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Broke New Mac Mini changing RAM?

elasticmedia said:
Y'all who did the RAM surgery and were sweating it: how long did this operation take and were you cursing that you didn't pay some business to do the job?
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Honestly it’s not a hard job. At all.

I have no idea why people are freaking out and making it out to be analogous to brain surgery.

It’s sinple and straightforward. I found hardest part was seating RAM. And that wasn’t hard.

Just watch a video or follow the iFixit guide.

The “difficulty” is just some weird groupthink that’s taken over. Ignore it, upgrade your RAM, you’ll be just fine.
 
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yeah really, it's not a big deal.
seating it right feels like it's gonna break. then you pull it a little out, and it's not seated right and you have to open it to do what you should've done in the first place.
 
F-Train said:
First of all, I have been told by staff at two of the New York stores that they were instructed to say that it will not void the warranty. Secondly, the screenshot does not in fact say that installing RAM oneself will void the warranty. Thirdly, I think that Tim Cook and staff have better things to do than spend their time trying to figure out how to void a warranty, in the process violating Apple’s legal obligations, on a problem that has nothing to do with RAM. That kind of behaviour runs counter to every dealing that I’ve had with Apple staff over a period of ten years. Finally, I have purchased AppleCare+, I am installing RAM myself, and I am not worried about this. If you are, then don’t do it.
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So I also purchased AppleCare. Would you recommend I re-install the original 8GB RAM if I ever needed to take it in for service?
 
Jamers99 said:
So I also purchased AppleCare. Would you recommend I re-install the original 8GB RAM if I ever needed to take it in for service?
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If you drop the mini on concrete, the RAM would seem kind of beside the point. If it’s an internal problem of unknown origin, it seems to me that the technicians should be in a position that they can diagnose based on the original specs.
 
Ploki said:
you have 2 years under EU consumer laws.
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Yeah, on paper. In practice this does not work.

The Premium Resellers here are forcing you to buy their 2-5 years "insurance" if you want to have longer "warranty" than 1 year. Of course under their conditions.
 
opeter said:
Yeah, on paper. In practice this does not work.

The Premium Resellers here are forcing you to buy their 2-5 years "insurance" if you want to have longer "warranty" than 1 year. Of course under their conditions.
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I had screen replaced (exploded pixels) by the 2y consumer law thing couple of years ago. (same country)
 
Ploki said:
I had screen replaced (exploded pixels) by the 2y consumer law thing couple of years ago. (same country)
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Well, I have tried to get a replacement for the faulty HDD in a Mac mini in iStyle in Maribor and they refused and said that the 1 Year Warranty was over. This was in 2014.
 
opeter said:
Well, I have tried to get a replacement for the faulty HDD in a Mac mini in iStyle in Maribor and they refused and said that the 1 Year Warranty was over. This was in 2014.
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you have to go through apple, and point the 2y consumer law to them, then they arrange a replacement through an authorised service provider.

most resellers here are cancer tho
 
Ploki said:
you have to go through apple, and point the 2y consumer law to them, then they arrange a replacement through an authorised service provider.

most resellers here are cancer tho
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Thanks, maybe next time. :oops:
Anyway, after that I fixed it myself so that I did buy a standard desktop SSD and replaced the HDD.
The computer became much more responsive.
 
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Hi
Changed ram with this Crucial SO-DIMM DDR4 2666MHz 8GB (CT8G4SFS8266) didnt work and I followed the Ifixit guide but i just didnt start. Changed back to the old ram same story didnt start but the led blinks no screen output. Returned it to the store and the serviced it sad one of the ram modules where broken. This is so strange it worked flawless with the old ram before i removed it. Anyone with simillar issues?
 
Kee22 said:
Hi
Changed ram with this Crucial SO-DIMM DDR4 2666MHz 8GB (CT8G4SFS8266) didnt work and I followed the Ifixit guide but i just didnt start. Changed back to the old ram same story didnt start but the led blinks no screen output. Returned it to the store and the serviced it sad one of the ram modules where broken. This is so strange it worked flawless with the old ram before i removed it. Anyone with simillar issues?
Click to expand...

