I have some questions about the warranty on an Octo, and a component on one Octo that is not present on another Octo.

Details:
I bought an Octo from someone who originally purchased it from Aquatuning Germany on May 9, 2022. This person claimed he discovered that his fans could not plug into the Octo because they had proprietary PWM/RGB connectors. He said he never connected the Octo and the box was still sealed when I received it. When I got the Octo I stupidly did not immediately test it (since it was sealed). Now, 11 months later I finally connected it, only to discover that its dead. It does not appear in AQS or Device Manager and the red LED does not light up when power is applied. My other Octo plugged in with the same power and USB cable works fine.

I thought OK maybe he lied and blew it up and somehow replaced the seal on the box. I inspected the circuit board which looked fine except for one suspicious component that looks like it was hand soldered in. I then looked at my working Octo's circuit board and was surprised to discover that this component is not there. My questions are:

1. What is this component on the newer, dead Octo that is not present on my older, working Octo? Was there a revision to the Octo circuit board? My working Octo was purchased in 2021. The dead Octo with this added component was originally purchased in May 2022.
   
   
2. The Aquacomputer RMA form says warranty on their products is 24 months, so this Octo should still be under warranty for the next 19 days. Does the warranty transfer if the product is sold to someone else (me)? The original buyer sent me his original receipt from Aquatuning Germany, dated May 9, 2022.
   
   
3. If Aquacomputer will honor the warranty on the dead Octo, would I have to pay to ship it back to them and also pay for them to ship me a replacement? Would the shipping costs make this pointless? (I am in the US).
   
   
4. Is there a sacrificial fuse or diode on the Octo that blows to protect the rest of it? If yes, is it possible to replace or bypass this component? (I am pretty good with a soldering iron but don't have a set up to replace SMD components).
   
   
5. Here are pictures of the dead Octo and my working Octo. I also attached higher resolution photos. The added component on the dead Octo is highlighted with a red box. This component is not present on the older (2021) working Octo. What is it? Should I attempt to remove it?

Maybe, but maybe not. I will definitely email support about this. I posted it here because I recall Aquacomputer saying it could take up to 4 weeks for them to respond to an email sent to support, and there is a chance that they will respond here sooner. If they do honor the warranty, I only have 19 days left until the 2 year anniversary of the original purchase date. I don't want the warranty to expire while I am possibly waiting weeks for them to respond to an email. I also thought that the fact than an Octo purchased in 2022 has an additional component that appears to have been hand soldered onto the circuit board may be of interest to others on the forum. It certainly surprised me.

Zitat von »sebastian«

Everything is fine with both PCB versions.

Thank you for confirming that both circuit boards are fine, but the newer Octo is not fine. It is completely dead. It was originally purchased on May 9, 2022 by the person who sold it to me still factory sealed. I have his original receipt from Aquatuning Germany.

Does the warranty on your products transfer if the original buyer sells one of your products to someone else? If yes, can I get this dead Octo replaced under the original warranty? If no, does the Octo have a sacrificial fuse or diode that I could attempt to replace or bypass? I do not want to just throw this Octo into the trashcan. I would prefer to get it replaced under warranty or at least attempt to fix it.

Thank you again for your assistance.

Thank you for confirming that the warranty does transfer, and clarifying that I would have to go through the RMA process with Aquatuning Germany. I do not think you are an Aquacomputer representative, but you are a senior member of this forum so I will accept that what you say is true. I do have the original invoice. Its in German but I just noticed that it says the order was placed with Aquatuning USA, so I will start by contacting them. I would much prefer to not have to pay to ship the Octo back to Germany.

I am looking at the box it came in. The factory seal was in place when I got it but I see that you can easily open the box from the bottom and get everything out without disturbing the sticker. Maybe they person I bought it from blew it up then sold it to me, claiming he never opened it. The thing is, he was not trying to sell it. He happened to mention in a Reddit post that he bought one then found out he could not connect his fans to it. I asked him if he was willing to sell it. I actually had to bug him several times. If he blew it up and decided to sell it to some unsuspecting person, he would not have acted the way he did. The whole thing is just weird.

If the warranty exchange does not work out for whatever reason. do you know if the Octo has a fuse or diode that blows if someone does something stupid? If it does, I could try to repair it. Thanks again.

Zitat von »InfoSeeker«

I would still contact aquacomputer support first, they are good about supporting their devices.
If it is determined the unit is bad, you may not need to return it, I believe they can disable the serial number.

Oh I did not think of that, Disabling the device based on its serial number would be fine with me. I sent an email to Aquacomputer support last Friday (April 21) but have not received a response yet. I sent an email with the original Aquatuning receipt attached to Aquatuning last night per Hufeisen's advice. I received an automatic confirmation that they received the email and opened a ticket but no response yet.

