Apple will replace some faulty 3TB iMac hard drives under new repair program

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited June 2015
Apple on Friday announced that some iMac owners whose machines are equipped with a 3-terabyte hard drive may be eligible to have their drive replaced free of charge, as those drives "may fail under certain conditions."

iMac


The new program is open to owners of 27-inch iMacs with 3-terabyte hard drives sold between December 2012 and September 2013. Those who are unsure if their iMac is eligible can check its serial number on Apple's website.

Apple advises users to back up their data before sending machines in for service, as they will be required to re-install their operating system and applications.

Repairs under the program can be provided by any Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. Owners who have already paid to have faulty 3-terabyte drives fixed can contact the company to receive a refund.

This is the second such repair program announced by Apple this year. In February, the company launched a repair program for 2011 MacBook Pro laptops suffering from distorted video, unexpected restarts and other issues.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 46
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Get ready for the class-action lawsuits...
  • Reply 2 of 46
    emoelleremoeller Posts: 574member
    I have a 3Tb Time capsule purchased during that time period. Wonder if those used the same drive?
  • Reply 3 of 46
    appexappex Posts: 687member

    Mechanism inside? Seagate?



    OTOH, Why are Apple SSD and RAM priced twice or more than they original manufacturer brand that they use?

  • Reply 4 of 46
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    appex wrote: »
    Mechanism inside? Seagate?


    OTOH, Why is Apple SSD and RAM priced twice or more than they original manufacturer brand that they use?

    It is call Markup.
  • Reply 5 of 46
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EMoeller View Post



    I have a 3Tb Time capsule purchased during that time period. Wonder if those used the same drive?



    Doesn’t matter. Time Capsules are not part of the program.

  • Reply 6 of 46
    zroger73zroger73 Posts: 787member

    Déjà vu. Remember Apple's iMac 1TB drive replacement program a few years ago? Mine never failed, but I did have it replaced just before I sold it to a friend of mine.

  • Reply 7 of 46
    maestro64 wrote: »
    It is call Markup.

    Lessons in successfully trolling:
    1. When it's something nice, you name the OEM of the component, i.e., it's Samsung's A8 chip or LG's LCD panel
    2. When it's a defective part, the actual component maker (nvidia, Seagate) disappears behind Apple's name.

    Follow these simple rules so you'll never accidentally judge Apple on a level playing field.
  • Reply 8 of 46
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,753member
    lkrupp wrote: »

    Doesn’t matter. Time Capsules are not part of the program.

    Ah, so even if identical drives are used in the TC, no one has anything to worry about since they only fail in the iMac, not the TC. Right.

    OTOH, Apple used to specify the TC used "server grade" hard disks, though this was disputed when it was found out they used I think it was WD Black drives.
  • Reply 9 of 46
    elijahg wrote: »
    Ah, so even if identical drives are used in the TC, no one has anything to worry about since they only fail in the iMac, not the TC. Right.

    OTOH, Apple used to specify the TC used "server grade" hard disks, though this was disputed when it was found out they used I think it was WD Black drives.

    May not be an issue if it's heat related.
  • Reply 10 of 46
    konqerrorkonqerror Posts: 685member
    Quote:



    Originally Posted by Elijahg View Post



    Ah, so even if identical drives are used in the TC, no one has anything to worry about since they only fail in the iMac, not the TC. Right.

     

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post



    May not be an issue if it's heat related.


     

    The iMac definitely keeps the drives toasty. There's a reason why Apple is the only manufacturer to use hard drive temperature sensing. In everybody else's desktops and servers, the hard drives are placed right by the intake. The iMac places it right in the middle of everything, including the power supply.

  • Reply 11 of 46
    isteelersisteelers Posts: 738member
    Lessons in successfully trolling:
    1. When it's something nice, you name the OEM of the component, i.e., it's Samsung's A8 chip or LG's LCD panel
    2. When it's a defective part, the actual component maker (nvidia, Seagate) disappears behind Apple's name.

    Follow these simple rules so you'll never accidentally judge Apple on a level playing field.

    I think you quoted the wrong person.
  • Reply 12 of 46
    mr squidmr squid Posts: 58member



    Time Capsules can get extremely hot, and they do not have an active cooling system.  If heat is the culprit then Time Capsules be in for a spot of trouble.

  • Reply 13 of 46
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 1,999member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Elijahg View Post





    Ah, so even if identical drives are used in the TC, no one has anything to worry about since they only fail in the iMac, not the TC. Right.

     

    Did you even read what you responded to?  No one said TCs have no problems, only that they aren't part of this replacement program, so it is irrelevant (in relation to this article and the replacement program).

  • Reply 14 of 46
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,753member
    May not be an issue if it's heat related.

    Meaning the TC doesn't get as hot as the iMac or vice versa? Both get pretty hot, and the TC's fan doesn't turn on until things are really hot, around 50°C.
    konqerror wrote: »
    The iMac definitely keeps the drives toasty. There's a reason why Apple is the only manufacturer to use hard drive temperature sensing. In everybody else's desktops and servers, the hard drives are placed right by the intake. The iMac places it right in the middle of everything, including the power supply.

    Presumably the reason the HDD is slap bang in the middle is because that's the fattest part of the machine (the late 2012 ones onwards are the super-thin ones) and the only place it will fit. Thinness above all other considerations again...
    chadbag wrote: »
    Did you even read what you responded to?  No one said TCs have no problems, only that they aren't part of this replacement program, so it is irrelevant (in relation to this article and the replacement program).

    Yes thank you. If they use the same drives, and the iMac drives are failing, I'd say that is pretty relevant, and the TC ones should have a replacement program too.
  • Reply 15 of 46
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    maestro64 wrote: »
    appex wrote: »
    Mechanism inside? Seagate?

