Adding SSD/memory voids warranty

The past maybe 10 years ago . they dont brand parts anymore if they ever even did.

We are telling you what their new policies are. Quote from an Apple "Genius" "They use the cheapest they can get". they dont brand it though.

David Blank2 wrote:

Whatever you do on your own is YOUR decision. I've had various degrees of success with buying memory through other parties other than Apple.

Also, there is a difference between the words "branding' and 'manufacturing".

I am only indicating what Apple has done in the past to indicate that that's some of my experience with dealing with Apple. What their current policies and how they might have changed, I don't know. Call them and ask them directly.

Why would I call when you are the one with the problem?

False information? Give it a rest, please. I am going by past experience. My older Mac had memory that was Co-Branded with an Apple Sticker on it with an Apple logo and part number. Do you wish for me to go to my friend and pull the memory take a photograph and post it so you can see for yourself? I can do that, but it will take a little time for me to prove that to you. But, I will agree that new machines don't have this label that I speak of.

Yeah, I saw the photos you supplied, the color of the masking on the motherboard was a different color as well. But I indicated to you, that this must be a recent thing, but historically Apple has put a sticker on factory supplied memory. I also indicated that I bought a new iMac, I just checked a couple of minutes ago and agreed with you. So, what's your problem?

I know crucial is garbage. At one time, I bought a Powerbook G4 that came with Apple co-branded Crucial memory, and upgraded it with Crucial memory that i purchased directly from Crucial, but the original memory that was co-branded by Apple worked just fine, but the Crucial memory I bought later flaked out after about a year. They've had problems which is why I won't recommend Crucial. Kingston, I've had good luck with the higher end Kingston, but have read that others have not. That's why 3rd party memory is hit or miss.

well two brands doesnt make all third paty memory hit or miss. Stick w samsung or corsair, they are great.

fyi, the memory that came in my mbp failed. you can get bad memory from apple just as easily as you can through somewhere else. there is no magic in Apple

Yes, they did. What they do now, obviously is different. But I can't say at what point they changed. but, historically Apple did put an Apple sticker on the memory module, hard drive, optical drive, etc. with an Apple logo and Apple part number.

I just checked my System Profiler and click on System Report for the SSD memory, and hard drive it says Apple, but the part number is the OEM part numbers. For memory, it just says 0x80AD under the listing for Manufacturer.

ok i believe you maybe in older macs they labeld it. What is says in my system prefences: in my mbp under memry it says Samsung, before it said hynux. in the retina i have been using, under SSD it says intel, and memory says Samsung.

That's a different story. I've not had problems with Apple supplied memory. That's MY experience. When I worked for Apple resellers selling tons and tons of Apple computers over the years, I rarely saw Apple mamory go bad, so that's MY experience.

Will it happen? Of course there is a possiblity that it will happen, but typcially Apple tests their memory to very stringent requirements.

Now, knowing a little bit about laptops, if you have used or carried your laptop outside with high ambient tempuratures or operate it when the thing is running hot because you are playing games or outside in high weather conditions that exceed the laptop's operating tempuratures, they might have an impact. Heat and electronic components don't mix. These computers have operating tempuratures because if you operate your computer in an environment above the operating tempuratures that is specified by the mfg, it may cause component failure. That's the ONLY thing i can think of.

I've used my iPad outdoors in hot weather and the thing shut down because it was outside it's normal operating tempurature, it was on a day that the ambient temp was 110 degrees, but I was in the shade, so the unfortunate thing about laptops and mobile devices in general is using them outdoors on hot days, playing games that get these things to run hot, etc. I guess that might have an impact on if the components will exhibit component failure. That's nothing Apple can really do about it.

When i was using laptops, I didn't use them outdoors.

That's wierd. I have no response to that. I can't explain that one.

i have been explaining it to you. Now this is completley off topic. The original post was about upgrading and voiding warranty. I cant keep arguing, i have to work on a project to program zork from scratch for my masters and i keep getting side tracked here. 🙂

Yeah, memory is always going to be a problem until they can switch from using silicon to something else to transmit electrons. But i have just had too many problems, read too many problems with non-Apple supplied memory on Apple products. Just going by experience.

