Repair store stole/replaced my "working" components, need help with evidence

[Kartveli]

First of all hello to everyone, I just joined this community in search of a desperate solution to a problem and also hope to be helpful to others with my own experience. Thank you all in advance.

So let me get you guys up to date.

I have a 2012 (if i remember correctly) A1466 Macbook Air. During it's lifetime I've only changed it's battery in 2017. Also, not long ago, I took off the back cover and now can't find it.

Beginning of 2018 I started having problems with my keyboard, POWER button appeared to be "stuck" and mac would try to shut down every 5 sec. (I fixed this sticking a paper in a F5 key so it would override the action).

Later on, my WIFI/Airport stopped working too. So I took it to a shop. Not official service, but also not some dodgy cheap place, they seemed to be proper tech support guys.

As I suspected it was a problem of water getting into the system, so according to the shop guys, the following parts needed fix/replace in the computer:

- northbridge
- keyboard
- WiFi Bluetooth AirPort Card

They give me a budget, and I decline since they had a quite expensive charge for "hand work". Now after this it took me almost 2 months to get back the computer and when I got it back, I noticed some strange things.

A) The computer is not working, or turning on. First of all, because of the locked POWER BUTTON, I sometimes had to short the power-on pads on the motherboard to start my computer (that's why I kept the back cover off), but THE COMPUTER WORKED. (The shop guys say that, maybe the liquid problem extended and now the computer stopped working).

B) The battery is not the one I had. Since I had the back lid open, I remember that the battery had some imperfect folds on it's surface and when I saw the battery after getting it back it looked different. And also, the MAGSafe power doesn't seem to be charging it because an orange light stays on, or sometimes not any light. The final proof of the BATTERY EXCHANGE was that when I bought a battery in 2017, it wasn't an original one but compatible, and it was 5200mAh instead of the 6700mAh that the geniuine ones have, just like the one I see on my macbook. And I have a box that is proof of my 5200mAh. They've said that maybe there was a mix up but probably I'm mistaken because THEY DON'T have any other bateries in their storage, duh

C) My motherboard appears to be different. Now maybe "appearing different" is not enough to be suspicious but the battery exchange alerted me so I checked a photo I had of the computer from 2016 that I took of the SSD memory, and aside from the SSD you can see some other chips and components. SURPRISE, some of the CHIP numbers and serials are DIFFERENT!!!. What was the answer to this from the shop? "We changed some of those chips to make sure that the problem was only with the northbridge OK, and you did this for free? Never mentioned. People that usually charge for every single minute of work, decided to change my chips for free, since they needed to know for sure to give me a budget. "Yeah it's our loss of time and effort", he said. I think it's ridicoulous.

Anyway, the SSD card seems to be the same, the fan, keyboard, broken AirPort, case... But Motherboard and battery I believe they were changed, used as repair parts or sold. I gave them the idea that this computer had no use to me, and maybe they thought that I wasn't gonna even pick it up, or if I did, I'd assume that it was broken and never try to use it.

SO, I'm attaching you guys the photos I mentioned where you can partially see my motherboard back in 2016(first photo) and how it looks now (second photo). In that period of time, and even never, it was sent in for any type of repairs. Now I'd like to be wrong, and if yo can help me clear this up I'll go to the shop the very next day and apologise. But if you think I'm right, I'd need some help finding more proof that these components have been stoplen and replaced.

THANKS

 

[Raz0rEdge]

None of those parts can be soldered by hand, they require a reflow machine to do the right type of soldering. Looks like your machine was in pretty bad shape with potential liquid damage and other issues already. While whatever this shop did was more insult to that injury, you might just want to cut your losses and get a new machine since this is now broken.

Unless you took pictures of the machine (internal and external), serial numbers and all that, it's very hard to make a case against the shop since, as they've done, they can claim that they changed a bunch of things to get the machine working again out of kindness.

So get a new (or refurbished) machine, take better care of it and avoid this shop.

If you absolutely need service on a Mac, it is best to go with an authorized dealer or Apple itself.

