Late 2012 Mac Mini - has anyone replaced the logic board

[abbstrack]

Curious if anyone has had to replace the logic board on their 2012 Mac Mini (2.6ghz Core i7 1TB Fusion), and what the associated costs are? Came home last night from a 2 week vacation and turned my machine on, it started up fine, but an hour later went to 3 beeps mode. I've had it running on OWC DDR3 16GB Kit since the day I purchased it in October 2012, and it's been fine, but after testing each of the modules and slots the issue appears to be with the slot, not the ram (both modules work fine in top slot, neither work in bottom slot).

I'm willing to spend upwards of $500-600 on this replacement since it's still half the cost of a new mac mini with similar specs (and b/c the 2014's don't appear to be anywhere near as good as the late 2012 models). I'll have to do this through apple since I've never done anything on this scale before with any of my comps.

Has anyone done this either through Apple or an apple authorized repair center (or on their own?)

 

[grcar]

Curious if anyone has had to replace the logic board on their 2012 Mac Mini (2.6ghz Core i7 1TB Fusion), and what the associated costs are?

Make a genius appointment and bring it in. Apple will diagnose and quote a price. They do not waste time fixing parts of it. They will just replace the whole board. I think you get a 1 year warranty on the new part. I also believe the cost will be about $500.

As you say, the 2014 machines are not worth the cost for less performance.

Still I would be concerned over what went wrong. Do you have electrical storms in your area? I hope you unplugged the unit while you were away.

 

[tubeexperience]

Make a genius appointment and bring it in. Apple will diagnose and quote a price. They do not waste time fixing parts of it. They will just replace the whole board. I think you get a 1 year warranty on the new part. I also believe the cost will be about $500.

As you say, the 2014 machines are not worth the cost for less performance.

Still I would be concerned over what went wrong. Do you have electrical storms in your area? I hope you unplugged the unit while you were away.

Warranty on a repair is 90 days.

 

[thekev]

I also believe the cost will be about $500.

It should be more like $300, assuming this is just a typical component failure. If you go to Apple, they should offer to send it out. Sending it out is a flat rate. If they do it in the store, they charge you the retail value of parts and labor for each component. Either way they're using refurbished parts on something of that age (repair terms and conditions always state new or refurbished parts, old model usually means refurbished parts). If you use a third party repair service, their rates will be based off retail parts and labor.

Also as tubeexperience mentioned, repair warranties are 90 days.

 

[grcar]

It should be more like $300

Apple quoted me $391 to replace the MC816LL/A logic board (parts and labor). This person appears to have a MD388LL/A. I would think the 6,2 board is more than the 5,2. The only way to find out is to ask Apple.

 

[thekev]

Apple quoted me $391 to replace the MC816LL/A logic board (parts and labor). This person appears to have a MD388LL/A. I would think the 6,2 board is more than the 5,2. The only way to find out is to ask Apple.

I would try a different store in that case. Depot repair is a flat rate to fix anything that fails, which differs from the cost of servicing an individual part in store. This can be significant with laptops. New logic board in store on a 15" model might be upwards of $800. Depot repair is $350 on those (assuming it could be slightly lower on the minis, similar to the way Applecare scales by model). The 6,2 is most likely similar in cost, assuming retail pricing. They're both discontinued models. It might make sense if one is significantly more complicated than the other.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"the issue appears to be with the slot, not the ram (both modules work fine in top slot, neither work in bottom slot)."

Just some thoughts….

Might there have developed a small amount of corrosion on one of the contacts in the lower RAM slot -- thus preventing it working properly (until cleaned) with ANY module?

You need to try the "factory original" RAM, if you still have it around. Do you still have it?

Could it be that -both- OWC modules have problems with the bottom slot, but factory-original RAM might be OK there?
You won't know this unless you try it.
If necessary, take it to a brick-n-mortar Apple store and ask them to test the slot.

Rather than replace the logic board, I'd just put the largest module possible in the top slot, and be done with it. 8gb -- or can the Mini handle a 16gb DIMM?

Probably not worth a logic board replacement...

 

[fhall1]

The Mini can't handle a 16GB DIMM

 

[abbstrack]

UPDATE:

Took the machine to a local apple repair shop to get their thoughts, and they couldnt help, aside from trying one of their memory modules in the bad slot which replicated the 3 beeps. He could not quote a price on the logic board, so instead I took the mini to the Genius bar at Apple, and they quoted a price of $299 (260.23 for parts, $39 for labor), which I was more than happy to pay for instead of having to spring for a new (and lesser) spec'd out mini. I left the machine with them on Sunday and it was returned this evening. Running the memory on just the 8GB represented a DRASTIC performance loss, so much so that I'd have been willing to buy a new mini IF the 2014 models were on par or better than the 2012's which they arent.

I unfortunately did leave the unit plugged in (but powered down) while I was on vacation, and I was made aware of a random power outage by my neighbor, but I live in soCal so I didn't anticipate any outages while I was gone. That said, I fired up the machine when I returned after 2 weeks, and it was fine..only to have the slot failure kick in about an hour later.

Thanks all for the replies.