that his old Pentium unit can still run even with his habit and lack of cleaning yet Apple's die in a year? It is not the smoking. Sorry. I used to smoke as well. I smoked in front of my PC all day and night and never cleaned out my machine and it still ran for 4-5 years before i finally got a new one. It isnt the smoking. From personal experience of being a former smoker to someone who has worked on many machines as well it isnt the smoking.

I smoked for well over 10 years and know people that have been doing it for much longer. It is not the smoking that kills the machines.

 

[kmote]

That may be true, but warranties aren't invalidated by things that did happen, they are invalidated by things that could have happened. For example, some prebuilts have stickers on the opening panel and if the stickers are removed or damaged, the warranty is void.

 

[KSoD]

Yes. I understand that part. But from what the story has said and what this whole topic is about, is that Apple has refused to work on the PC's due to them being owned by smokers. There is no mention at all about anything else like stickers pulled or anything other than them being smokers.

Yes it could be something not mentioned, yes it could be anything under the sun. But the story is that they refused to work on it due to them being smokers. Nothing more, nothing less. So we can only go by the information provided and not jump to conclusions that they did something to void the warranty other than being smokers.

 

[kmote]

That's not really what I'm saying...

You claim that the system was not damaged due to smoking
They say that a system might become damaged because of smoking and this is why the warranty is void.

This is mirrored by

You claim the system was not damaged due to opening it up
They say that a system might become damaged because you opened it up and this is why the warranty is void.

In both cases it might not be the smoking/opening that caused the damage but they will not fix it because of that possibility.

 

[apsoul]

I might have missed something here, but here's my take on the matter. Yes smokers dust is probably more harmful due to its "tacky" nature therefore it will stick a little better than smokeless dust.
However I don't think apple had it stated in their warranty that smoking near the computer will void its warranty. If they did, then by all means they have every right to deny the fix. If the don't have that specifically stated in the warranty, then they should fix them, learn from this, and in all new warranties state that smoking around the computer will void the warranty.
I don't think its a bad idea to add that into the warranty because if you can accumulate that much smokers dust in the computer within a year then you are taking bad care of your computer, but I have been a smoker for 6 years, and I have owned this laptop for 6 years. 4 of those years i smoked around the laptop. The only thing that has gone wrong with this laptop is the HDD died. I don't think that was because of the smokers dust.

 

[kmote]

I might have missed something here, but here's my take on the matter. Yes smokers dust is probably more harmful due to its "tacky" nature therefore it will stick a little better than smokeless dust.
However I don't think apple had it stated in their warranty that smoking near the computer will void its warranty. If they did, then by all means they have every right to deny the fix. If the don't have that specifically stated in the warranty, then they should fix them, learn from this, and in all new warranties state that smoking around the computer will void the warranty.
I don't think its a bad idea to add that into the warranty because if you can accumulate that much smokers dust in the computer within a year then you are taking bad care of your computer, but I have been a smoker for 6 years, and I have owned this laptop for 6 years. 4 of those years i smoked around the laptop. The only thing that has gone wrong with this laptop is the HDD died. I don't think that was because of the smokers dust.

Totally agree

Voiding the warranty is basically fair enough if they have it in the warranty documentation. Like any exceptional environmental situation it can reduce the lifespan of certain components. But this: "health risks of second hand smoke", is ridiculous.

 

[hikaricloud]

I have already stated that i have worked on PC's that have had people smoke 3 packs a day and i do not see anything like Hik said. How is it more electrically conductive? It is tar, just like the stuff used to patch up asphalt for the roads. That isnt conductive. I dont get how it is electrically conductive at all.

First off, I'm pretty sure they don't patch up asphalt with carbon monoxide. Secondly, I say it's more electronically conductive due to experience. There have been many a machine filled with the smoker's dust, that when cleaned, all of the sudden kicked the bucket. It can short out the contacts on the board to the point they are so messed up, it needs the stupid dust to work even halfway. Thirdly, I doubt that guy smoked three packs a day while sitting at his computer. It also depends on where the computer sits, since smoke rises. A lot of the computers that have been all gunked up, people had on their desks instead of under them...so the smoke gets blown directly on the box.

Plus if your working on the machine, you have to unplug it anyways. So really how can you get shocked at that point?

I think you missed my point entirely...when I say it's "more dangerous to your stuff" I meant the machine, not you.