 

[iggibar]

Looks like a sketchy dealer swapped parts and left you with something that 100% doesn't work. Computer repair shops are just like car repair shops in my opinion. They all try to scam you. Unfortunately, since you didn't pay for the service, them swapping parts and you getting stuck with proof that your parts don't work and swapped them, is FRAUD. Your agreement to pay is what allows them to work on your computer. You didn't agree to this! It does not matter that they claim they did it in the form of some kind gesture, you did NOT give them permission to do so, regardless of how your computer came in and went out. They are accountable for the swapped parts as it is deemed an attempt of fraud for personal gains. Apart from reporting this to local authorities, there's not much else you can do except spreading the word on social media. I would not accept anything but my EXACT computer and its parts back!

 

[pm-r]

I can't even read the numbers on those chips in the second/bottom photo properly to compare them with the top/first, but it sure looks like somebody cleaned out a **** of a lot of dust and crap compared to the top first photo.

Actually, I'm a bit surprised that any repair shop even took that MacBook Air in for any repair considering the jerryrigged "fixes" and missing cover. And maybe one should be thankful they did or even tried to help fix the thing.





- Patrick
======

 

[harryb2448]

Just bet it wasn't an Apple Store or Reseller? Water + electronics = death so maybe you are not as far out of pocket as you think.

 

[Kartveli]

I can't even read the numbers on those chips in the second/bottom photo properly to compare them with the top/first, but it sure looks like somebody cleaned out a **** of a lot of dust and crap compared to the top first photo.

Actually, I'm a bit surprised that any repair shop even took that MacBook Air in for any repair considering the jerryrigged "fixes" and missing cover. And maybe one should be thankful they did or even tried to help fix the thing.





- Patrick
======

Hello Patrick,

It's funny how after everything I exposed, all you seem to care about is the fact that I had some dust in my notebook and for that deserve no hearing. Sorry, I don't clean inside my laptop. And I did unscrew my lid, because of the keyboard malfunction. But most importantly the post is about a situation where I ask for help, to clear things up. With a main question, Is there a way to find out if something has been replaced? Yes, no and how.

Your comment here, was pure self gratification of passing judgement on the poor state of my notebook because of BAD BAD care, "you're bad and deserve bad things to happen to you" "ugh, I can't even see the numbers, you take photos as bad as you take care of your notebook".

(Well, the R88D component that is clearly visible, has a 219S number on one photo and a 252S on the other, for example. The small [+]N8 dv components are N8 ds on the other photo.)

The thing is I already had someone else ready to fix my notebook for less than 200$, keyboard, northbridge and airport. So my "THING" was 200$ away from being a perfectly fine MacBook Air. Now I have no functioning motherboard and battery (which was pretty new). So I have to add more $$$ and it has no sense. Even if I decided to not fix anything but the airport, which can be done at home with a 20$ OEM, I could've had a working notebook to just browse the internet and watch movies at home.

So forgive me for the lid, I'll find it and screw it back on. I'll go thank them for cleaning up the evil dust I left behind and forget the replaced parts they might have took.

 

[Kartveli]

None of those parts can be soldered by hand, they require a reflow machine to do the right type of soldering. Looks like your machine was in pretty bad shape with potential liquid damage and other issues already. While whatever this shop did was more insult to that injury, you might just want to cut your losses and get a new machine since this is now broken.

Unless you took pictures of the machine (internal and external), serial numbers and all that, it's very hard to make a case against the shop since, as they've done, they can claim that they changed a bunch of things to get the machine working again out of kindness.

So get a new (or refurbished) machine, take better care of it and avoid this shop.

If you absolutely need service on a Mac, it is best to go with an authorized dealer or Apple itself.

Hello Raz0rEdge,

Thanks for your input. I'm afraid you're right and I have no case against them. My last resort was gonna be to check the BIOS serial number, to see if the Motherboard had the same series as my notebook, but I don't know if anyone can access the bios if the logic doesn't fire up.

