Does Partition Magic Void Warranties?
“Robin” raised an intriguing issue: I have a question concerning your comments about running a couple of operating systems and the use of Partition Magic. I have just ordered a new Dell and when talking to the salesman, I happened to mention that I was considering doing this as I had some software that ran on Win 98SE and not XP, he stated that if I did this I would void my warranty on the Dell. This somewhat confused me, is he correct or was he blowing some ignorant smoke? It’s normal for a vendor not to offer support for stuff you’ve installed on your own. If you add, say, Partition Magic or a second operating system, the vendor has every right not to give you support for that specific stuff, or for problems the added software may cause with the original setup: In other words, the vendor is responsible for the machine *as shipped,* not as modified by you. (And even then, the hardware vendor may defer all software support questions to the software publishers.) But there’s no way that
