Apple Expanding Pilot Program Allowing Repairs of Select Vintage Macs Worldwide, Starting With 2012 MacBook Air

[ignatius345]

The bony hand of "vintage and obsolete" is reaching for my 2013 MacBook Air, which is still going quite strong. I just popped it open and replaced the battery a few weeks ago. Took all of 15 minutes.
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Of course it is. All of Apple's politically correct environmental BS is just a bunch of politics. Apple would like everybody on the planet to replace their phones and computers every year with the newest Apple offerings. What about the replaced devices? We have plenty of landfill space for those!

I agree with your larger point about non-repairability -- but to be fair the idea is that old products get broken down for recycling instead of being tossed into landfill.
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2012 MacBook airs are great!

They still had steve’s Input into them.

Apple most likely extended them as the amount of users still using them is huge. It’s not the users fault that the 12inch MacBook just sucks. Speaks volumes to the one port!

Tim should earn his 120 million bonus and do the opposite of what he normally does.

Exactly. I still see TONS of MBAs out in the real world. They're well built and highly functional. The 12" Retina MacBook was the first and only Mac I've ever bought and returned.

 

[Tozovac]

Giving the public a perceived environment-concious attitude is going to win over more customers and increase sales, but actually increasing the lifespan of the hardware is going to decrease sales as fewer people will be upgrading.

Until you or I or anyone for that matter becomes a good enough of an economist and trend foreseer, I don't know that either of us are correct.

I bought a heck of a lot more Apple products back when I felt they were giving me value for what I wanted as a customer, even buying things "earlier than I needed" because I perceived such value from Apple products. from 2005-2013 I'd bought 3 ipods, 4 ipads, 1 mac pro, 1 MacBook air, two apple TV's, one of their routers/pucks (I forget the name), and those were just for myself. I've bought my sister & mom an iPad, my nephews iPods, and my one nephew an MBA. Ever since Apple went towards a full-on focus on thinness first and removed the ability to expand their laptops, and ever since they started dabbling with removing features like headphone jacks and USB ports, their value-to-dollar ratio has plummeted for me. Haven't bought a new Apple product since 2014 other than an upgraded Apple TV but that was free from DirecTV.

Point being - I'm much more likely to spend more on Apple products in the future if I were getting high value from them. Now that their laptops have a finite shelf life due to un-expandability, (and now that they're prioritizing "features" more about fashion/thinness than current/everyday use), that could very well drive me back to PC/windows. I'd go from spending more than $10,000 on Apple products every 8-10 years to basically none, or as little as I could since the value isn't there as much as before.

So not everything is black & white (or green) when it comes to "doing the right corporate citizenship thing" vs. seeking sales to support growth.

For the current big picture for the majority who just want the shiniest newest Apple product every 12-24 months, you're probably sadly correct about some over-designed tree installations doing more for their PR than doing "a right thing" like allowing more life out of their manufactured product. For those of us who think about trying to do the right things now for 25 years+ out, we think more about where the white plastic tree containers from Apple stores are going to be buried. I guess we can fill all our vintage 2014 MacBook airs into them before burning or burying.

 

[Spock]

Apple's software support has not kept up with the increasing viability of older hardware. Dropping the 2011 Macs in Mojave was a deliberate move, and the quad-core iMacs and MacBook Pros from 2011 still have faster processors than a lot of supported Macs.

In 2009, a lot of people complained when Apple dropped PowerPC. But the only PowerPC Mac that could possibly outperform a Core 2 Duo MacBook Air was a Power Mac G5 Quad. Today, there are a half-dozen different Macs from 2010 / 2011 with CPUs that can outperform Apple's brand new $1,299 MacBook.

I think it’s because of the graphics, Mojave requires metal compatible hardware.

 

[the johnmc]

Slightly relevant -

My non retina 2012 13” wouldn’t boot up anymore, completely out of random. I highly doubt that ssd has failed. Read somewhere that usually for these models it’s the SATA cable that’s at fault? I have not opened the Mac recently, just when I upgraded the ram and ssd which was years ago, does anyone know if Apple will help with 6 years old device and sadly out of Apple Care too.

Gods if I lose the month long non back up work files and some photos, I’m so dead.

They'll likely repair it for you, but it won't be cheap. What I'd recommend doing is getting that SSD into an enclosure and get the data off. Give them a call and see how it goes.

