So I been reading about the logic boards failing in the 2011's for a long time. I thought for a while it was never going to happen to me, and I was basically chalking it up to the fact I replaced the CPU and GPU thermal paste as soon as I started hearing issues. But the other day I was using it for a few minutes and it just shut off. It wasn't over heating - but I had just started a vm which seemed strange. I after it shut off and couldn't get it to boot. Did a bunch of troubleshooting just in case it was another part like the ssd or ram, finally took it in to the Genius bar and the tech knew in about 3 minutes it was the logic board.
A couple of days later I get a call saying that the FaceTime camera is not being detected and they wanted to know if I wanted to replace it - I declined the $300 repair and just took the free logic board replacement under the repair program. Obviously I can't prove this, and I don't use the camera very often but the last time I used it, it worked (probably a month or two prior) but whatever.
Now for the next part I have to give some background, I put in an aftermarket SSD, RAM, and when el Capitan came out I put in a 2012 Airport card so I could have the bluetooth 4.0 for handoff etc. When I get the repair sheet back it had listed in there that the wireless card did not pass diagnostic and it was just replaced. So basically now I am back to the non bluetooth LE card which doesn't support any handoff features etc. I do appreciate the apple techs going through and fixing little things if they find wrong, but I was not happy that I wasn't told it failed during the repair and was just replaced automatically. Long story short I ended up having a very nice customer relations rep, who tried to get the part back but failed, so they did offer me a free accessory from the apple store to make up for it. Tried to get the new apple tv - but not successful
. I'm not trying to just shove my rant on the forums, things happen and I can always buy a new one (or probably buying a new macbook soon).
So TDLR your SSD and even RAM should be safe if you go under the repair, but if you have a newer airport card in there you should remove it.
A couple of days later I get a call saying that the FaceTime camera is not being detected and they wanted to know if I wanted to replace it - I declined the $300 repair and just took the free logic board replacement under the repair program. Obviously I can't prove this, and I don't use the camera very often but the last time I used it, it worked (probably a month or two prior) but whatever.
Now for the next part I have to give some background, I put in an aftermarket SSD, RAM, and when el Capitan came out I put in a 2012 Airport card so I could have the bluetooth 4.0 for handoff etc. When I get the repair sheet back it had listed in there that the wireless card did not pass diagnostic and it was just replaced. So basically now I am back to the non bluetooth LE card which doesn't support any handoff features etc. I do appreciate the apple techs going through and fixing little things if they find wrong, but I was not happy that I wasn't told it failed during the repair and was just replaced automatically. Long story short I ended up having a very nice customer relations rep, who tried to get the part back but failed, so they did offer me a free accessory from the apple store to make up for it. Tried to get the new apple tv - but not successful
. I'm not trying to just shove my rant on the forums, things happen and I can always buy a new one (or probably buying a new macbook soon). So TDLR your SSD and even RAM should be safe if you go under the repair, but if you have a newer airport card in there you should remove it.
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