And I will absolutely stick to official/authorized service from now on.

 

[Kartveli]

Looks like a sketchy dealer swapped parts and left you with something that 100% doesn't work. Computer repair shops are just like car repair shops in my opinion. They all try to scam you. Unfortunately, since you didn't pay for the service, them swapping parts and you getting stuck with proof that your parts don't work and swapped them, is FRAUD. Your agreement to pay is what allows them to work on your computer. You didn't agree to this! It does not matter that they claim they did it in the form of some kind gesture, you did NOT give them permission to do so, regardless of how your computer came in and went out. They are accountable for the swapped parts as it is deemed an attempt of fraud for personal gains. Apart from reporting this to local authorities, there's not much else you can do except spreading the word on social media. I would not accept anything but my EXACT computer and its parts back!

Hi iggibar,

Thanks for your input. What they say is that those chips were replaced to make sure and locate the problem, and that the motherboard has now stopped working because of the extention of the overall liquid damage. But It had been working like that for quite a while, and no damage seemed to have extended beyond the northbridge, keyboard and Airport. And the timing? All of this happening after them having it at the shop. I wouldn't be so suspicious but he never mentioned anything about changing any components until I confronted him with the facts, and the replaced battery of course set off the alarms for me.

I don't know what to do without any further evidence, so I wish there was a way to tell if a motherboard is not the original

 

[pm-r]

@Kartveli

Hello Patrick,
It's funny how after everything I exposed, all you seem to care about is the fact that I had some dust in my notebook and for that deserve no hearing.

Sorry Kartveli but I suggest you re-read what I posted and the dusty Mac comments were only a part, but a part of your situation as far as repairs go I would suspect. I merely made the statement I could not read the chip's numbers correctly to make an accurate statement of any difference.

Maybe get all the parts back if they have them, and take them all with your MBAir to the to the first repair person that quoted you a lower price, or check with them to see what it would cost to maybe get things back together and working properly.

But as Harry said in his post #15, water and MacBooks do not go well together, and you seem to have some added complications to make any possible repairs even more complicated.

I hope you have some good luck in getting the problem and repairs resolved. And I hope it doesn't take another two months if you don't have another computer you can use, but obviously you do in order to be posting here.





- Patrick
======

 

[harryb2448]

And Macs do not have BIOS!

 

[chscag]

Thanks for your input. What they say is that those chips were replaced to make sure and locate the problem, and that the motherboard has now stopped working because of the extention of the overall liquid damage. But It had been working like that for quite a while, and no damage seemed to have extended beyond the northbridge, keyboard and Airport. And the timing? All of this happening after them having it at the shop. I wouldn't be so suspicious but he never mentioned anything about changing any components until I confronted him with the facts, and the replaced battery of course set off the alarms for me.

I don't know what to do without any further evidence, so I wish there was a way to tell if a motherboard is not the original

They didn't replace the chips or components. That would have been more than they could handle since it requires a special micro soldering station and the skills to go along with it. What it looks like is they swapped out the Logic Board (motherboard). I have no idea why they might have done that except if there was evidence of corrosion on the old board due to it getting wet. The shop where you had this done should have properly documented all the work that they did.

A logic board swap will change the serial number of the machine. So, if you have documentation of the original serial number, you can make a comparison and go from there. We have no idea what agreement you had with this particular repair shop. We will leave it up to you to resolve whatever differences you have with them.

Sorry, we can't be of more help.

 

[Kartveli]

They didn't replace the chips or components. That would have been more than they could handle since it requires a special micro soldering station and the skills to go along with it. What it looks like is they swapped out the Logic Board (motherboard). I have no idea why they might have done that except if there was evidence of corrosion on the old board due to it getting wet. The shop where you had this done should have properly documented all the work that they did.

A logic board swap will change the serial number of the machine. So, if you have documentation of the original serial number, you can make a comparison and go from there. We have no idea what agreement you had with this particular repair shop. We will leave it up to you to resolve whatever differences you have with them.