I've only had one power supply go bad and that was a LONG time ago. Other than that, very little problems. but again, no mfg is perfect, but at least Apple wasn't selling knowingly faulty products like Dell was doing for 10 years, for which they got sued over. Dell used to do some very mischievious things to some of my customers that were just completely out of line. Shipping a 20G drive instead of 30G on 350 computers? one of my customers had that issue along with other technical problems with Dell and they actually kicked Dell out. I've got so many horror stories about various companies it's not even funny, but Apple typically was one of the better brands I was selling. FYI. They had lower failure rates than most of the other companies that my customers were purchasing. Compaq USED to be a top supplier until the last few years before they got bought out by HP. IBM was pretty reliable, except their latops which were awful to work on. I don't know how Lenovo is doing because I don't deal with them. Toshiba? Oh God, horror story after horror story.

I just purchased a Macbook Pro Retina off of the Refurbished Store for $1,269. It only has the 128GB SSD. I called up Apple and let them know that since it was Refurbished I was not given any upgrade options, and what can be done about upgrading the SSD since I feel that I really need 256GB. Apple let me know that I can purchase the SSD from them for the $200 and then have it installed by an Authorized Apple Service Rep. Apple themselves will not install the SSD, but in order to keep that warranty in effect I have the option to take it to an Authorized Apple Service Rep.

Apple Support referred me over to Mac Works in the Austin, TX area. I contacted Macworks and let them know that I already have a 256GB SSD and I want to know the pricing to have it installed. Macworks will install the SSD for $120. There you have it.

If you want to upgrade your SSD and keep your warranty then just pay $120 installation fee and have an Authorized Apple Service Rep install it for you. Apple will accept this installation without voiding your warranty.

Upgrading the SSD is very easy, so it's up to you to decide if $120 is worth a few screws and keeping your warranty. To me it's worth it since I have a Refurbished Mac and definitly don't want to void the warranty at all. I have no idea how these Refurbs hold up over time.

Apple Support did not advise me if the installation had to be an Apple SSD or if 3rd party SSD such as OWC will be okay, but the Support Rep did say that there shouldn't be any issues.

His exact words were, "If you want to upgrade the SSD then there is no reason why installing that upgrade will void your warranty. Things that will void your warranty would be spilling beer on your Macbook."

Bottom line: Yes you can upgrade your SSD, but it'll cost you the cost of the upgraded SSD plus $120 to have an Authorized Apple Support Rep install it for you so that your warranty will not be void.

I'm surprised you didn't clarify that the SSD had to be Apple's or not. I would clarify before i did it and you might want to have them give you some sort of comfirmation documentation of the call. Just to make sure IF you have any problems. Better to have documentation of something that is not generally known about. What I think might be the case, check with Apple, is if you buy third party SSD and you have an Authorized Service Center like MacWorks, you might have to have them do any warranty repairs since they would be performing the third party SSD storage. I know this gets sticky, but you might want to ask a few more questions to Apple before proceeding JUST to make sure. I would hate for you to have things done under one assumption and you experience something different should you have problems down the road. See what you can do about getting specifics documented for recourse purposes, just in case.

Also, i did a little checking for what it's worth on why Apple does not put Apple logo stickers on Apple supplied RAM memory modules, like they used to.

The new memory modules that are being used have serial numbers embedded in each memory module, which explains why Apple memory doesn't have a Apple logo sticker on the actual memory. So if you run System Report for About this Mac, they have an actual serial number listed for each module installed of RAM and SSD memory. Apple Service can tell if the supplier of the SSD is Apple or not. I haven't tried to see what happens if you run the Apple Diag to see what happens if you switch it out with memory that is purchased from a third party supplier vs what came from Apple direclty. But someone might want to do that if they have both available.