[drowsy]

Are they going to freak when they see the boot screen? Will they just pave it over or will they ignore it? Or am going to get the Apple cops at my door? Its a power issue so the hard drive should not be a problem.

[aak7268]

I would think they definitely are going to give you grief. Doubtful that they'd call the Terms of Service cops on you; but it's pretty clear that you've modded the Mini to run a non-standard OS. I don't know if warranty issues have been discussed in the forum previously; but in my experience, it's most likely that they'll send it back to you untouched and say that they can't honor the warranty on it, because you've voided it.

[bmcclure937]

In what way is the OP voiding the warranty? How did the OP mod their netbook to run an "unsupported" OS?

No physical changes have been made to the hardware in order for the Mini to run Mac OSX and no damage has been done. Running OSX on your Mini is the same as running Ubuntu or Windows XP. Installing a different operating system or a different bootloader should not have any impact on your warranty and I would not be worried at all. If there is a hardware defect it is definitely not caused by running OSX on your machine.

To play things safe you could always make a backup and put the original OS back on the Mini (if it is still in running condition). Otherwise, I would not worry about it.

[aak7268]

Sorry, should have clarified.

*I* don't think that the OP voided the warranty by installing OS X. I'm just recounting what I've experienced in other factory repair instances.

When the worker monkeys get something that looks out of place, their first impulse is to freak out and throw it as far away from themselves as they can. Hopefully the OP gets a good tech who ignores the OS and focuses on the hardware (as they should).

[drowsy]

Thanks guys, I can imagine that there might be a pass-the-buck issue. But since the problem is no power, hopefully they fix that, boot it, go 'whassdat?' and ship it back. The more I think about it, the less I think they'll care as long as the lights come on.

I might try to yank the drive and make an image. Thanks for replying, fellows.

Cheers.

[hofo]

Things may have changed (for your sake I hope so) but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they simply refuse to touch it. Several years ago (ok, eons) I was a computer services tech upgrading a network of 15-20 Dell workstations from Windows 3 to Windows 95 (I said eons...) and kept running into some problem during the upgrade that would bork the whole thing. After two of them went down I realized it wasn't some anomaly and after sitting on hold for about 20 minutes got through to Dell tech support. The guy (and the next one I talked to) refused to help me at all. Why? Because we were upgrading the systems to an OS that didn't ship with the machine from the factory. I was told in no uncertain terms that the only way I was going to get support for those machines was to leave them on Windows 3.

And the then guy had the gall to suggest that if I had a network of that many of their desktops that I should consider getting a dedicated support contract! To me recollection I sputtered, enraged, at the incongruity of it all and basically hung up on them. Then I went out to the 'net and found the solution to me problem.

Afterwards I swore off Dell altogether. It wasn't that difficult as I'm a Mac guy back to the 128, but I've never recommended any Dell purchase to anyone. Buying my Mini 10v was the first money I've directly or indirectly given them. So far so good. I've got no complaints with the hardware, just some issues with it as a Hackintosh (but it's a great $300 laptop running OS X).

[aaron580]

If your like me and know this netbook like the back of my hand you could ask dell to send you the parts for what needs to be repaired. Thats what ive done for years and they dont care. Heck with sending it in takes to long

[drowsy]

@aaron

Wow. I didn't know that was possible!