Sorry, we can't be of more help.

Hi Chscag,

Thanks for your input. I have to say that I didn't originally intend to go to a non-authorized repair shop but the one we have in the town told me that since its a 2012 model, they don't service and apple doesn't even have components for replacement.

This is a regular "we fix apple products and other stuff" shop. They did look professional. And the agreement was to just open it up, see what needs to be fixed and give me a budget. I received budget, and declined.

If it does look like it's been replaced without my authorization. I have a series number of my computer, the one that usually appears on the back cover and the apple Icloud. As I hear, all apple components of the same machine, share this number. Now some places I've read that there's some type of "BIOS" or NVRAM in the Logic Board that can be accessed and this number should appear and be the same. But, I can't get the computer to start up.

Could a technician access it and get the series number of this board? Or even easier, is there somewhere on the Logic itself where I can find this number written??

Thanks

 

[pm-r]

Could a technician access it and get the series number of this board? Or even easier, is there somewhere on the Logic itself where I can find this number written??

Unless Apple has changed things which I would doubt, I would say that neither is possible and the computer needs to be powered up to read the one written in read-only chip software.


PS EDIT:
Please don't take this the wrong way, but due to the situation you are now in and considering the previous water spill etc., I would suggest you may be better off working along with the repair shop and end up with a working MBAir even if it does take old used parts to do so, rather than getting antagonistic over their "repairs" they have done so far.

There is a well qualified local non-Apple authorized repair shop here that often gets unjustified bad mouthed comments over their repairs when all they were trying to do was to get the user's broken Mac back into some usable state at a reasonable price.

I guess I'm just wondering if maybe your repair shop has ended up in the same situation. Maybe discuss the situation with them if they are like any normal reasonable repair place.






- Patrick
======

 

[Kartveli]

Unless Apple has changed things which I would doubt, I would say that neither is possible and the computer needs to be powered up to read the one written in read-only chip software.


PS EDIT:
Please don't take this the wrong way, but due to the situation you are now in and considering the previous water spill etc., I would suggest you may be better off working along with the repair shop and end up with a working MBAir even if it does take old used parts to do so, rather than getting antagonistic over their "repairs" they have done so far.

There is a well qualified local non-Apple authorized repair shop here that often gets unjustified bad mouthed comments over their repairs when all they were trying to do was to get the user's broken Mac back into some usable state at a reasonable price.

I guess I'm just wondering if maybe your repair shop has ended up in the same situation. Maybe discuss the situation with them if they are like any normal reasonable repair place.






- Patrick
======

Hi Patrick,

I understand what you mean, and I appreciate you sticking around to help clear up my situation. I haven't spoken a bad word to them or about them because all I have for now is Suspicion. But when confronted with some facts, all I got was an out of the blue explanation. "Oh yeah, we changed those components to make sure where was the problem" and "Probably it stopped working because of the liquid damage".

Now let me explain a bit further. There was never any major water spill in my notebook. Could've been something small, at some moment. But as they checked, it was located in a specific part of the logic board which was cleaned up, and affected only 3 components, AirPort, Northbridge (which only was slower, so maybe that was because of other reasons) and keyboard. Now once theres damage, and affected components, I never heard of damage spreading out further unless there's more damage. But ok, maybe it was the case.

What I suspect is that they thought that I was gonna trash the notebook all together or never try to repair it, and used my logic on another notebook with a dead board, that had my broken components working perfectly fine. I mean it's not that CRAZY to see a repair shop of any kind do this kind of crap.

And most importantly, I'm 100% positive that the battery was indeed swapped, it doesn't even have the same ****Mah, so that of course reinforces my suspicion about the logic board. The components on the logic that now have different serial numbers are of course a major clue, and today I took it to another technician and he said that they don't look like they've been changed but seem to be the original ones with this board, so if the numbers are different, the board is indeed different. He said that I should go ask for help at my authorized apple repair store since they probably do have a way of verifying the serial number.

