any way to check system hardware history from disk image?

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Long story short...
i need some way to prove to apple that my laptop had 16 GB of ram before i sent it in for warranty.
I have a .dmg file of the hard drive of when it had 16gb's of ram, is there any way to prove it using that?
basically is there any way to check how much ram a macbook pro used to have?
ps checking serial number and/or current system information wont work...
i have a macbook pro retina.
 

bobtomay

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Short answer - no - unless you took a video - there is no way to "prove" how much ram was in the machine when you put it in the box to ship it.

A sales receipt might help your cause.
 
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There may well be, but I don't know where and the couple ideas I had for where that info might be stored pulled up blanks. I'm assuming your MacBook was serviced by Apple and came back with less RAM in it than what you sent it in with. Unless someone else can identify how to pull that info, your best bet would be to get receipts proving you at least had either purchased the Mac with that much RAM, or purchased it after the fact.

EDIT: Bob beat me to the punch, but makes a point I forgot to make. Even if you had installed more RAM, proving it was actually still in there when you shipped it off would be difficult. I'm sure many a person has thought to try and get free RAM from Apple by pulling out part of what was in there, then screaming foul afterwards.
 
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iv looked though system logs but its not looking hopeful...

Sales recite is not going to help as i order a refurbished 8gb model and received a 16gb model. handed it in for warranty and of course when i got it back i received a 8gb logic board...

correct me if im wrong but isn't the ram not replaceable on macbook pro retinas?

Thanks for your help!
 

vansmith

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If you ordered an 8GB model, got a 16GB and they replaced the logic board with an 8GB variety, you ultimately got what you were supposed to get in a roundabout way. In other words, if they gave you a 16 initially and then "corrected" it by giving you back an 8 (what you paid for), there isn't much you can do even if you prove it because they are under no obligation to honour the accidental shipment of a 16GB machine if you paid for an 8GB. While I realize that this is not ideal, there's not much you can do if they don't want to rectify this by giving you 16GB.
 
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Actually if i revived a 16gb model and apple as a retailer does not ask me to send it back to them after 6 months have pasted it is as if i bought and paid for a 16gb model as per the consumer protection act 1980...
i have spoken to apple and they say if i can 'prove' that before warranty it had 16gb of ram they will resolve the issue.
 

vansmith

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Actually if i revived a 16gb model
If you revived it, how is Apple responsible for fixing it?

and apple as a retailer does not ask me to send it back to them after 6 months have pasted it is as if i bought and paid for a 16gb model
I don't know what you means by "pasted it" but if they didn't know, they can't ask for it back. I'm not saying that this means that you're out of luck but that could cause some problems. If this doesn't matter, I hope you do manage to find that information.

as per the consumer protection act 1980...
I can't find this piece of legislation (which is made even harder since most jurisdictions have one with the same name such as Ontario's Consumer Protection Act of 2002).

i have spoken to apple and they say if i can 'prove' that before warranty it had 16gb of ram they will resolve the issue.
It'll be difficult to find this since, I think, most tools read what hardware is available and use that to tell you. In other words, tools don't have preset information - it's all generated on the fly. Unless you have old records that show that you had this hardware, you might be out of luck.
 
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Sorry i mis-typed "posted"...

i live in Ireland i and the act is "sales of goods and supply of service act 1980" i always mix it up with the "consumer protection act 2007"

but in the end there was a error message in the system logs where a program though an error message witch stated how much ram was being currently used, they accepted that and are have order the 16gb logic board for me!

So alls well thats ends well...
 

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This thread makes me wonder about something. The System Information app (a.k.a System Profiler in some versions of the OS) generates a detailed report. That report contains, among other things, the serial number, UUID and other configuration. If one were to save the report upon receiving the Mac would Apple accept that as valid proof of the configuration? I think so given this experience.

One would of course need to either print a dated copy of the report. Maybe they would accept a digital version of the report if the date of the file could be verified.
 

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I guess it depends on who gets the report. If it was plain text, it could be easily modified but I suppose that probably wouldn't be the case.
 

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