It isnt the smoking that is killing the PC's. My friend who smokes 3 packs a day still runs his Pentium III just fine to this day. So why is it that his old Pentium unit can still run even with his habit and lack of cleaning yet Apple's die in a year? It is not the smoking. Sorry. I used to smoke as well. I smoked in front of my PC all day and night and never cleaned out my machine and it still ran for 4-5 years before i finally got a new one. It isnt the smoking. From personal experience of being a former smoker to someone who has worked on many machines as well it isnt the smoking.

I've addressed this above. There are a lot of factors involved, you can't make a blanket statement about this. And no one is saying that all Apple computers are dying in a year, which was the entire point in my response earlier...if someone smokes enough for a computer to kick the bucket in a year, then I don't want to be responsible for replacing that hardware for free either. I have seen machines anywhere from 1-3 years old that have been literally INFECTED with the stuff, and it's shorted out the motherboard. In the 6+ years I was working on computers, it happened at least twice a month where we would get in a computer like that.

I don't think its a bad idea to add that into the warranty because if you can accumulate that much smokers dust in the computer within a year then you are taking bad care of your computer

^^ This is exactly how I feel about it.

but I have been a smoker for 6 years, and I have owned this laptop for 6 years. 4 of those years i smoked around the laptop. The only thing that has gone wrong with this laptop is the HDD died. I don't think that was because of the smokers dust.

For some reason laptops don't seem to be as affected? I guess it's because it doesn't have as many openings to the inside as desktops. I've only seen a couple laptops that where gunked up, but not as badly as desktops.

 

[KSoD]

@kmote -

First off i never said a single thing about opening the system. I am not talking about my experience working on Apple's but from working on the many PC's that i have built and worked on over the years. It is not a "I say, they say" thing. All of my posts are from my personal experience and have absolutely no bearing on what they say occured.

@ Hik -

Sorry but my experience shows me that that tar, the "sticky" ingrediant in smoking is not electrically conductive. This come from working as a person in the field and from someone working on PC's. Tar is not carbon monoxide but a liquid.

Tar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So i dont know what your thinking of but Tar is used to patch small cracks in roads all over the place. As for my friend, yes he did smoke at his PC all day everday. He worked from homebuilding websites and writing software. So he was fully at his PC all day everyday. His tower was up above him as it was placed on the top shelf of his desk and he smoked right below it.

It is not a blanket statement. But simply something that i have seen in 15 years of experience of working on PC's when smokers were involved. If in 15 years and at least 50 machines are involved and not a single machine has died or been damaged from them being a smoker, i think i have a very valid point of view. It was just dekstop's either but several laptops as well. This is not something that i am just saying to cause a arguement or fight about. This is something that i have seen in a over a prolonged period of time.

I mean back when i first started using PC's smoking was still the thing to do and not frowned upon as heavily as it is today. Smoking was still allowed in the workplace and you could be around it everywhere. The amount of PC's damaged or dead back them from smoking cant even be calculated as it wasnt a issue back when smoking was the "in" thing to do. So why is it now when smoking is hard to do anywhere but in your own car or house that all of a sudden PC's are dying with greater quailty hardware? Sorry but i find that harder to believe.

The whole poin of this topic is what i have already said. Apple claims to not want to fix the PC's due to smoking but the warranty doesnt say anything against it. It is clear as day at the source. I am merely saying that in all of my years of working on PC's and being around them that this is about as believeable as blaming Windows cause your modem from 1992 doesnt work in Windows 7.

 

[hikaricloud]

@ Hik -

Sorry but my experience shows me that that tar, the "sticky" ingrediant in smoking is not electrically conductive. This come from working as a person in the field and from someone working on PC's. Tar is not carbon monoxide but a liquid.

Tar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So i dont know what your thinking of but Tar is used to patch small cracks in roads all over the place. As for my friend, yes he did smoke at his PC all day everday. He worked from homebuilding websites and writing software. So he was fully at his PC all day everyday. His tower was up above him as it was placed on the top shelf of his desk and he smoked right below it.

Okay...Alex, I'm not a moron. I know what tar is. What I am saying is there is more than tar that comes out of cigarette smoke.

It is not a blanket statement. But simply something that i have seen in 15 years of experience of working on PC's when smokers were involved. If in 15 years and at least 50 machines are involved and not a single machine has died or been damaged from them being a smoker, i think i have a very valid point of view. It was just dekstop's either but several laptops as well. This is not something that i am just saying to cause a arguement or fight about. This is something that i have seen in a over a prolonged period of time.

Well, I'm sorry my point of view isn't as valid from my experience in the field. But my point of view derives from my experience, it's not like I just decided one day "hey, I hate smokers, so I'm going to say this ridiculous crap".

You have your experience, I have mine. And smoking around ANY electronic equipment is something that should not be done.