when it comes to my professional life I consider myself a little like Danny
ocean and not just because of the you
know World Travel fashion sense and uh flashy cars but because often in order
to do what I do I need to be able to get in and out of a secure area with no one
the wiser only instead of casinos and
Banks my theater of operations is consumer electronics and instead of
circumventing high Tech laser security systems and armed guards I carefully
remove those warranty void stickers without damaging them so that they can
be reapplied it's a wild ride living your
life on the razor's Edge and you know what I'm going to be showing you guys
how to do it
today I by power and MSI's new lineup of
gaming laptops feature Intel 7th generation core i7 processors check them
out at the link below warranty
stickers here's a question are those
even legally binding let's check in with
the lonus tech tips legal team for a brief primer oh hi now as you may or may
not know a warranty included in the box with an electronic device like a gain
console or smartphone is actually just a kind of contract now if one side breaks
or breaches a contract the other side doesn't have to perform in this case
that would mean that the manufacturer could void your warranty but there's an
exception to this there's a US federal law called the Magnus and Moss Warranty
Act of 1975 now this is a law that says
a manufacturer can't make a tie-in sale
a condition of a warranty well what's that well a tie in sale is when a
warranty says that you can only get your device for repaired at an authorized
dealer or use authorized replacement parts so this means if you decide to
repair your device on your own or use an aftermarket part they can't void your
warranty just based on that and that includes breaking those little warranty
voided for move stickers so if the law covers these stickers why do
manufacturers keep putting them on their products well the manufacturers know
that the only way that they can be forced to provide warranty service is if
somebody takes them to court and suit them over the sticker unfortunately the
companies also know that the cost of hiring a lawyer and actually going
through with this is usually going to be a lot higher than just getting the
product repaired in the first place meaning these companies are more or less
getting away with this and it'll probably take something like a class
action lawsuit which is essentially a bunch of people suing one or more
companies to end this Behavior the only time that either opening your device or
performing a self-repair or taking it to a third- party repair shop can actually
void your warranty is if they do an improper repair or an improper upgrade
that actually causes the device to malfunction or break this simply means
don't break your own stuff and you'll still be covered under a warranty it's
against the law for these manufacturers to tell you that you don't have a right
to try to repair your product on your own
terms thanks John now let's get to what
you all came to see legality aside what
is the best way to remove and replace a
warranty sticker so that an apathetic minimum wage employee can't tell you did
it there are tons of tips online about
this but we felt the need to test them
for ourselves because as you guys know
very well just because someone posts something online doesn't mean it's a
good idea and you wouldn't believe the number of unqualified people posting up
disreputable Tech advice these
days the electrostatic bag and heat gun
combo method wasn't a runaway success it
actually did work modestly well on stickers that were already fairly loose
or poorly applied in the first place but in tougher situations we often ended up
tearing the sticker while the materials you need are very likely to be lying
around and the non-stick properties of the bag are helpful it's also extremely
unwieldly and hard to control so this
one's a bit like using a medical glove as a condom sure it might work in
certain situations but it should never be your go-to
solution steam it works for letters so
it should work for stickers right wrong
your reservations about exposing your electronics to a jet of gaseous water
aside the steam just ended up being far harder on the sticker itself than it was
on the glue holding it while it did weaken the bond somewhat it also caused
the sticker to fall apart like a twice used tissue so 10 out of 10 highly
recommended IGN a straight utility or hobby knife
probably seems like a bit of a dicey proposition and it is yes with
sufficient care patience and luck
it is possible to remove a sticker with minimal to no damage by this method but
a simple slip of the hand or a little too much pressure at the wrong moment
can easily lead to a cut or a tear that will give the game away or Worse put an
unsightly scratch or scuff on your precious
device next we found a guide online in
which a fellow canak actually went through this process for building a
Teflon knife for exactly this purpose
but unfortunately sourcing the materials
and Manufacturing this kind of tool is both
costly and potentially dangerous without
sufficient tools and training so our
journey for a lowcost easy solution
continued we eventually found ourselves deep in the darkest dankest
and most dangerous parts of the internet
a community of competitive Rubik's Cube
enthusiasts and it was actually there that we found our Holy Grail a plastic
razor specifically designed for peeling the stickers off toy puzzle cubes it
removes warranty stickers just as easily as a metal razor but is a lot more
forgiving in terms of avoiding damage to the product it was not only able to lift
the warranty protection off a PS4 but it also managed to peel back the entire
warranty label on a hard drive intact
now both metal and plastic razors work
much better with a little solvent to help them but you need to be careful
about what you use you can find an almost inexhaustible list of household
products that people claim will work to
help remove adhesives but it's not always necessary or even advisable to
encase your sticker in peanut butter freeze it overnight sprinkle it with
ginger or rub it with the Dew of North
facing leaves so we tried out the three most reasonable and easily accessible
solvents that you're likely to have kicking around nail polish remover
rubbing alcohol and vinegar nail polish
remover was very effective at immediately removing the glue and
dissolving most of the sticker as well
vinegar fell on the opposite end of the spectrum even after leaving it to soak
it barely made a dent in the adhesive and when we attempted to pry the sticker
off there was significant tearing isopropyl alcohol hits the perfect Sweet
Spot in terms of loosening the sticker enough that we could get a prying tool
in without damaging it in the process
now it is important to note that some stickers are designed to peel back and
leave residue on the surface surface changing the appearance of the sticker
to read void and prevent replacement if
you come across this use a marker or a roller ball pen to color the reverse of
the sticker as you lift it that should allow you to press the sticker back down
and maintain the appearance that it hasn't been moved though it should be
noted that this won't help in cases where the manufacturer would have to
remove that sticker in order to perform whatever warranty repair is required now
now in a perfect world none of this would matter because consumer protection
laws but on planet Earth where I live
anytime you open your device there's a very strong chance that if your
manufacturer realizes it they will refuse to honor your warranty without a
costly and potentially very timeconsuming legal battle so whether
you want to make an upgrade to a pre-built computer change out a cooler
on a graphics card or just poke around inside your gadgets because they belong
to you out of principle do it carefully
and we hope you guys found this guide helpful freshbooks is the cloud-based
accounting solution for small business owners and Freelancers in a nutshell it
takes everything that you love about accounting which is nothing and makes it
easier and faster it also takes the stuff you don't love about it makes that
easier and faster too it works on your computer it works on your phone and it
allows you to do all of that boring stuff throughout the day and On The Go
instead of being stuck at the end of a long workday staring at your accounting
software so whether it's snapping a picture of an expense report or whether
it's firing off a professionall looking invoice in less than 30 seconds to a
client you can get it done quickly with
fresh books they've also got the ability to take payments through the platform
and even see when your client has seen your
invoice and and even see when your client has seen your invoice so you can
put an end to the guessing games for a 30-day free trial head to freshbooks.com
techtips and enter lineus Tech tips in the how did You Hear About Us section so
thanks for watching if this video sucked you know what to do but if it was great
hit the like button get subscribed maybe consider checking out where to buy the
stuff we featured at the link in the video description also down there is our
merch store where you can buy cool shirts like this one and our community
Forum which you should totally join