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He said SODIMM does that mean user replaceable without warranty void?

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whitedragon101

macrumors 65816
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Sep 11, 2008
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He said "SODIMM which our users will really appreciate" and the pics show standard SODIMM slots.

Does that mean they are user replaceable without voiding the warranty?
 
There has been a lot of contradictory information regarding this. The most common opinion is that Apple recommends that an Apple Certified Specialist do the upgrade. You can do it yourself but if you destroy your machine in the process, this is not covered under warranty. If you put in 3rd party memory, you'll have to put the original memory back in if you ever need Apple service on it.
 
Changing the memory on my 2012 was extremely simple. And I kept the original memory in case I ever had to take it in for warranty work (never had to). The 2018 Mini doesn't look as easy so it may not be as easy a decision to do the memory swap yourself.
 
tedson said:
There has been a lot of contradictory information regarding this. The most common opinion is that Apple recommends that an Apple Certified Specialist do the upgrade. You can do it yourself but if you destroy your machine in the process, this is not covered under warranty. If you put in 3rd party memory, you'll have to put the original memory back in if you ever need Apple service on it.
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I think it's also going to be very country dependent. Here in Europe I can't see them being able to enforce that, if they make it so that you can open the device then it's logical that users should be able to replace something as simple as a RAM module. Of course if you break something whilst poking around in there then it's your own fault, but computers are pretty well built these days so you're going to need to be pretty ham fisted to really damage it.

Many years ago I asked about users replacing RAM at the Apple Store in Amsterdam, one of the 'Geniuses' told me that as long as the RAM isn't causing the issue then there's no way it can void the warranty of your device e.g. your hard drive fails.
 
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All I’ll say to you guys is, before you go thinking you can change it, check out a tear down of the new Mini first because to me, in that brief photos they showed on stage that ram looked incredibly tight to get out through the bottom, so you may need to strip the entire machine down to get to it, not least remove the fan and thermal paste, now on an old computer who cares, but a brand new expensive Apple one, just be careful..

But I only saw a brief photo on stage as I said.
 
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I have mentioned this is in a couple of threads, whist there is a bit of space in there it looks incredibly tight to get ram out and back in without removing the fan, remove the fan then you are creating a potential warranty issue, remember that means the thermal paste will, I suspect, be disturbed. I don’t think there will be any issues if you can do without removing the fan but we need a tear down to be sure.
 
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whitedragon101 said:
Apple


Called Apple support and they just checked with senior advisor. “Mac mini SODIMM not user accessible and changing then yourself will void warranty”
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A good chance they are getting mixed up with the current models which are not user accessible - the support guide hasn't been updated yet for the 2018 models - https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT205041
The schematic shown on the keynote clearly shows SODIMM trays so swapping out RAM should be straight forward. The fact they also mentioned this in the keynote says it all.
 
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apple chat.JPG
 
I'm definitely not making any kind of order until we get confirmation about this. I think the whole "if you break it trying to upgrade ram" thing has always been true, but I'm more concerned about how difficult the whole process will be.
 
mightyjabba said:
I'm definitely not making any kind of order until we get confirmation about this. I think the whole "if you break it trying to upgrade ram" thing has always been true, but I'm more concerned about how difficult the whole process will be.
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My theory is that they will not actively encourage you to open your Mac Mini to change the memory. This could create a consumer law liability in that if it breaks during a procedure they said was supported they might have to repair the computer free of charge. I don't think they need any more class actions as it is.

With that said, they wouldn't have said the memory is in SO-DIMMs for no reason. Maybe that's the most Legal would allow them to say.
 
Donka said:
We'll find out next week but I'll be amazed if we can't swap out the RAM ourselves.
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I think it will be possible as they are slot SODIMMs but the fact that doing it voids the warranty is a bit crap. It’s back to that sneak the ram in and remove if you need warranty stuff. Tim Cook was clearly hinting at user replaceable ram. But it seems the official policy is that it isn’t.
 
Just need to see if Apple update their support document I linked to earlier for this new mini.
 
Donka said:
Just need to see if Apple update their support document I linked to earlier for this new mini.
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That is interesting. Very explicit on the old models that it was user replaceable but then on last model before this one late 2014 it says explicitly that it isn't.

I already jumped on the 32GB model because I have been waiting so long for this wouldn't want to buy the 8GB model only to find that cold sweat feeling of worrying that apple put anti tamper stickers or sensors on the inside of the case.

I guess its still possible they may update the support doc to include the new one and say that it is user replaceable. It could be that the general policy 'is if you don't have a document saying its user replaceable tell the customer it isn't.' Would be handy in the future if I decided to go 64GB.

Although I did look online and it was almost impossible to find any 32GBx2 kits as SODIMM. Even Crucial don't sell them.
 
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