Prepping My 2010 MBP for a Genius Bar Visit

[Keochyo]

I am having the known problem of periodic crashes due to the GPU on my 2010 MBP. I plan to go to the genius bar in a couple of weeks to plead for help. As I understand it, some people have been able to get the replacement logic board for free, while others have been charged.

I'm wondering, though, whether I should go to the effort to return it to stock condition. I swapped out the superdrive for an SSD. I don't know if they frown upon such a shift and if that distaste might lead them to charge me hundreds of dollars when they otherwise would not.

I'd appreciate any advice.

[Sidenote: Why are the Genius bar folks (seemingly) so inconsistent? Does their decision to charge or not depend on their impression of the customer? Seems like an interesting sociological problem. But then perhaps it's no different from most other retail interactions.]

 

[GoCubsGo]

I thought, though could be wrong, that the hard drive was still considered user replaceable. If you have the stock drive and aren't bothered by actually swapping it then do it. I assume the stock drive has just the OS on it and you would want to be sure to back up that SSD anyway since they're known to wipe drives whether or not it was necessary.

As far as the inconsistency, I would say if this is a true recall of sorts then they should be consistent. I don't recall whether Apple formally stated they would replace all GPUs and/or logic boards on these models or if they simply acknowledged an issue and did nothing.

 

[Corksean14]

I would play it safe and put the old hard drive back in anyway, just in case you get an awkward genius

I've had a genius try to charge me full price for a logic board on a brand-new macbook because I had swapped the RAM and HDD back when memory and hard drives were easily user-serviceable (and the instructions to change them were even etched on the inside of the battery compartment door!). It's easier to just eliminate any chance for them to blame you before you walk in the door rather than try to argue with them in my experience.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

I swapped out the superdrive for an SSD.

The only things which Apple considers "user serviceable" on that Mac is the primary HD and RAM. I'd put the optical drive back in personally since you are already asking for out of warranty support.

 

[cjmillsnun]

[Sidenote: Why are the Genius bar folks (seemingly) so inconsistent? Does their decision to charge or not depend on their impression of the customer? Seems like an interesting sociological problem. But then perhaps it's no different from most other retail interactions.]

Genii are normally fairly consistent in my experience. However, they are human and have bad days sometimes, and they don't like being treated like crap.

I've found that if you are polite, courteous, and honest with them, they will go above and beyond the call of duty. However there will always be a point where they will stop. Even then the customer leaves feeling that the genius really has tried everything for them, and if their Mac is not fixable, that Apple store normally makes a sale, and they keep a happy customer.

If however, you are rude, arrogant or immediately want them to swap out your Mac because of a fault, they'll go as far as they have to (normally a good few steps before they would stop with a polite person) and then politely tell you to get stuffed (i.e. from there any repair would be chargeable.)

I always adopt the being polite route. I have received excellent customer service from the genius bar.

I very occasionally see people walking out after not getting what they wanted (most people in this country are polite). They normally make a scene and draw attention to themselves about how their 8 or 9 year old mac should be repaired for free and how bad Apple is.

 

[sebseb]

I also own a 2010 MBP and I get the flickering screen, though only on the intel graphics! If I change to the Nvidia, it goes away but it heats up a lot! I was told that we have until 3 years from the date of purchase! It's been 4 years already so not sure if they will replace free of charge!

Please let us know what happens! I would love to get this problem fixed!

Look at this

 

[maflynn]

I'd back up your data, depending if you swap out the new drive with the old drive.

 

[Keochyo]

Thanks everyone for your responses. It will be a bit of work to back up and then wipe the spinning drive so I can install the OS on it (the OS is currently on the SSD), but it sounds like it will be worth the effort.

I'll let you know what happens (it will be over the US Thanksgiving break).

And thanks for the feedback on the genii. (I didn't realize that genius was a latin word. Learn something new…) Good to know that they are indeed consistent.