I’m guessing the RAM wasn’t seated correctly both times. The easiest way to put the RAM is at a relatively steep angle, where the RAM slides in with no resistance . Then push it back and the clips will hold the chip. You should not be able to see any of the connection pins at that point.

If the service guy said one of the RAM modules was broken, does that mean he actually opened it up to check? I guess I’m not sure what the resolution was for you - repair or replacement?
 
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When seated properly, the RAM needs to be pushed in with "less than comfortable" force. Much more than on any pre-2012 macbooks I swapped RAM on.
 
I think this Mac Mini's RAM placement is a bad design, since I placed my RAM the first time with confidence that it was ok, since the side clips seemed to hold it in the right place, but that was not the case. The side clips should have been made in a way that would only lock the module if it was seated properly (but as we know, Apple does not really want it to be user replaceable, so I understand the choice).

I recommend pushing it through until you fill the gap/hole that the modules have at the middle. I also heard a "click" with the Crucial modules after pushing them all the way, but I didn't hear it with the original RAM modules.
 
madrag said:
I think this Mac Mini's RAM placement is a bad design, since I placed my RAM the first time with confidence that it was ok, since the side clips seemed to hold it in the right place, but that was not the case. The side clips should have been made in a way that would only lock the module if it was seated properly (but as we know, Apple does not really want it to be user replaceable, so I understand the choice).

I recommend pushing it through until you fill the gap/hole that the modules have at the middle. I also heard a "click" with the Crucial modules after pushing them all the way, but I didn't hear it with the original RAM modules.
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Right, Apple designed this deliberately so that one is likely to screw it up.

Tell me, have you ever seated GPU pins in an external GPU enclosure? Because that can also seat incorrectly unless you get it right. Or are the makers of eGPU enclosures also deliberately making it hard?

You get the prize for being the first person to mess this up and then blame Apple for your own screwup. While you’re at it, why not blame the makers of the RAM modules for how the modules are designed. Anybody but yourself and your own lack of competence at a technical job that you have no to little experience with.
 
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Ploki said:
When seated properly, the RAM needs to be pushed in with "less than comfortable" force. Much more than on any pre-2012 macbooks I swapped RAM on.
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I’ve changed RAM on two of them. Zero force needed if placed in slot at an angle as I describe above. They drop into the slots with near zero pressure required.
 
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WilliamG said:
I’ve changed RAM on two of them. Zero force needed if placed in slot at an angle as I describe above. They drop into the slots with near zero pressure required.
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There has to be a right way to do this. Maybe it's yours. What we need is a short video from a technician who knows what he's doing :)

There are people who do this day in, day out. Presumably it's not just luck.
 
kirkbross said:
SOLVED: I ended up opening it up and reseating the RAM and that did the trick.

It was a pain in the A... but I'm so glad it's working now.
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Well done!
I have three questions:
  1. What difference in performance do you get. Did you run some benchmarking tests?
  2. Is it difficult to replace the RAM?
  3. Does replacing RAM void Mac Mini's guarantee?
Again, congratulations.
 
F-Train said:
There has to be a right way to do this. Maybe it's yours. What we need is a short video from a technician who knows what he's doing :)

There are people who do this day in, day out. Presumably it's not just luck.
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There’s really not much to see (don’t want to open mini up again).

Just don’t put it in close to the angle the RAM actually ends up in. Put it in at roughly 20-25 degrees (compared to the slot, of course). It will slide in with zero effort, and then push the stick back so it clips. You can then push down on them a little - to be sure - but even that part should be unnecessary.
 
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Miguel Cunha said:
Well done!
I have three questions:
  1. What difference in performance do you get. Did you run some benchmarking tests?
  2. Is it difficult to replace the RAM?
  3. Does replacing RAM void Mac Mini's guarantee?
Again, congratulations.
Click to expand...

If you do a search in the forum, you just might find that questions 2 and 3 have been discussed to death. There's even a search icon in the upper right for your search convenience.

If you do a search on YouTube and on OWC's site, you will also find several walkthrough videos.
 
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WilliamG said:
I’ve changed RAM on two of them. Zero force needed if placed in slot at an angle as I describe above. They drop into the slots with near zero pressure required.
Click to expand...
I mean force when clicking them into the holders, not when pushing them into the slots
 
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