So again, I don't understand your position here Patrick. You're worried about some guy here (me) bad mouthing a shop on the internet, when I never spoke a name and haven't said anything anywhere else like social media.

All I asked was, I have this suspicion, help me verify. They have already given their answer, "we didn't replace your board". If I'm right, why would I work around a broken replaced logic board with a shop that has practically stolen from me. So I have a dead logic board in my hands which has no way of fixing around. And hey if what they're saying is true, and it's indeed my board I'll go say sorry for the inconvienience and trash my broken notebook, end of story.

And that's why I started the post to ask one simple question, is there a way to see if the board has been replaced like for example finding the serial number somewhere?

 

[harryb2448]

There is no such thing as a 'small' spill. They are all major.

 

[pm-r]

So again, I don't understand your position here Patrick. You're worried about some guy here (me) bad mouthing a shop on the internet, when I never spoke a name and haven't said anything anywhere else like social media.

Gheese!!! NOT AT ALL and you are reading and assuming things here I did not say or even imply.

So much for trying to help, and I'm out of here!!! Bye!! And good luck!!


PS: Was there some special reason you took the photo of your MBAir back in 2016??? Just curious.


PPS: And just for something else to wonder about, maybe they didn't switch any parts in your MBAir and maybe just returned you some other similar unit they had lying around. So many possibilities. But probably someway to get a working MB Air out of all the bits and pieces and some co-operation and at least a decent monetary outlay for the repairs if successful.






- Patrick
======

 

[Kartveli]

Just bet it wasn't an Apple Store or Reseller? Water + electronics = death so maybe you are not as far out of pocket as you think.

And Macs do not have BIOS!

There is no such thing as a 'small' spill. They are all major.

Hello Harry.

There's enough evidence exposed about possibly exchanged components. The main TOPIC here is, ways to find out if a logic board has been replaced. Your 3 comments about "oh i bet it wasnt an authorized shop", terrible water spilling and NO BIOS have been very VERY helpful.

It's the first time I encounter this kind of interaction in a tech community. Are you guys just mad that I did something wrong to a precious APPLE product? I don't get it. You know an apple authorized service told me they would not take in my machine because it was older than 2013 and those models and their repair parts are discontinued. So yeah, I took it elsewhere.

And your comment about MACs not having "BIOS". Ok yea sure, they have no BIOS, or at LEAST it's just not called like that. But you probably understood that I was looking for some type of accesible memory in the logic board, basically an equivalent to a BIOS on a PC. A **** EFI, that in PC is called BIOS and in MAC a NVRaM. But yeah, your comment was again, very helpful.

 

[Kartveli]

Gheese!!! NOT AT ALL and you are reading and assuming things here I did not say or even imply.

So much for trying to help, and I'm out of here!!! Bye!! And good luck!!


PS: Was there some special reason you took the photo of your MBAir back in 2016??? Just curious.


PPS: And just for something else to wonder about, maybe they didn't switch any parts in your MBAir and maybe just returned you some other similar unit they had lying around. So many possibilities. But probably someway to get a working MB Air out of all the bits and pieces and some co-operation and at least a decent monetary outlay for the repairs if successful.






- Patrick
======

Patrick because if you guys would stick on the matter, which is how to find out if a logic board has been replaced (that could be useful for others maybe), we could find out in fact if the shop has done something bad or if I'm just a paranoid complaining cry baby. Or we would just learn HOW TO CHECK THE LOGIC BOARD, no matter the outcome of my story.

And maybe you should also take a look at it from my side, I could be right and feel that I've been cheated. It's not a bad cause to help out with.

I mean I get it, water spill could've destroyed the logic I kNOW. But it didn't for a very long time, and it worked fine with the already affected components. And series numbers have changed, and the battery. I mean it's enough to look into dont you think.

And if more components have been changed, or the whole thing (which it doesn't look like it) it wouldn't matter much, the most expensive thing that I SUSPECT that has been changed, the logic board, is dead. It would now cost even more money to repair.

