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Warranty Support Question

Hls811

Hls811

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 19, 2004
832
55
New Jersey
I have to take my Late '08 MBP in for Warranty support next week because my Superdrive isn't reading media consistently I can put the same blank DVD in 10 times and 9 times it'll spit it out. I've tried various brands, DVD-R, DVD-DL, CD's - its definitely got to be the drive itself.. (It also used to work perfectly with some of this same media..)

Anyway - A few months back I upgraded my HD to a 500GB drive (the burner still worked for weeks after that, I just started having an issue within the last 10 days or so) - I know the HD upgrade doesn't fully void the warranty on my MBP (only the HD), but my question is, do I need to take the 500GB Drive out? I'm going to assume this isn't something that will get fixed on the spot, they'll probably have to send it in... I have a backup of all of my data but my fear is not getting the 500GB drive back!

I don't mind putting the original drive back, I'd just rather not if I don't have to.. I don't want to risk screwing up something else by doing the swap back and forth unnecessarily!
 
I would because everyone has told me if they swap out your MBP for any reason you're out that new HD. Unibody?
 
JRob65a6 said:
If they send it off and determine to replace it, the store never receives the MBP back. They just give you another.
Click to expand...

Really? I was under the impression that they return upgraded components back to you, interesting.
Though somehow I can't imagine that if you did e.g. a ram upgrade, that if they swapped your computer, that they'd keep the upgraded ram and send you stock ram instead. If you told them at the apple store to make a note that you've upgraded a component you'd like to see inbuilt in a replacement machine, I'd be amazed if they didn't do that.
If what you say is true though then that sucks bigtime.
 
I've never had to deal with it personally but it just sounds like a big hassle if you dont put everything back the way it was. I was going to take mine in for an issue and several people told me the exact same thing I'm telling you. That and also if they reformat your hard drive you won't have to worry about waiting for your backup to restore it. They will typically reformat it, just to be sure it's not a software issue.
 
JRob65a6 said:
I would because everyone has told me if they swap out your MBP for any reason you're out that new HD. Unibody?
Click to expand...

Nope.. not a unibody.. (I won't give up my Matte!) I can't see them swapping the whole machine just cause of a Superdrive problem though.. I figure they'd just put in a new drive.. But who knows..

Anyone ever have a drive problem? Did they give you a new machine or just replace the part?

(When I got my first MBP the drive didn't work from day 1, so within a week I took it back and they just replaced the whole unit.. but that was under much different circumstances... This isn't even a current model).
 
I jinxed myself when I said I never had to deal with Apple Care. I'm going in tonight due to a fan. Ill ask them about the warranty on the two models just for future info.

I swapped the drives back to be safe but I will ask anyways.


The new unibody has an option to have the matte screen.
 
I always swap the drives out because it saves me from having to zero-out my drive and restoring things later.
 
Hls811 said:
Nope.. not a unibody.. (I won't give up my Matte!) I can't see them swapping the whole machine just cause of a Superdrive problem though.. I figure they'd just put in a new drive.. But who knows..

Anyone ever have a drive problem? Did they give you a new machine or just replace the part?

(When I got my first MBP the drive didn't work from day 1, so within a week I took it back and they just replaced the whole unit.. but that was under much different circumstances... This isn't even a current model).
Click to expand...

since it is not the unibody; if you have the original drive put it back. Apple can void your entire warranty on the computer because of a hard drive replacement. Since it is considered not a user serviceable part. i had a hard drive problem and they just replaced the drive.
 
If you take it to a third-party Apple certified service center, and talk to the tech, usually they'll ignore the upgrades if they're not related to the problem, and you'll get everything back. On the other hand, I've been told that if you go back directly to Apple and it gets sent somewhere, they'll remove all non-standard components and configure your machine (which is under warranty) back to the way it was when manufactured. Memory will be replaced and a foreign hd will be replaced, certainly re-formatted at the least. They're just zeroing everything back to specs so they can determine where the fault lies. It's a by-the-book thing.

Because of this I kept my original 120gig hd intact in a desk drawer for this very reason after cloning it. Also, my RAM upgrade was specifically Apple "certified" memory, but even at that I could wind up being reset back to 2gig RAM after a repair, losing my upgrade - so I kept my original RAM in my desk drawer for as long as I'm covered by Applecare. I call it insurance. :)

Find a good certified Apple service tech who works for an third-party official Apple reseller, and make friends with him/her. It's like having a trusted mechanic for your car who just "gets it."
 
Well, I took it in today and luckily they had a Superdrive in stock and was able to swap it out for me same day..

I was brave and didn't change my HD back, I was all set to, but just figured if they gave me a hard time and said anything before hand then I'd just take it home, swap it and go to the other Apple Store near here.

Anyway, they didn't say a word, I'm not even sure they noticed, they hooked up an external drive and booted to their diagnostics to determine it was a hardware problem - not software..

I left it with them, they called about 2 hours later and said it was ready to be picked up and my OS is untouched.
 
The key is, it didn't get sent back to some Apple repair facility elsewhere, but was serviced/repaired right there. Anyway, glad to hear you're OS was left intact.
 
Hls811 said:
Well, I took it in today and luckily they had a Superdrive in stock and was able to swap it out for me same day..

I was brave and didn't change my HD back, I was all set to, but just figured if they gave me a hard time and said anything before hand then I'd just take it home, swap it and go to the other Apple Store near here.

Anyway, they didn't say a word, I'm not even sure they noticed, they hooked up an external drive and booted to their diagnostics to determine it was a hardware problem - not software..

I left it with them, they called about 2 hours later and said it was ready to be picked up and my OS is untouched.
Click to expand...

My 2.33 MBP was repaired multiple times at different locations with an upgraded Western Digital HD. (apple stores, the service depot, and 2 certified repair centers) Not once did anyone ever say anything about the upgraded HD. Ironically almost everything inside the MBP broke except for the HD to the point where the MBP was replaced. When it was finally replaced at the apple store the genius took out my upgraded HD and I gave him the OEM HD because he said all OEM parts must be there if the machine is replaced. Lucky I kept the OEM drive because he said they would not have replaced the MBP if I didn't have the OEM HD.
 
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