 

[killr_b]

Why is the 2011 iMac only for the U.S. and Turkey?? I bought my Mac from the U.S. online store and had it shipped to Canada so should that count? I’ve got a giant boat anchor thanks to a dead graphics card.

It's really California and Turkey. Cali and Turkey have a 7 year repair law.

 

[gertruded]

The Air is STILL the best laptop ever made by Apple (or anyone else). Our 2012 and 2015 machines are, and will remain, our main machines until Apple eventually comes up with a better design.

 

[redheeler]

I think it’s because of the graphics, Mojave requires metal compatible hardware.

I addressed that in my second post in this thread: Hence the deliberate decision to drop 2011 Macs and pre-Metal GPUs in Mojave, despite the fact the OS still has an OpenGL renderer.

The good news is that many pre-Metal Macs can still run Mojave unsupported. But there are some such as the iMacs from 2010 / 2011 with AMD Radeon GPUs that have trouble; not because Mojave doesn't have OpenGL, but because the High Sierra graphics driver seemingly doesn't work properly in Mojave.

 

[StellarVixen]

So, the 13" MacBook Pro from 2012 is now the oldest non Vintage Mac? Apple stopped selling those in 2016, I think.

 

[citysnaps]

They must have a ton of parts left over for this to happen. It also implies that these models are more reliable than expected.

No. Apple runs very lean with respect to inventory. And that includes repair parts.

 

[coolfactor]

Slightly relevant -

My non retina 2012 13” wouldn’t boot up anymore, completely out of random. I highly doubt that ssd has failed. Read somewhere that usually for these models it’s the SATA cable that’s at fault? I have not opened the Mac recently, just when I upgraded the ram and ssd which was years ago, does anyone know if Apple will help with 6 years old device and sadly out of Apple Care too.

Gods if I lose the month long non back up work files and some photos, I’m so dead.

You'd be able to tell if the SSD failed. Is it making any tone at all when you start up? Usually, as soon as you press the Power button, it will do a self-diagnostic and issue a tone indicating the problem.

 

[Webster's Mac]

If it was sata cable likely would boot with ? folder gray screen. Could be board sadly, that is an amazing machine.

Yes, this is probably the sata cable. Plug in the SSD into another machine to be sure, but I'm pretty confident the cable is your issue. These fail all the time on these models. You can get an aftermarket one from OWC for cheap and DIY if you've had a bit of repair experience. Apple probably won't touch it because you put aftermarket parts in.

 

[alvindarkness]

Slightly relevant -

My non retina 2012 13” wouldn’t boot up anymore, completely out of random. I highly doubt that ssd has failed. Read somewhere that usually for these models it’s the SATA cable that’s at fault? I have not opened the Mac recently, just when I upgraded the ram and ssd which was years ago, does anyone know if Apple will help with 6 years old device and sadly out of Apple Care too.

Gods if I lose the month long non back up work files and some photos, I’m so dead.

Considering Mac's can boot from USB sticks you should be able to narrow things down pretty easily. Keep holding down the option key while powering the laptop on, it should bring up the boot menu. If it does, use another Mac to either create a USB installer, or even better do a full macOS install onto a USB stick. Place it into your Air, hold down option key on powerup again and boot into it. Heck you could just try boot into Internet Recovery mode if you dont have another mac handy. Should be pretty straight forward to then see whats going on (if the SSD drive is detected in disk utility etc).

 

[Packdude]

No. Apple runs very lean with respect to inventory. And that includes repair parts.

There was a story earlier this year that Apple had "fully restocked" their inventory of top case assemblies for Mid 2012 and Early 2013 MBP's. Prior to that, they were offering people either a free repair when the parts became available or a 'functionally equivalent model' for the $199 out of warranty repair cost. We may never know the quantities of parts they keep for repairs, but their shortage appears to have been our gain, at least for several months. I'm hoping they have a similar shortage when the time comes for me to replace the battery in my Late 2013 MBP.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Does anyone know how they classify "vintage?"

Do they just use like an arbitrator number, like 5 years?

While I understand that might give some guidance to consumers, I believe the 2012 air and the 2015 air are substantially similar and use similar parts. In other words, what's the difference between servicing a 2014 and a 2012?

 

[alvindarkness]

They still need to service the now vintage 15 inch MacBook Pro 2011 with the bad ATI video card. I have one sitting for two years!!

This is STILL needed for 2011 17” MBPs that never had their GPU issues fixed, even after THREE logic board swaps: at Apple’s cost!!!