In answer to your question. I took the photo when I first opened the lid and saw that the SSD was made by Samsung, shared with my friends and had some laughs about it. (AND CLEANED IT UP AFTER BTW, even though it was for the first time. Before that I thought it was forbidden by apple police to open your computers)

P.S. Imagine if I had put just that in the thread topic (now I def. feel like I should have), "how to find out if logic board is not the original" I would've probably gotten more specific answers and not this talk about how this was bad, and that was bad, and maybe this happened or it didn't. But I felt like sharing the whole story, I mean I thought it was the right best way to expose my problem.


DONT LEAVE ME PATRICK, HELP ME!

 

[MacInWin]

Kartveli, the board has a been changed. Too many components don't match in the picture. No shop would replace all those components before they gave up. So, there, that's the answer. You don't need to power it up to read the serials on the chips to see it's not the same board.

Water damage is very often cumulative because the initial spill lets current flow where it's not designed to flow, and components can be stressed electrically by that unplanned current flow. As a result, those stressed components then put more stress on other components in the circuit and over time, something fails. So a water-damaged computer may be able to run for a while, but eventually it will have issues as a result. It is very rare that a water damaged computer can escape the inevitability of the consequences.

Now you may not care, but what I would suggest is to take the picture of what was in the system, along with the Mac itself, back to the shop and show them the picture and ask if it is possible that they may have put the incorrect motherboard back into your computer by mistake. You may find that they are surprised by that possibility and will work with you to get the original board back for you, if it's not too late. (They may have disposed of the board already if it's been a while.) If you are reasonably pleasant, they should be open to at least a discussion of how to proceed.

Good luck with it.

 

[Kartveli]

Kartveli, the board has a been changed. Too many components don't match in the picture. No shop would replace all those components before they gave up. So, there, that's the answer. You don't need to power it up to read the serials on the chips to see it's not the same board.

Water damage is very often cumulative because the initial spill lets current flow where it's not designed to flow, and components can be stressed electrically by that unplanned current flow. As a result, those stressed components then put more stress on other components in the circuit and over time, something fails. So a water-damaged computer may be able to run for a while, but eventually it will have issues as a result. It is very rare that a water damaged computer can escape the inevitability of the consequences.

Now you may not care, but what I would suggest is to take the picture of what was in the system, along with the Mac itself, back to the shop and show them the picture and ask if it is possible that they may have put the incorrect motherboard back into your computer by mistake. You may find that they are surprised by that possibility and will work with you to get the original board back for you, if it's not too late. (They may have disposed of the board already if it's been a while.) If you are reasonably pleasant, they should be open to at least a discussion of how to proceed.

Good luck with it.

Hi Jake,

Thanks for your input, sadly even though I was suspicious and expected this to be (if correct) done on purpose because not only the logic but also the battery were different, I still approached the matter with caution and did expose the facts and show the photo in a very normal matter as if this could've been a misunderstanding. So much that, I didn't really care about writing down a complaint and bashing them on google and social media I was really hoping for it to be a mistake, or EVEN if it wasn't I was hoping for a back down and them giving back what they took and calling it all a mistake.

But none of those were the answer, I showed the photo and he said "Oh right yeah, those components with the numbers that are different on the logic board, we changed them to narrow down the affected area". As if they were saying, if that's the only reason you have to think it's not yours, here's an answer. Other than that, he told me that they number the boards when they take them off with a marker and checked really quickly other 2 boards he had laying around of same model that also didn't have those r88D components with my code number.

He also did one more interesting thing. It took me a while to pick up the notebook after saying no to the budget. So he explained to me that if they were trying to do something dodgy or make money out of their clients, he couldve charged me money for the extended time they had to keep my computer in the shop, which they didn't BECAUSE THEY're nice. But honestly saying something like that felt more like an excuse because when I first picked up the computer and had no complaints, they said nothing about them forgiving me for the "late pick up fee".

Anyway, what I meant to say is that I tried the good approach, gave them a chance to do right (all of this of course assuming that they did replace it) but no, he stood his ground and said they can't help me.