Apple Care?

I bought my aluminum MacBook last November and have not yet purchased Apple Care. The first time I had to bring my MacBook to the Genius Bar was last weekend when I began to see problems with my computer booting up. Turns out that the problem was my 1 stick of 3rd party RAM not matching up with the other original 1GB stick (currently have 3GB total) which was causing problems since the MacBook has integrated graphics and shares with the main memory, so the 2 sticks of RAM have to be the same kind. Apple didn't seem to care that I had installed 3rd party RAM. I was recommended (by the "Genius" I was with) to buy another 2GB stick from that same 3rd party to get up to 4GB so the RAM sticks would match and I could have the maximum amount of RAM. So for now, I'm using the stock 2GB (2x1GB) configuration until I can buy another one of those 2GB sticks to match up with the 3rd party stick I have so I can go up to 4GB RAM (the maximum my/any MacBook will take). The "Geniuses" didn't seem to care about the fact that I'm using 3rd party RAM, but would it conflict with my warrantee if I purchased and installed a 3rd party hard drive? I'm looking at a 500GB Seagate HDD (7200rpm; $140 on Newegg) and don't know if this will conflict with my 1-year warrantee or not. I want to purchase Apple Care in the next few months as well. Based on what I've heard, the $250 I'd have to pay for my aluminum MacBook is well worth it. What do you guys think about Apple Care? What experiences have you had with having to use Apple Care for your warrantee work? Feel free to share your personal experiences with Apple's tech support and Apple Care in this thread! I'm interested to see what you guys think!

The hard drive is user-replaceable in all MacBook models, and it will not invalidate your warranty.

I've had two warranty claims in the time I've owned this particular MacBook Pro, but both were under the standard 1 year warranty. I had no issues and was very pleased overall with the level of service I received. As such, I had no reservations about buying the additional 2 years of coverage.

NOTE: Thread moved to appropriate forum. Not just anything goes in Anything Goes

tjmoor said:

What do you guys think about Apple Care? What experiences have you had with having to use Apple Care for your warrantee work?

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I've actually not had to use my AppleCare since I bought it, but just knowing I have it is a nice peace of mind.

Prior to buying it, I had to take my MacBook in for heating issues as well as a faulty MagSafe connector, which further edged me into buying it.

Definitely worth it on such a pricey laptop.

As far as your hard drive issue, you can go right ahead and upgrade it. It's designed to be user replaceable, and in fact, it's probably the easiest MacBook to replace the hard drive on.

I need to make the choice to extend my Apple Care as well and I'm not sure if I should do it. I bought my MacBook refurbished, would that be more of a reason to extend the care plan?

Amanda said:

I need to make the choice to extend my Apple Care as well and I'm not sure if I should do it. I bought my MacBook refurbished, would that be more of a reason to extend the care plan?

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It depends on how long you intend to keep it. Personally, I wouldn't have any reservations based on the fact that it's refurbished. In my opinion, the refurbished machines are sometimes of better quality than a factory fresh model, since they are gone over by Apple technicians and made to be like new. New machines are produced in subcontracted factories in China, and although I'm sure Apple does some QA, I've seen many obvious defects in new machines in my time here at M-F.