Debugging steps:
Genius Bar technicians are NOT trained to read panic reports and computer logs. When you present your computer at the Genius Bar with the expectation of a quote to repair it, you must generally meet these criteria:
• your Mac won't do anything
• your Mac fails diagnostics
• your Mac has a problem you can repeatably demonstrate on demand
one other oddball case:
• Apple online support has DIRECTED a Service Provider to replace specific components inside your Mac, such as the mainboard or display. Bring proof, such as case number.
The telephone support people are more likely to work with you. They will insist that you go through the motions to eliminate software issues. But when they get to the end of their list, you should insist on having your problem escalated to a specialist. Specialists are more likely to actually read your panic reports, and to agree this is a problem and DIRECT an Apple service provider to swap things (likely mainboard) for a new one.
Apple support does appreciate what we do as Volunteers here on the forums. They can and should read what has already been posted. Be sure to tell them where they can read it. But they do NOT take our conclusions at face value -- they have their own more rigorous procedures they follow.
You MUST have a Trusted backup before submitting your Mac for service. if the mainboard is swapped out, the boot drive will be swapped out as well, and you will not get your files back.
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Make certain you have applied all available software updates, because no one is willing to debug a problem that might have been seen and solved already.
Then you need to go through the 'regular" steps to eliminate added software as the cause of the problem:
• Run In Safe Mode, where no third-party add-ons are loaded
• create a new "clean" User account, and run with that to eliminate contamination in your regular User account
• run the diagnostic to check for GROSS issues. "no fault found" is not the same as "all is well".
If you are seeing kernel panics, post a panic report. Some panic-reasons suggest a Hardware issue. There is a procedure that can allow you to find those reports to post one. Ask for assistance if you need it.
if you take it to an Apple service provider first, they CAN run their diagnostics, which are a bit more comprehensive than the User diagnostics. In the very small amount of time they are run, “No faults detected” still does not mean “All is Well” but at least there are no detected GROSS problems. Unless they can find a fault, they will return your computer unchanged.
