Upgrading RAM - Will it void my warranty?

I had this same question. I just bought 8GB of RAM and attempted to install it myself. However, I had trouble with one of the screws starting to strip and so I stopped. When I called one of my local Apple stores, I was told emphatically that had I opened the laptop and installed the RAM myself I would have voided my warranty. This was told to me after consulting one of their on-site geniuses! Since I have had this laptop for less than a month and I did purchase the Apple Care extended warranty I would have been so upset!

The guy at the store told me the only way to upgrade without voiding the warranty is to 1) purchase the RAM from them ($200 vs the $40 I paid) and have them install it or 2) go to an Apple-certified repair shop. They would not install RAM I purchased myself.

Now I did read the manual and do agree that it seems to state that damage resulting from an inproper RAM (or HD) install would not be covered by the warranty. But considering the response I received from the folks at my local store, it makes me wonder if attempting to make a warranty claim in the future would be met with resistance from Apple if they were to determine that an "unauthorised" RAM/HD install had been made on the machine.

Does anyone have any live experience with having done an upgrade themselves and still having their warranty honored...or not honored, as the case may be?

i just changed ram modules on my macbook (8GB module), the mac still is just brand new and i was wondering... if I need to ask for warranty do i need to put back the original 4G modules thast came with the mac before bringing it to apple support?

Yep. I thought I wouldn't void the warranty by doing so, so I replaced the RAM and when I took it to the store due to a hard drive problem they noticed one of the screws was fitted improperly and they refused to take it. Luckily it was a very nice guy who told us he wouldn't say anything to his boss and it was ok for us to replace the RAM back to 4GB and come again. So we did and they replaced my MacBook Pro, but we still didn't go there for them to swap the memories themselves.

In the end, I took my RAM and MacBook Pro to an authorized repair shop and had them install the memory ($25). They made note of it in their system, so hopefully if I ever need to make a claim I can take my notebook to this repair shop. It was fortunate that your technician was nice enough to accept your notebook and allow the claim!