Mid-2012 13" non-retina MBP and AppleCare advice?

[xoAnna]

I have a mid-2012 13" non-retina MacBook Pro that I purchased in 2013 with the 3-year AppleCare warranty. I've never had a better laptop and love it. However, my 3-year AppleCare warranty is about to expire late next month. Is there anything I should take advantage of before it does? As warranties seem to work, I'm afraid something will suddenly go awry as soon as it does expire (Murphy's law and all that).

There are a few things on my beloved MPB that are beginning to run a more little more sluggish, of course. I'm mostly worried about the HDD failing but maybe I'm paranoid. I'm also running increasingly low on space. I still have Mavericks installed as don't want to use Photos, etc.

FWIW, in the past I had a bunch of kernel panic problems and also had to have the screen replaced - both covered 100% by AppleCare. I notice my MBP gets a bit hotter than it used to and the fan kicks in a little longer as well, obviously because of its age and less space available.

Basically, any advice before the warranty expires next month?

Thanks.

 

[T5BRICK]

I have a mid-2012 13" non-retina MacBook Pro that I purchased in 2013 with the 3-year AppleCare warranty. I've never had a better laptop and love it. However, my 3-year AppleCare warranty is about to expire late next month. Is there anything I should take advantage of before it does? As warranties seem to work, I'm afraid something will suddenly go awry as soon as it does expire (Murphy's law and all that).

Run Apple diagnostics and see if it returns any errors.

There are a few things on my beloved MPB that are beginning to run a more little more sluggish, of course. I'm mostly worried about the HDD failing but maybe I'm paranoid. I'm also running increasingly low on space. I still have Mavericks installed as don't want to use Photos, etc.

A full HDD can certainly lead to slowdowns. If you have less than 10% space left you ought to look into replacing the HDD with something larger. Or better still, upgrading to a SSD.

 

[xoAnna]

Thank you! I will try to run the diagnostics tonight or tomorrow. And about swapping out the HDD for a larger one - any recommendations for a larger but still compatible with my machine? Likewise, do you have any rec's for a compatible SSD as well? Thank you.

 

[T5BRICK]

And about swapping out the HDD for a larger one - any recommendations for a larger but still compatible with my machine?

Any 2.5" SATA drive will be compatible. WD makes good drives with different speeds for different needs.

Likewise, do you have any rec's for a compatible SSD as well? Thank you.

The Samsung 850 Evo or Crucial MX200 would both work well.