    OTOH, Why is Apple SSD and RAM priced twice or more than they original manufacturer brand that they use?

    It is call Markup.

    They also use higher priced components. Apple charges $300 to move to 512GB from 256GB SSD and they use boards with the same components as the following:

    http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SM951-256GB-AHCI-MZHPV256HDGL-00000/dp/B00VELD92U
    http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SM951-512GB-AHCI-MZHPV512HDGL-00000/dp/B00VELDBJ6

    $458 for 512GB. $227 for 256GB. The upgrade by deducting the 256GB and adding 512GB going by the retail price would be $231 so Apple's $300 isn't too bad.

    The much less expensive SATA drives are using TLC NAND. Consumers might not notice the difference but using the more expensive parts is something Apple does quite often.

    There are rumors about Intel/Micron coming out with very competitive 3D NAND at the end of this year:

    http://www.pogolinux.com/blog/3d-nand/

    It's been described as having disruptive pricing. If Intel manages to hit $0.50/GB then it will be competitive with current MLC SATA drives but I wouldn't say that was necessarily disruptive but it could half the upgrade costs for Apple as 512GB would be $256 and 256GB would be $128 so upgrade = $128 and Apple can charge $150. The upgrade to 1TB ($512) would be $384, Apple can charge $400 vs $800 just now. Hopefully they can rival the performance and durability of Samsung's drives.

    If Intel can go even further to $0.25/GB, that would be really disruptive because even large hard drives can be left out of machines altogether. They have to recoup investment in their plants so they probably won't have really low prices to begin with but Anandtech shows the density improvement:

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/9116/estimating-intelmicron-32layer-256gbit-3d-nand-die-size

    50% better than Samsung so they could rival them in price but make more profit or undercut them or a little of both.

    Still not cheap enough for 3TB, which is $150 or $350 for Fusion but they can push that externally like they do with the Mac Pro. $0.10/GB is the point where it gets interesting for price, which is why $0.25/GB would be a good step in the right direction.

    If it was $0.25/GB, Apple could forget Fusion and just ship a 1TB SSD plus a 2TB HDD and leave them separate. Then just keep the HDD turned off until the user fills up the SSD but power the HDD up every day to keep the drive active and avoid mechanical failure.
  • Reply 16 of 46

    My 3TB HDD failed last month and was replaced under AppleCare at no additional cost (other than the cost of AppleCare 2.5 years ago). I entered in my SN and found my model is one of the affected. I'm wondering if Apple will instead refund me what I paid for AppleCare (or even some smaller amount), to make up for the fact that I lost some data and had to be without my computer for a week while it was in for repair. I also bought a 3TB AirPort Time Capsule at the same time I bought my iMac... any chance they used the same HDD and now I should start worrying about THAT HDD failing as well??

     

    Thoughts?

  • Reply 17 of 46
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Elijahg View Post





    Ah, so even if identical drives are used in the TC, no one has anything to worry about since they only fail in the iMac, not the TC. Right.



    OTOH, Apple used to specify the TC used "server grade" hard disks, though this was disputed when it was found out they used I think it was WD Black drives.



    Like I said, it doesn’t matter. Time Capsules are NOT included in this plan. What’s so hard to understand about that? You making the claim that they should is irrelevant.

  • Reply 18 of 46
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 1,999member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Elijahg View Post



    Yes thank you. If they use the same drives, and the iMac drives are failing, I'd say that is pretty relevant, and the TC ones should have a replacement program too.

     

    That is not what this is about.  This is about the iMac replacement program.  TC drives are irrelevant to that.   If TC drives are failing abnormally then maybe there should be a TC replacement program.  But that is not relevant to the existing iMac replacement program.

  • Reply 19 of 46

    My 3TB HDD failed last month and was replaced under AppleCare at no additional cost (other than the cost of AppleCare 2.5 years ago). I entered in my SN and found my model is one of the affected. I'm wondering if Apple will instead refund me what I paid for AppleCare (or even some smaller amount), to make up for the fact that I lost some data and had to be without my computer for a week while it was in for repair. I also bought a 3TB AirPort Time Capsule at the same time I bought my iMac... any chance they used the same HDD and now I should start worrying about THAT HDD failing as well??

     

    Thoughts?

     

    And to those saying the TC question is irrelevant, I disagree. My iMac and TC are on the same damn invoice... so there is maybe a good chance that the same model 3TB drive was used in both. If so, if the drives are prone to fail, are they not likely to fail regardless of what device they're used in?

  • Reply 20 of 46
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,753member
    chadbag wrote: »
    That is not what this is about.  This is about the iMac replacement program.  TC drives are irrelevant to that.   If TC drives are failing abnormally then maybe there should be a TC replacement program.  But that is not relevant to the existing iMac replacement program.

    TC drives are the same as iMac ones, ergo they will probably fail too. That major link doesn't prove its relevancy? That's like saying iPhone lightning cables fraying is irrelevant to iPad lightning cables fraying, despite them being the same cable. Are you intentionally trying to be awkward?
    lkrupp wrote: »

    Like I said, it doesn’t matter. Time Capsules are NOT included in this plan. What’s so hard to understand about that? You making the claim that they should is irrelevant.


    They aren't included, so what? Where's the forum rule that says don't post about products other than ones in the original article? It's not hard to understand, but you seem to be struggling to comprehend that it's the same component that's failing in both devices, making it relevant. Seriously, you're arguing about whether it's relevant rather than the issue itself? It's a failing hard drive no matter what device it is... :rolleyes:
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