05-15-2007, 05:30 PM
[quote tahoedrew]
Now, what I am concerned about is whether Apple will say I voided the warrantee by taking the case of the mini off. I was thinking I'll just tell them that I looked at the memory tab in system profiler for the first time and noticed one slot said "empty" but I was under the impression that mini's shipped with two, equal RAM chips, kind of play dumb and let them figure it out. Or should I admit I opened the case, saw the two 512MB chips, and then checked system profiler and noticed it wasn't recognizing both slots?
That would be my approach exactly. Every indication is that it shipped with 1GB of RAM, but was only showing 512MB when you got it... thus problem existed when you received it. The fact that it showed the AMOUNT of RAM that normally shipped with a typical mac mini, probably is the reason it wasn't caught when it was refurbed, since the amount of RAM looked right... even though it was only showing HALF the installed RAM.
If you honestly don't think you created the problem (and based on what you report, I don't think you did) I would share your excellent logic with the Apple folks (only 1 slot reporting installed RAM) and let them figure out the rest. More likely than not, they'll try replacing the "bad" 512 MB chip, and discover that the replacement is "bad" too... and then may consider the possibility that the actual RAM slot is bad... which is likely the REAL problem.
Hopefully they'll give you a new Mini, since I imagine a MB repair on a mini would be more work than it is worth.
Now, what I am concerned about is whether Apple will say I voided the warrantee by taking the case of the mini off. I was thinking I'll just tell them that I looked at the memory tab in system profiler for the first time and noticed one slot said "empty" but I was under the impression that mini's shipped with two, equal RAM chips, kind of play dumb and let them figure it out. Or should I admit I opened the case, saw the two 512MB chips, and then checked system profiler and noticed it wasn't recognizing both slots?
That would be my approach exactly. Every indication is that it shipped with 1GB of RAM, but was only showing 512MB when you got it... thus problem existed when you received it. The fact that it showed the AMOUNT of RAM that normally shipped with a typical mac mini, probably is the reason it wasn't caught when it was refurbed, since the amount of RAM looked right... even though it was only showing HALF the installed RAM.
If you honestly don't think you created the problem (and based on what you report, I don't think you did) I would share your excellent logic with the Apple folks (only 1 slot reporting installed RAM) and let them figure out the rest. More likely than not, they'll try replacing the "bad" 512 MB chip, and discover that the replacement is "bad" too... and then may consider the possibility that the actual RAM slot is bad... which is likely the REAL problem.
Hopefully they'll give you a new Mini, since I imagine a MB repair on a mini would be more work than it is worth.