Third party Mac servicing companies?

[LRSFC_DanJ]

We're looking at ways in which we can extend the service life of our older iMacs (2012, 2013 models - no longer under warranty) and one possibility would be to have the current 5400rpm HDDs replaced with SSDs.

 

As we would envisage this involving at least 50 machines, we are looking to see if we can find a company who would be able to send technician(s) on-site and perform the replacements in bulk here.

 

These Macs are no longer under warranty so we would not be concerned about using non-Apple parts, but the companies we've contacted so far have all given us the same kind of response:

 

"2013/2013 models are likely to be considered 'vintage', this means that Apple no longer manufacture serialised parts needed for repairs and service."

 

I'm assuming this means there's some kind of lock-in agreement that Apple has with their service centres?

 

Can anyone recommend a third party company (not locked in by Apple) who might be prepared to do what we're asking for?

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I think you'll find that 3rd party companies will hike the price because of the word Apple.

 

These iMacs are relatively easy to upgrade and you should be able to do it in house.

Whilst the glass panels are glued to the frame, they're easy enough to remove with a stanley blade and a little heat.

It'll take ten minutes to remove the glass and replace the HDD with an SSD, and then a further five minutes to rebuild and use double-sided tape to reaffix the glass panel.

The first machine will take a little longer as you'll be learning along the way, but after that you'll fly through them.

[LRSFC_DanJ]

I think you'll find that 3rd party companies will hike the price because of the word Apple.

 

These iMacs are relatively easy to upgrade and you should be able to do it in house.

Whilst the glass panels are glued to the frame, they're easy enough to remove with a stanley blade and a little heat.

It'll take ten minutes to remove the glass and replace the HDD with an SSD, and then a further five minutes to rebuild and use double-sided tape to reaffix the glass panel.

The first machine will take a little longer as you'll be learning along the way, but after that you'll fly through them.

 

Yes, we're expecting that to be the case, but it will still be more cost efficient to upgrade existing Macs to extend their service life than to buy new ones.

 

Due to the cost of replacing iMac screens should anything go wrong, we'd vastly prefer to pay a company with the experience to perform these upgrades rather than trying to do it ourselves, particularly given the number of computers we need to upgrade.

[r0cketbev]

Defo go for SSDs have a look at how much ram you can add to them it will make a world of diffrence.

[LRSFC_DanJ]

Defo go for SSDs have a look at how much ram you can add to them it will make a world of diffrence.

 

We want to, but we need to find a company who'll do it for us. I don't think we can upgrade RAM as I believe it was soldered on those models, but the drives in them are standard SATA spinning-rust drives so it should be possible to replace with SSDs.

[r0cketbev]

The RAM on the 2012 models can take upto 16Gig

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i5-2.7-21-inch-aluminum-late-2012-specs.html

The same goes for the 2013 models

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i5-2.7-21-inch-aluminum-late-2013-specs.html

[bald_pig]

I believe counterpoint can offer mac upgrades, it's been a while since I've used them though.

[LRSFC_DanJ]

I believe counterpoint can offer mac upgrades, it's been a while since I've used them though.

 

Thanks, I've sent them an enquiry email.

[Andycat]

I think the "official" people will want serialised spares so that Apple can recognise the drive and use it's thermal management thing. There is a bit of software that you can get to bypass this if you just put a "normal" ssd in though.

[LRSFC_DanJ]

I think the "official" people will want serialised spares so that Apple can recognise the drive and use it's thermal management thing. There is a bit of software that you can get to bypass this if you just put a "normal" ssd in though.

 

Yes, a couple of the companies who we enquired with have already got back to us saying that 2012/2013 are "vintage" and so official Apple approved parts are not available.

 

However these Macs are long past the end of their warranties, so we don't care about using Apple approved parts.

[Andycat]

Yes, a couple of the companies who we enquired with have already got back to us saying that 2012/2013 are "vintage" and so official Apple approved parts are not available.

 

However these Macs are long past the end of their warranties, so we don't care about using Apple approved parts.

 

Oh yes, I get that, and have done a few here, but the thermal management is a real thing, you'll constantly have the fan going which will then fail quicker.

ssdfanctrl

[LRSFC_DanJ]

Oh yes, I get that, and have done a few here, but the thermal management is a real thing, you'll constantly have the fan going which will then fail quicker.

ssdfanctrl

 

I don't suppose there's an app that's a bit more enterprisey than that? I.e. that we can somehow manage centrally and that can be installed silently and simply activate the next time the machine is rebooted rather than actively rebooting during the install?

[Norphy]

Don't the 2012/13 Macs have Thunderbolt ports? You could get some thunderbolt to SATA enclosures and secure them to the back of the Macs. They'd be able to boot off those and performance would be the same.