Mine failed for the 4th time just last week, obviously Apple wont do anything. So I ended up doing the resistor mod, which effectively removes all power to the AMD GPU chip, and its now working fabulously - minus the dGPU functionality obviously. Only caveat is that while Sierra is flawless, High Sierra does have some issues (brightness keys not working and the like). Ubuntu 18.04 and 18.10 also work without issue with the mod. Another bonus is it runs much cooler now and battery life is prolonged. I'm quite pleased with the solution, considering the alternative would've been a dead laptop.

 

[ussct2014]

I used it to have a power supply replaced in my 2011 27" iMac about two months ago. Worked out very well.

This doesn't solve the issue of Apple ignoring faulty 27" LG displays used in the computer -- but that is a conversation for another thread.

Just thankful my computer, which is in great condition, was able to be repaired.

 

[bladerunner2000]

I should offer my own service for pre-2012 17” MacBook pros, I’ve repaired so many of those. Of course in those days they were made to be repaired, so it’s a cinch.

Just think of what keeping your 17” running would be worth in the UK. I’d Have so many squids.

Look into Louis Rossmann's youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup

 

[TVreporter]

It's really California and Turkey. Cali and Turkey have a 7 year repair law.

Well the Mac was shipped from Cupertino - could I argue it should be covered?

 

[iTurbo]

Does anybody know what model identifier this 2012 MBA pertains to? I bought my 11" MBA in 2013 and it is a 6,1.

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

You'd be able to tell if the SSD failed. Is it making any tone at all when you start up? Usually, as soon as you press the Power button, it will do a self-diagnostic and issue a tone indicating the problem.

Thankfully it’s not that, I tried the verbose mode? And it was something on the count of - disk1 i/o error. It stars up fine, and then always gets stuck on apple start up logo screen even if the loading bar completes to 100%.

Weirdly I can’t even access disk utility with command and R.
But I know for a fact that ssd should be good, as I had just checked last with the repair disk on Macintosh HD, as I was checking on a new HDD I got.

Gonna take Mac in for diagnosis, I hope it’s just the SATA cable and I can at least retrieve some files.

 

[justperry]

Thankfully it’s not that, I tried the verbose mode? And it was something on the count of - disk1 i/o error. It stars up fine, and then always gets stuck on apple start up logo screen even if the loading bar completes to 100%.

Weirdly I can’t even access disk utility with command and R.
But I know for a fact that ssd should be good, as I had just checked last with the repair disk on Macintosh HD, as I was checking on a new HDD I got.

Gonna take Mac in for diagnosis, I hope it’s just the SATA cable and I can at least retrieve some files.

Corrupted System, or indeed something wrong with your SSD or Cable, it says Disk 1 i/o error, i.e. can't (partly) read/write.

As others have said before, try Internet recovery, think it is CMD/Option/R at start up.

Btw, I too have a 2012 13" MBP, it is still supported, it was for sale until October 2016

The Air is STILL the best laptop ever made by Apple (or anyone else). Our 2012 and 2015 machines are, and will remain, our main machines until Apple eventually comes up with a better design.

Nope, it was the Pismo.

So, the 13" MacBook Pro from 2012 is now the oldest non Vintage Mac? Apple stopped selling those in 2016, I think.

Probably, still 3 years to go then, I have one, going strong except it struggles a bit with it's Intel Graphics card, no 4k either as expected.

 

[bizzle]

Hard to believe my good buddy 2012 air is 8 years old.

It's hard to believe because it's not eight years old unless you have a time machine and you're currently in 2020.

Edit: someone already pointed this out.

 

[s15119]

Surely if they want to keep fixing them, don’t add them to the vintage products list.

Then the vintage/obsolete status has some relevance.

Now we’ll have vintage/obsolete meaning not repairable at an Apple store except for these specific models.

Some people will complain about absolutely anything. hint: this is a GOOD thing. There is nothing to complain about. Go outside. Enjoy life.

 

[Webster's Mac]

Some people will complain about absolutely anything. hint: this is a GOOD thing. There is nothing to complain about. Go outside. Enjoy life.

Well, I think they have a point. How would you explain this to an average Joe< "Hi, uhhh... your macbook is classified as vintage which means it can't be fixed...wait, hold on a sec, apparently it can be fixed even though it is vintage." Average users will be confused out of their minds.

 

[Williesleg]

More transition to a service company.

Pretty soon they'll be like GE, Xerox and Unisys.

Thanks Timmy Cook!