There was a time when PC RAM and storage products were sold with lifetime warranties. Replacement of these components was an inconvenience at worst, with parts exhibiting great reliability and sold at trifling prices. In 2026, the tide has fully turned, and we see even the largest businesses wriggling to avoid warranty repairs and replacements with little shame. Yet another anti-consumer case in point is shared by GRINZ_DOCTOR on the Mildly Infuriating Subreddit. It appears to be a bizarre episode where Best Buy ‘repaired’ an under-warranty laptop by simply removing one of its SODIMMs, testing it worked reliably, and then sent it back to the customer with half the memory it originally shipped with installed.

The good doctor’s case looks genuine from the documentary evidence shared. You can see at the top of the letter from Best Buy / Geek Squad, dated August this year, the device sent in for warranty repair was a “Lenovo – Upgraded – Legion 5 15.1-inch WXGA Gaming Laptop, Intel i9-14900HX, RTX 5070, 64GB DDR5, 2TB SSD, +1TB dock station, Win 11 Pro” laptop in black, available to buy at Best Buy in the exact configuration.

GRINZ_DOCTOR sent the eight-month-old 64 GB laptop in for attention after beginning to experience repeated blue screen crashing. The notes mention that underlying software issues were basically ruled out ahead of the warranty return, as reinstalling Windows didn’t help.

Amputation was the chosen 'cure'

The technician accepted the Legion 5 in good cosmetic condition with “no visible wear or damage.” After investigations, the blue screen issues were clearly pinned on RAM, as the Best Buy tech closed the case with repair notes as follows: “Unit has two 32GB sticks for a total of 64GB; this unit only accepts 32GB RAM maximum. One stick of 32GB has been removed and sent back to client with unit.” Before ending the note with the punchline “Unit passed all tests.”

Of course, we don’t know exactly what was done by the repair tech during their fault-finding and resolution process. However, a fix that involves removing one of a pair of RAM sticks, then the unit passing all reliability tests, isn’t how a warranty repair to a machine returned as configured should be concluded. Remember, GRINZ_DOCTOR insists they bought the unit as described on the upper section of the document with 64GB pre-installed, a product you can still get on Best Buy right now. Maybe one of the sticks has now got a hardware issue, but taking it out and saying ‘there, it works now’ seems like a fairly loose interpretation of a warranty fix.

The most popular advice for GRINZ_DOCTOR is to not let Best Buy get away with this level of service. They are advised to go to the store in person and keep escalating until a proper remedy - meaning a new working second RAM stick, or a like-for-like laptop replacement - is done.

As we mentioned in the intro, this isn’t an isolated case of a very large business refusing to honor the spirit of the warranty they previously waved proudly in front of consumers. Earlier this month, we reported on Micron offering pennies on the dollar for Crucial RAM returns. Meanwhile, in NAND-land, SK hynix reportedly ran out of replacement SSDs and is instead insisting on original purchase price refunds.

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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.