What does "Lifetime Warranty" mean?

Most memory modules these days carry Lifetime Warranty. What does it mean?

1. The owner's life time.

2. The memory module's life time. Does that mean if you buy a PC3200 stick now, the manufacturer will keep some PC3200 down the road for 10, 20, ... years so to replace it for you when it becomes necessary.

I hope my computers with these memory modules will never be obsolete to take advantage of the Lifetime Warranty.

PNY
PNY Technologies, Inc. (“PNY”), manufacturer of your newly purchased PNY memory module (the “product”), warrants the product to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for the life of the product as sold to the original purchaser (“purchaser”), subject to all the terms and conditions hereunder. This warranty is not assignable.
_ _ PNY’s sole obligation under this warranty is to replace or, at its option, to repair, free of charge, all the product’s defective parts. This warranty applies only on the condition that the product has been installed, maintained and operated under conditions of normal use and in accordance with the installation guide provided herewith. The provisions of this warranty shall not apply if, in PNY’s judgement, the product has been subject to misuse or neglect, improper installation, damaged in an accident, or repaired or altered in any way that adversely affects its performance or reliability. The product is not authorized for use as a critical component in life support devices or systems without the prior written consent of a duly authorized officer of PNY.
_ _ THIS WARRANTY IS IN LIEU OF ANY OTHER WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR TITLE AGAINST INFRINGEMENT, WHICH OTHER WARRANTIES ARE EXPRESSLY EXCLUDED AND DISCLAIMED. PNY SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR LOSS OF PROFITS OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHICH PURCHASER MAY SUSTAIN, EVEN IF PNY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSSES OR DAMAGES. IN NO EVENT SHALL PNY’S LIABILITY EXCEED THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THE DEFECTIVE PRODUCT.
_ _ SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THESE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS AND YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE.
_ _ Warranty coverage requires proof of purchase documentation evidencing the date of purchase (sales receipt or invoice). To obtain warranty service during the warranty period, contact your place of purchase or phone PNY at 1-800-769-7079.
_ _ FOR WARRANTY CONFIRMATION AND PRODUCT REGISTRATION VISIT US AT http://www.pny.com.
_ _ THIS WARRANTY SHALL NOT BE EXTENDED, ALTERED OR VARIED EXCEPT BY A WRITTEN INSTRUMENT DULY SIGNED BY PNY.

Click to expand...

this is only PNY's warranty policy and it is for the life of the warranty but I think ths will be indicative of pretty much any other manufacturer

... sole obligation under this warranty is to replace or, at its option, to repair, ...

Once it says, "at its option", it can mean yes or no.

So even my PC3200 dies in 10 years, it will most likely not to be replaced.

but will they have 3200 chips? what if they repaired it with 4200 chips

Are they going to stock many chips for 3200 or PC3200 waiting to honor the Lifetime Warranty in say 10, 20 years ?? Or just hope all the computer now would die, become obsolete first, ....

The 4200 chips probably will be another standard and timing, and won't be able to repair/replace the 3200 down the road.

i don't think so. and i sure hope you don't keep the same computer running on pc3200 for ten years, or even 20

warrants the product to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for the life of the product as sold to the original purchaser (“purchaser”), subject to all the terms and conditions hereunder. This warranty is not assignable.

Click to expand...

If you buy someone elses memory an do not have a reciept laying around for the same memory it will not be warrantied from what I have found out. I have had to rma Crucial an the first thing they ask for is a reciept for purchase but all mine has been thru Crucial so they have me on record. Have rma OCZ an had to send a copy of reciept for purchase. I am going thru a rma with Mushkin right now an they will rma the memory I purchased thru them but not a stick I purchased thru another vendor. They do not warranty 3rd party they claim. So I am still looking for that reciept if I have to push the issue. Buying memory from another person there is no warranty on it.

The computer today is pretty powerful (relatively). Hopefully and probably it should still be sitting at some corner of the house 10, 20, ... years doing some meaning things, such as ???