 

It wouldn't be cheap but it might not be more expensive then paying someone to disassemble the Macs.

[LRSFC_DanJ]

Don't the 2012/13 Macs have Thunderbolt ports? You could get some thunderbolt to SATA enclosures and secure them to the back of the Macs. They'd be able to boot off those and performance would be the same.

 

It wouldn't be cheap but it might not be more expensive then paying someone to disassemble the Macs.

 

Wouldn't those run the risk of getting nicked though? We do need people to be able to access the back of the Mac so they can e.g. plug in USB sticks, so we can't just block the whole thing off or lock it inside some kind of cage.

[Norphy]

Yes but you could use some Araldite or some other kind of epoxy to glue it to the Mac. It wouldn't be pretty, admittedly, but it might be worth a go.

[Andycat]

I don't suppose there's an app that's a bit more enterprisey than that? I.e. that we can somehow manage centrally and that can be installed silently and simply activate the next time the machine is rebooted rather than actively rebooting during the install?

 

I'm afraid I don't, ours were withdrawn and sold on. Incidentally, the price we got for 8 year old iMacs sold on ebay, more than covered the price of 3 yr old HP AiO refurbs.

[localzuk]

You won't find any official Apple repair company willing to do this - they sign contracts with Apple when they get certified stating they'll only use official Apple parts, and that doesn't stop when it becomes vintage (at least that was the case last time I spoke to any of them).

 

 

You're going to have to either do it yourselves, or look for a small computer repair business for it instead - not an official Apple one.

 

I'm afraid I don't, ours were withdrawn and sold on. Incidentally, the price we got for 8 year old iMacs sold on ebay, more than covered the price of 3 yr old HP AiO refurbs.

We sold a 2009 iMac recently, got £250 for it... So they certainly are worth selling on if you go down that route!

[DrBeaker]

I'm afraid I don't, ours were withdrawn and sold on. Incidentally, the price we got for 8 year old iMacs sold on ebay, more than covered the price of 3 yr old HP AiO refurbs.

 

YMMV as we all do different things and have different ideas - but my 2-cents is that after what 7-8x years of use, those Macs are now at the end of their useful lifespan (in a support capacity). If that was a PC they'd be no argument about replacing it due to age.

[BKGarry]

Now IIRC, you have to change some setting in the OS to get Macs to play nice with SSDs that were not built with them, and reapply those settings every update.

[BKGarry]

Now IIRC, you have to change some setting in the OS to get Macs to play nice with SSDs that were not built with them, and reapply those settings every update.

 

No I am wrong, I was thinking of this https://cindori.org/trimenabler/

[bald_pig]

At my last place, I was replacing drives on 2010 imacs left, right and centre with whatever spare drive or SSD I had laying around. I used the ssdfanctrl app, install and configure it to use the SMART data to control the fan, then run the following in terminal to hide the app, it still controls the fan but it can't be opened without knowing the app name and going via terminal:

 

sudo chflags -h hidden "/Applications/ssdfanctrl.app"

[LRSFC_DanJ]

I'm afraid I don't, ours were withdrawn and sold on. Incidentally, the price we got for 8 year old iMacs sold on ebay, more than covered the price of 3 yr old HP AiO refurbs.

 

While we would love to replace those Macs with PCs, unfortunately the situation regarding that is very political and contentious at the moment.

[Arthur]

I don't suppose there's an app that's a bit more enterprisey than that? I.e. that we can somehow manage centrally and that can be installed silently and simply activate the next time the machine is rebooted rather than actively rebooting during the install?

When I upgraded one of the 2013 iMacs at my school I purchased OWCs In-line Digital Thermal Sensor to fix the fan issue.

 

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00J42D5MK

 

This would be a good option if you don't want to deal with third-party software. Once installed (along with the SSD) you never need to worry about it again.

[LRSFC_DanJ]

When I upgraded one of the 2013 iMacs at my school I purchased OWCs In-line Digital Thermal Sensor to fix the fan issue.

 

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00J42D5MK

 

This would be a good option if you don't want to deal with third-party software. Once installed (along with the SSD) you never need to worry about it again.

These look like they are all for 27" Macs though; our Macs are all 21.5".

[PotNoodleTech]

They are really easy to upgrade yourself. They look a bit daunting as it's like, where are all the screws - but the glass screen cover pulls off (it is magnetically held on, I recommend using some suckers to pull it off safely) and once that's off it's just a handful of screws to remove the actual TFT screen (and a few cables on the back of it to unplug). Once that's done it's a couple of screws for the hard disk, and slap an SSD in instead.

 

We didn't bother with the temperature sensor here as these macs are very old, were donated to us, and we paid under £20 per SSD so it wasn't worth the money and hassle to correct the fan speed issue.

 

One things for sure when you SSD your imac they're like a totally different machine!!