Mac Mini Upgrade Ram and HDD Drive

Upgrading the HDD and RAM isn't a void of the warranty. In fact, it is actually supported very well by Apple.

If you break anything i.e. RAM module, sensor, what have you, it will void your warranty.

Go for the upgrade. It isn't too hard.

Sure you can send it to Apple, though if you do, don't even think of mentioning to them that you did the upgrade yourself. If Apple knows this, they may think that you caused the problem while you were upgrading it. Yes, the warranty will be honored. That's all really.

If you are so concerned about warranty that you are buying into Apple Care stuff, consider getting Seagate disk instead of WD. Hard drive is the component most likely to fail, and Seagate has 3-5 years warranty standard (depending on the model). Considerably longer than any other manufacturer. They have some neat replacement options too. I just replaced under warranty a 4 year old Seagate Barracuda. I got replacement drive shipped overnight for a relatively small fee that included return packaging and return shipping label for the old broken disk.

You can also look at it this way. When hard drive fails, the biggest damage is lost data. Warranty does not help with the loss of data. The longer the warranty, you can expect hard drive is higher quality and less likely to fail. Because manufacturer has incentive to produce hard drives that are expected not to break during warranty period. I had an extreme experience several years ago when my old Fujitsu hard drive broke 2 weeks after 1-year warranty expired. Talk about extreme bad luck.

Are you sure it doesn't void any of the warranty?
I upgraded my ram.. I am one of the lucky ones that has had the BT problem since I got the mini.. I took it in to the Apple store to have them look at the BT issue.. noticed that I had upgraded the ram and said that he would have to charge me to look at he mini that was only 2 weeks old.

I got a little upset , then he said that they would do me a favor and take my ram out and install theirs for $300 and then they would warrantee it and have a look at the BT issue..
This is my first Mac and not to happy with their support.

Message was edited by: mmaddox

That guy at the Apple store shouldn't have done that. It is labeled as a user-serviceable part. In fact, if you dig deep enough, you can actually find a kit for opening the Mac mini - from Apple.

Call Apple Support (not sure what the # is) and tell them about this. What happened to you is wrong, and should not have happened. DO NOT pay that $300!

As far as I can see anywhere in Apple documentation there are no officially user-serviceable part in the mini (anyone have a link to the contrary?).

But, in the U.S. at least, warranty law seems to be in consumers' favor these days, and unless you specifically break something with your unauthorized upgrade, Apple still has to honor the warranty.

The mini manual in fact says:

"If you open your Mac mini or install items, you risk damaging your equipment,
and *such damage* isn’t covered by the limited warranty on your Mac mini."

Your damage isn't covered, not the warranty is voided.

But, NEVER EVER send any product in with a user upgrade even if upgrades are officially allowed -- because it's really common to just be sent back a swap instead of your machine. With the mini, you'll want to observe that doubly so, just to eliminate the possibility of them complaining about your upgrade. Keep the original parts, and put them back in if you ever need service.

For this Apple Store situation, the only thing he could legitimately charge you for is a "labor charge" for the act of having to remove your RAM *for testing the other problem*. That should be like $30 not $300, and you should get your custom RAM back in a little baggy. Tricking you into buying Apple RAM to "solve" your other warranty problem, or as a condition of getting warranty service, is probably fraud.

Nonetheless -- definitely not a good idea to bring in the mini with the custom RAM in the first place...

Note that there are some gray areas as to damage -- for example if you put in a processor upgrade (in the older minis with processor sockets) and that ran much hotter, Apple could legitimately claim the heat damaged some other part that failed.

I upgraded mine today. It was very easy. I was a bit nervous at first, admittedly, but it was easy to follow the OWC video tutorial. No complaints over here. And, I was able to do so with no damage to my case.

You make some very good points glkdf.....
I wish I would of done as you said and taken my ram out and then taken it in. I was understanding that I could update my ram without causing a problem, for my BT issue.
I am talking to my phone support person and she is getting back to me on it.. She didn't like the way it was handled either. Said that she will check into and see what see can do for me.
I am willing to take out my ram and install original ram if that will make them happy.
All I want is the BT to work.
Lesson learned and I would suggest everyone to follow glkdf....'s advice.


Mike

I got my current mini just days before the new version was released and am kicking myself everyday since, as I need the graphics card for the games.

Anyway just wanted to know if after upgrading memory on the basic mini (newer model) if the graphics were better. The difference between the two models on the graphics seems to be the shared memory.

Thanks.

I upgrade to 4GB of memory days ago, I was very caution to do so. I must say, I am satisfied after upgraded the memory. But I found that my HD isn't Seagate or Toshiba or Hitachi but Fujitsu MHZ2120BH G1, I don't like Fujitsu, I don't know, I don't trust Fujitsu Hard Drive Device.

A little disappointed about hard drive, I hope Fujitsu can last than at least 6 years, please God~

About the video performance, not that good as Intel one dawg. Can't believe nVidia is slower than Intel's video chip.

I wouldn't trust the fujitsu to last that long. Mine is 3.5 years old and just smoked. Guess they calculate the 3 year warranty pretty close