It may just be one of the many computers one will have in a house in 10, 20, ... years. It will still be useful for certain things except it burns quite a bit of power (relatively) at that time.

Think about it.....10 or 20 years.

What are our computers like today compared to those 10 and even 20 years ago???

You can't even compare them, a top end PC today will blow the doors off of anything from years ago. And then there's the supercomputers of today..........

So basically, 10 to 20 years from now, the machine you're on right now will be absolutely, completely, totally PATHETIC, even when compared to the lowest of the budget end of PC's.

I can remember years ago having one of the first Pentiums. it was 100MHz. Now there are PDA's with 400MHz processors!

Lifetime warrantees are as much a sales gimmick as anything!
Not just from computer related companies but any company.

Companies offering such warrantees are betting the product will be obsolete, thrown away, disregarded or forgotten before it needs replacing. Plus some companies has an escape clause demanding proof of purchase. So who or how many people keeps proof of purchase for 10 or 20 years?

Finally the biggie. A lot of these companies WILL NOT be around 20 years from now! i.e. 3Dfx offered lifetime/extended warrantees on their vcards, and what does it mean today? Companies either get bought out, go bankrupt, change their names and incorperation, leaving the buyers holding worthless warrantees. I personally don't base my buying decisions on lifetime warrantees regardless if the above may be disagreed with. I just don't expect such a bold promise to be honored in the first place. However I would place more importance on a lifetime warrantee getting me that warranty honored in say app. 5 years, if I need it by then...

Cheers,
Mike

I still remember something about the first IBMPC (1981):

Intel 8088 CPU, 4.77 MHz, 8 bit bus
16 KB memory (yes KB, not MB) expandable to 64K for our old friend DOS and Mr. Gate
25x80 character display
5 1/4" floppy
no hard drive (later deluxe one will come with 1-3 MB HD)
200 bps external modem (bps, not Kbps)
Few years later the 80286 broke the 640K memory barrier
Price $3000

What is typical now:

Bus 64/128 bit ----- 8/16x (8 bit)
CPU 2.5 GHz ----- 500x (5 MHz) (seems not that much a progress relatively)
Memory 512 MB ----- 8000x (64KB)
Hard Drive 100 G ----- 30000x (3 MB)
Video Card 9700 pro ----- almost infinity time better (MOST PROGRESS)


The first PC probably can be used as some sort of controller like in $20 toys, thermistat, sprinker, ... , less powerful than a $5 embedded controller today. But it is too much bigger and use too much electric power, to become practical and economical.

What can a today PC do 10-20 years from now ???

Probably something along the lines of changing channels on your TV....which by then would have 1 gogolplex of channels and full 3 dimensional viewing

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.......Warranty's mean pretty much nothing around here.

The second I buy a new component for my computer, I think about how I can void the warranty. By the time I open the package, that warranty is long gone, haha!

Stumpjumper5200 said:

Probably something along the lines of changing channels on your TV....which by then would have 1 gogolplex of channels and full 3 dimensional viewing

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.......Warranty's mean pretty much nothing around here.

The second I buy a new component for my computer, I think about how I can void the warranty. By the time I open the package, that warranty is long gone, haha!

Click to expand...

Well at least you made me laugh instead of castigating me like most people do!

And I do agree with practically everything you said, a WHOLE lot!

Cheers,
Mike

Stumpjumper5200 said:

Think about it.....10 or 20 years.

What are our computers like today compared to those 10 and even 20 years ago???

You can't even compare them, a top end PC today will blow the doors off of anything from years ago. And then there's the supercomputers of today..........

So basically, 10 to 20 years from now, the machine you're on right now will be absolutely, completely, totally PATHETIC, even when compared to the lowest of the budget end of PC's.

I can remember years ago having one of the first Pentiums. it was 100MHz. Now there are PDA's with 400MHz processors!

Click to expand...

hah, I got a bunch of PII 233mhz compaq's running at work, and they are still used for daily office tasks. slow sad machines