Watch out-repairing Mac mini

[angeloweb]

The card reader on my Mac mini (Late 2014 edition) stopped working. On Mac mini's, most everything is on the logic board, so that needs replaced. Under Applecare Warranty, so all should be well.

I take it in to Apple -- two days later my computer is ready. When I get home, pull up System Info. My 16GB of memory is now 8GB.

So, I go right back to Apple. They agree that I should have 16GB, so they order a new logic board. I get home and see in my email that the logic board they've ordered does have 16GB, but I notice that the CPU has dropped from a 3GHz i7 to a 2.8GHz i5.

So I call the store and go through multiple people to get back to the Genius Room. It took a few minutes to explain to the Genius that even the latest ordered logic board didn't match my original. It turns out their system would not let them order the maxed out board. They had to jump through some hoops to order it in a non-regular way.

Two and a half weeks later, the correct party came in, got installed and all is now well. But beware. How many maxed out minis, or even any Apple product, are coming back with inferior guts. Most would not have checked.

 

[MH01]

Interesting. I've always bought maxed out units, and repairs have always been perfect. I'd assume this was a system hiccup , sucks that you had to wait so long.

This is why I hate new apple gear, everything is soldered. Can't just replace a ram unit, bad news for fixes outside of warranty

 

[neander]

Damn, that sounds like a douche bag move by Apple... "their systems doesn't allow it".. what the heck is that, good way to punish the guys that have forked out the most by Apple. (if its true everywhere..)

Watch out peeps.

 

[Micky Do]

I never have been impressed by the idea of having the card reader in an awkward to access position at the back of the Mini….. depending on where you have it. I suspect it could be one of the less reliable parts anyway. Maybe in a future iteration the card reader will go the way of the optical drive, with users have the option of using an external card reader of their choice.