Warranty void if removed, but what if the sticker breaks the GPU?
Source:ExtraCrunchy/Reddit
We all hate “warranty void if removed” stickers. These stickers are usually placed on the back side, where the screws are. Manufacturers use them as an easy way to see whether a card has been taken apart. However, the presence of a sticker does not automatically mean you cannot remove it. It depends on the laws in the country where you live.
“Warranty void if removed” stickers do not automatically cancel warranty coverage. In the USA, a sticker alone cannot void a warranty under Magnuson-Moss, and the FTC has warned that “broken seal voids warranty” claims can be illegal, though coverage can be denied if the damage was caused by repair, modification, or misuse. In the EU, the seller’s 2-year legal guarantee still applies and cannot be removed by a manufacturer warranty, but a claim can be refused if the seller proves the consumer caused the fault, with a presumption for at least the first year that the defect existed at delivery unless proven otherwise.
But there is a different type of sticker that can also include this warning, and those are serial number labels. These are often more important to GPU vendors because they are used to identify the card’s origin and verify authenticity. Apparently one user had an issue with said sticker, which basically rendered the card faulty by blocking the PCIe lanes and causing connection errors, which led to freezes:
“My PC kept freezing and crashing after installing a brand-new, factory-sealed 5070 Ti. I noticed PCIe errors in HWiNFO and went to re-seat the card. Lo and behold, I found the issue. It’s absolutely egregious that this made it through QC.”
So how could this happen? As far as we know, these days almost every GPU that leaves the factory is tested internally. Each card is typically run for a set amount of time, usually around 10 to 15 minutes, in a loop test that can catch issues with power and thermals. But what if the card is not correctly inserted into the slot during testing? Based on what we can assume, the card may have been tested, but the freezing issue showed up later, or the test was not performed correctly at PNY.
This wasn’t even the only case in the Reddit thread, another user says that their RTX 5080 PNY card arrived with a similar issue, but this was caught before installation:
Source: geraam/Reddit
In any case, if you see a sticker covering the PCIe connector or slot area, document its original placement. You can ask the retailer for a replacement. If you want a slower but sometimes simpler route, contact the GPU vendor and ask if the card’s serial number is recorded internally as having had the sticker moved.
Source: Reddit
