As many of you are no doubt aware I’ve been having a few issues with my mid 2012 15" MacBook Pro (i7 2.3GHz, 16GB RAM, 256 SSD – I swapped the 480GB SanDisk out for a 256GB Samsung SSD as part of my testing).
Today I ran the Apple Hardware Tests (via. holding down D at boot) but I am unable to get the machine to even complete the memory checks/diags even after leaving for around an hour it does not move past a few millimetres of the progress bar. I’ve even gone so far as to swap out the memory and have tried 4 different memory configurations, all of which see the machine boot and run but will not progress through checks (short or long) in the diags. This makes me suspect the motherboard (although why it actually boots up and runs doesn’t make sense if this is the case)
I have since had a chat session with Apple Support and have the machine booked in to take in to an Apple Authorised Service Centre on Tuesday morning (it’s Labour day tomorrow here in NZ).
My personal feeling is that since the machine is not yet 5 years old this should all be covered under the NZ Consumer Guarantees Act as a machine that costs as much as a MacBook should have at least a 5 year lifetime and not have any faults develop in that time - I have also previously reported other problems with the machine (USB issues, stability problems) with them but have been fobbed off most of the time. Apple Support could not tell me if I would be charged for the check as “all Apple Authorized Service Provider handle assessments differently” - surely as a global brand with global support this should something the Apple Support know and can advise on.
Anyway enough of my ramblings, given there are a few Apple hardware techs here what is your feeling on the issue and do you believe that this should be covered by the NZ Consumer Laws? My personal feeling is that this is most likely a RAM slot/motherboard issue and if cleaning the RAM slots does not resolve it then a replacement motherboard is the only option - assuming they have replacement motherboards available of course.
Screenshot below shows lack of progress after diags have been running on the machine for well over half an hour, yet the ‘Total Testing’ time only shows 22s seconds
I’ve also noticed that the back/rear underside of the case is extremely hot - I’m aware that this is where the cooling fans are and I’ve checked and they are running but this area is getting far too hot to touch, I’ll also raise this when taking the machine in to be checked as even thought iStat Menu doesn’t show any temperature issues the heat in that area is of concern to me.