It was stupid of me to assume it had never been used because the sticker was still intact on the box. I should have tested it when I received it. I paid with PayPal so I could have gotten my money back. At this point, if I can get the Octo replaced by Aquacomputer or Aquatuning I will be happy. If I can't, I will break out my meter and try to figure out if there is a blown fuse or diode in the DC voltage paths. Since the Octo is dead, I have nothing to lose by trying to repair it. I remain curious about the mystery component that looks like it was hand soldered onto the circuit board. Sebastian said its fine but did not provide any explanation for why this component was added. It seems to be associated with the temp headers but without a schematic, its hard to tell. I wonder if this was a temporary fix and they later updated the circuit board.

Still no response to the email I sent to Aquacomputer support, and no response from Aquatuning other than an automated email that said they got my message and opened a ticket. I still don't know for sure which company will handle the RMA replacement of this Octo. I recall Aquacomputer posting that it may take several weeks for them to respond to an email sent to support. If they don't respond by May 8th, the warranty will expire. I don't know if the fact that I sent the email before the warranty expired will make any difference. I may try calling Aquatuning if I don't hear back from them by this Friday. So far, I don't seem to be getting anywhere with either company but I remain hopeful that one of them will honor the warranty on the dead Octo.

Zitat von »sebastian«

you have to wait.

Thank you. I am waiting.

I just heard back from Aquatuning. They said they can only offer a partial refund because of the cost to ship the dead Octo back to them in Germany. They did not say how much the partial refund would be, and it may not be worth it. I asked them to please tell me how much they would refund, so I can make a decision. I would very much prefer to have you deactivate the Octo based on its serial number, then ship me a new Octo. It is quite small so I am hoping that the shipping cost from Germany to the US would not be so expensive that it makes no sense to do it.

Zitat von »sebastian«

Such stories we often hear, then comes out at the end, that it was already connected with self-made cable and shot with reverse polarity ... etc.

I have no idea what the person who sold me the Octo did to it before he sold it to me. If he did reverse the power polarity or reversed the 12VDC and 5VDC, then I would not expect you (or Aquatuning) to honor the warranty. I just don't know what he did, if anything. I have been completely honest about the whole thing and would understand if you choose not to honor the warranty in this situation. This is why I asked if there is a fuse or diode that blows to protect the rest of the circuitry. If there is, maybe I could replace or bypass the blown component and get it working. I have nothing to lose by trying to repair it.

If you could please let me know if you are willing to deactivate the Octo and replace it, and tell me how much if will cost to ship a replacement Octo to the United States, then I can make a decision on whether to do this or return the dead Octo to Aquatuning in Germany and get at least a partial refund. If I can fix it by replacing or bypassing a blown fuse, I am willing to try. If you will not honor the warranty and it is not repairable, then please tell me this and I will either accept a partial refund from Aquatuning or sadly throw the Octo into the trash can and move on. This is the first and last time that I will buy an Aquacomputer product from another individual and not immediately test it. Lesson learned!

I finally heard back from Aquatuning in Germany. They have offered to refund 50% of the original purchase price for my dead Octo, but I have to return it to them in Germany. Since the shipping cost will be more than the refund, it makes no sense to do this.

I am still hoping that Aquacomputer will honor the original 2-year warranty directly, deactivate the dead Octo, and send me a replacement Octo. I assume that I will have to pay to ship the replacement Octo from Aquacomputer to me in the United States. I am hoping that the shipping price will be less than what it would cost to just buy a new Octo from a US distributor. The best price I have found in the US is USD $73.50. I suspect the shipping price from Germany to the US will be less than that. If Aquacomputer is willing to do this I would like to proceed. I will send another email to Aquacomputer support since this post may not be responded to.

If Aquacomputer will not honor the warranty or the shipping cost is prohibitive, I would still like to know if the Octo has a protection fuse that I could possibly replace or bypass. Its already dead, so I have nothing to lose by trying.

Just an update - Aquacomputer support finally contacted me. They suspect the Octo is dead due to a user-caused issue with the DC power, which is possible since I do not know if the person I bought it from was honest when he said he never connected the Octo at all. The clear factory sticker was not cut but he could have taken the Octo out through the bottom of the box. A strange thing for an honest person to do, but who knows. While they are not willing to replace the Octo with a new one under the warranty, they did offer a fair solution. I doubt anyone on this forum cares about my Octo woes, but I did want to post publicly to say that Aquacomputer is taking care of me in a reasonable way, and I am thankful for the support they have offered in this situation.