How to remove those pesky Warranty Void If Removed security stickers, without voiding your warranty.
Two Minute Tech Tip
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EEVblog #799 – How To Remove Warranty Void Security Stickers
Shortest eevblog ever 😀
+Hesham Hamed Now he has to make 2-hour video 😀
Heating the sticker up with one of those hot air guns also works great. You can usually peel them off with a knife then if you’re carefull. Around 60-80 deg c should do the trick.
THAT IS HOW I PEEL OF MY BUBBLE AIR CHINEES ENVELOPE ADDRESS STICKERS AND USE THEM AGAIN.
You could desolder all the parts and return it and say it didn’t work 🙂
+Mila Miglia I suspect that empty circuit boards would be *slightly* suspicious and you might not get away with it… 😀
+Maanuueel42 m/(^_^) Replace a few caps with blown ones 😉
@TheRPGamer7 Fair enough… 🙂
+Mila Miglia ha ha that’s brilliant 😀
Or you could add something really nefarious to someone else’s device, and they’d believe it was still the unmodified original with tamper evident seal and all.
You can see reflection lines where you shoved it in, that’s why they use the reflective ones. If you heat it just a bit it should take care of that problem too, but don’t heat too much.
Warming it up with warm air can help soften the glue
+mikeselectricstuff Most air guns can easily burn the sticker or make the glue too soft so it will sip between the layers of the sticker and damage it, a better solution is to use one of those chemical heating bags that are used as hand / any other body part warmers you can buy them in any camping / outdoor / large retailer store.
Activate them, put them on a sticker put a folded towel on it to prevent too much heat from escaping and wait 30min and you can peal the sticker usually with even a tooth pick.
+DOGMA1138 „Hot air“ can also mean a hair drier, which helps with various stickers, IME.
@iceblinker Hair dryers can also produce quite hot air, in most of them it’s also much less regulated than an air gun.
Air guns heat up everything including the plastic which isn’t that good. You don’t want to heat up the sticker and the surface too much what you want is a long very moderate heating which heating patches do much better than heat guns or air dryers.
+DOGMA1138 You can easily control the temperature with your finger. If it burn, it’s time to stop. So it should keep the temperature under 50°C which is well accepted by plastics. Neither had a problem with it.
I use hot air from a 998d set to lowest heat setting. Just hit it with heat 10-30 seconds at a time, give it a check, rinse an repeat until the glue is soft enough/sticker peels off.
So basicly those stickers are useless against professionals… Only there to keep out normal people..
+TheAnubis022 Well not all. It depends on how clever the guy is and how much is spent on it. Take a look at Dave videos on a credit card system, there are tampering mesures that are far better than that but at a greater cost than a 0.10$ sticker.
+Jurva-Markus Vehasmaa If they only allowed people who knew what they were doing in, sounds like the stickers are doing well.
+Jurva-Markus Vehasmaa Most normal people are professionals.
Locks are too manufactured just to keep honest people away.
That moment when normal people can repair apple devices better than apple.
I use a heat gun to get stickers like that off, and Windows serial number stickers, etc. Heat gun plus a razor works great.
+D Cheverie I’ve used a heat gun the windows COA stickers, it works, just have to be careful. I don’t think this technique works well on those COA stickers though.
+EEVblog Hmm.. I should have something here I could test that on. lol How about a heat gun, + your method? Might be a bit easier? 🙂
+EEVblog A blow dryer works a bit better because you can keep it at a lower temp. Used to do this with 360s
+EEVblog I’ve tried it a grand total of 4 times now. Failed 3 times, my observation on the successful one was that i got it hot, then left it a little bit to cool down and then used a Teflon bag to do exactly what you did. Works really well and has the benefit of not leaving those lines the normal procedure does, which are visible.
To be mentioned that the failures were mostly impatience not procedure issue. IE i nicked the last portion and the safety filler lifted.
+D Cheverie may melt the bag! I use a heat gun to seal ESD bags, so it would have to be really low heat. 🙂 Good luck!
Hi,
I just use lighter fluid for this, soak the sticker, the more perforated the better, and it simply floats off, it’s faster and as soon as the fluid evaporates the glue is as good as new.
There is a risk of the glue going bad but I never had this issue on a security sticker.
I was hoping for a „You don’t“ and then a 2 minute compilation of Dave destroying these stickers…
+Danny Gelman I would like to see that.
+Danny Gelman That would be hilarious.
+Danny Gelman Or just him going „Just like this! *X-acto blade across the sticker* Ta-da! Easy! Catch ya next time!“
Users in the EU should note that these stickers carry no legal power, a manufacturer can not void your warranty just for opening the case of something you own, this is only in Europe.
Same in the US acturally
Do you have an official source? Cannot find anywhere
soundspark Sorry, meant about EU law.
No, it’s not just only in europe. US has federal laws for this too. It’s illegal to put a warranty sticker on
Its not „illegal“ per se. But the practice of denying a warranty simply because a device was opened is an illegal practice. Companies need to read up on the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act Act of 1975 which prohibits them from denying warranty claims if the customer used non-mfr parts. Nor can a mfr prohibit you from opening your hardware. Taking apart your hardware to clean it from dust (which causes heat build up and component failure) does not violate a warranty. If a company denies a claim simply because something was opened that is indeed an illegal practice. A company will only get away with this sort of practice until it bumps into someone willing to fight. Then their game is over.
Quite useful, thank you.
In Germany, the law says that doing stuff inside „inexpertly“ („unsachgemäß“) voids the warranty. Removing the sticker and taking a look alone does not fulfill that.
Messing with the sticker really moves the burden of proof from the vendor to you. If the sticker is intact, the assumption is always that you haven’t done anything inside. If the sticker is damaged or removed, you may have to prove that what you did was not „inexpertly“ or improperly, and did not cause the malfunction that you are trying to get fixed under warranty.
Of course, IANAL, and other countries‘ laws are different.
Well done! If you can’t open it, you don’t own it.
(Where „can’t“ could mean either „aren’t allowed to“, „are prevented from“, or „are not smart enough to“).
That one weird trick, manufactures hate him for!
+PKKShadow Earn $500 a day!
+PKKShadow I hear you can regrow all your hair and loose weight if you rub your scalp with a static bag for half an hour before bed.
I never did film the „warranty void if opened“ prank on my doctor when I was going in for surgery. I don’t remember his reaction but I heard it was great.
Oh and heating the sticker also helps.
I was totally sure he was just going to cut it with a knife and be done with it.
I’ve just removed the stickers and any evidence they even existed (remove glue, shiny bits, etc). The warranty center just assumes (or doesn’t even bother checking) that the manufacturing plant just forgot to add one.
„No one will suspect that you were inside having a play.“ Is it me or did that sound really, really dirty.
have you ordered your teflon Spatula from AvE?
„No one will suspect a thing“
Unless they watch your youtube video. ;D
so your’re teaching us bypass warranty void systems – cool