Allan Jones wrote:
y_p_w wrote:
If it's the battery, there might be a chance that Apple supports it with a battery service since it's under 10 years since it was discontinued.
It comes down to screen size. Your 13-inch 2012 Macbook Pro was among the Macs that remained in the line unchanged the longest: four years, four months. It was not discontinued until Oct 2016 and it is still NOT on on the Vintage/Obsolete list. Therefore Apple fixed it for you.
On the other hand, the Mid 2012 15-inch Macbook Pro "died young"—discontinued in Oct 2013. It IS on the V/O list.
Indeed, it is still worth asking because sometimes battery replacement service qualifications may be different from what the V/O list states. Some Apple Store will do evaluations but not repairs on old gear; others I've visited won't touch a V/O computer with a cattle prod! It's like you brought them a box of smallpox.
I also have an 13-inch 2012—what a great machine! It is the last one where we could do much of anything "under the hood." Mine is faster than ever with an aftermarket SSD. Still a workhorse in great shape, and will once again be my traveling companion next week.
Question: Was yours "box-stock" when you had the battery service? I'd like to get the battery done before mine gets much older (it's hovering around 80% health) but I don't know if I need to reinstall the original RAM and mech hard drive to get service.
I understand all that about Apple's "Vintage" and "Obsolete" status, but they do have that message that they **may** (which implies that they may not) offer up to 10 years of "extended battery-only repair" from the time that Apple discontinued a particular Mac notebook model, even if Apple considers a model to be "Obsolete". In addition to that, Apple clearly has certain batteries still made for them by their suppliers that will work on models more than 10 years old. Every Unibody MBP of the same size uses the same battery part number, although I don't know if the supply that Apple purchases is limited considering whether or not they'll discontinue support based on a hard deadline for older Macs. I'm also thinking that location enters into it. I'm in California, so that could have something to do with the level of support for older devices. But this kind of support may not be as available in other countries.
I will say I was kind of annoyed because (when reinstalling a 2x8GB RAM kit) I figured that an Apple Store technician installed some sort of thermal pad in my MBP, and it's stuck on pretty good Wasn't sure what it was and it was kind of messy (left a stain on the serial number label on the memory socket) but I realize it was probably some sort of thermal graphite sheet sandwich and not metallic as I originally thought. I was worried that it was some sort of metallized layer and that it might short out something since the vinyl top sheet peeled off and shifted around.
Other than that, it's kind of tricky what DIY parts one may be willing to spend on to revive a dead device without any guarantee that the replacement will fix it, since the problem could be more serious than just a battery. There are some really cheap aftermarket batteries for Unibody MBPs out there, as well as more expensive ones from more trusted sources. Once Apple discontinues all support, that may be the only means to obtain a new battery.
I would at least recommend taking a dead device to an Apple Store for a diagnostic, which should be free. I will say that when I did it, they had to dig into their drawers to find stuff that they didn't use every day, including a MagSafe 1 power adapter and a wired ethernet cable to connect for the diagnostic. Just in case, I put back in the 2x2GB factory memory and made sure to have a backup. I didn't put back in my original 500GB hard drive, which was corrupted (and hasn't been recovered or reformatted) after a forced shutdown during a lockup. I had a lot of those happen, but that's been the only time it's ever been corrupted.
I had an aftermarket SSD installed. I did get a call back that I had a "storage issue" and that I needed to contact the Apple Store before they could proceed. I was actually able to talk to an employee (that was a first since I've previously only been able to talk to central customer service) and he stated that their diagnostics indicated that "the hard drive is failing" which was news to me since it's a 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD reporting a 100% wear level and that's been flawless for nearly 3 years. I was told a replacement would be about US$120 on top of the $129 battery replacement fee. I heard somewhere that anything other than an Apple OEM drive may be flagged as not passing the diagnostic, but when I said that I'd deal with it myself that was the end of it and they proceeded with the service.
