Chosen Solution
I just picked up my Macbook Air (13" 2017) from the Apple Geniuses and I’m wondering if it was misdiagnosed. My MaBook Air is 13 months old. The last time I used it there were no problems, I closed the lid, then went to bed. In the morning it gave me a black screen then started updating. The update seemed to freeze, so I tried powering it off. It went completely dead. Nothing. It was around 90% charged and not on the charger when it died, so it wasn’t a surge. Next, I called customer support and they walked me through the troubleshooting protocol. I plugged in the power cord before beginning the procedure. The only thing that happened was my power cord light went out. It seemed the power cord had died during the troubleshooting protocol. I ran through the protocol again and the power cord light came on again. Took it to the Apple Store and the genius ran through the troubleshooting protocol and the charger stopped working again. He tried 2 other charges and they wouldn’t work either. I told him to do the protocol again and why, but he only tried one of the 3 troubleshooting actions (I think it was SMC but not sure). It didn’t work, so he said it was the charging port that was the problem. I disagreed, but he was certain, so I paid $134 to have the port replaced. When I picked it up it powered up just fine. I put in my password and it worked the same as before. The genius informed me diagnostics test showed it had 4 faulty sensors on the logic board and it would cost another $475 flat rate to send it in to Apple to have this fixed. WHAT??? It’s only 13 months old, never had water damage and it is 1 month past warranty! He showed me the list of faulty sensors which read: “thermal interface test”, “Flat line test (temperature sensor Th1H)”, “Sensor Check Test (SMC)”, “Limit with Idle Test (Sensor Group)” Since it was running fine I turned down the $475 fix. He informed me these sensors would cause future problems but I don’t have $475 to spend on it. I just paid over $1,000 for the laptop a year ago and I’m really upset I even had to pay the $134. I finished the updates that seemed to start this whole avalanche and it’s functioning great. Could the Genius and diagnosis have been wrong? I hate to ask, but do they tend to push unnecessary fixes at the Apple Store? What would you do now?
While I can’t say for certain some stores have started to run goals on how many repairs they take in so you could have been caught up within that. As for the diagnostics did you try the built-in digs to see what it told you? Reboot your system and how the D key to get to it. What did it say?
