Determining the macbook model by serial number. The simplest thing: appearance
Fair, not overpriced and not underestimated. There should be prices on the Service website. Necessarily! without asterisks, clear and detailed, where technically possible - as accurate and concise as possible.
If spare parts are available, up to 85% of complex repairs can be completed in 1-2 days. Modular repairs require much less time. The website shows the approximate duration of any repair.
Warranty and responsibility
A guarantee must be given for any repairs. Everything is described on the website and in the documents. The guarantee is self-confidence and respect for you. A 3-6 month warranty is good and sufficient. It is needed to check quality and hidden defects that cannot be detected immediately. You see honest and realistic terms (not 3 years), you can be sure that they will help you.
Half the success in Apple repair is the quality and reliability of spare parts, so a good service works with suppliers directly, there are always several reliable channels and its own warehouse with proven spare parts current models so that you don't have to waste extra time.
Free diagnostics
This is very important and has already become a rule good manners For service center. Diagnosis is the most difficult and an important part repair, but you do not have to pay a penny for it, even if you do not repair the device as a result of it.
Service repairs and delivery
Good service values your time, so he offers free shipping. And for the same reason, repairs are carried out only in the workshop of a service center: they can be done correctly and according to technology only in a prepared place.
Convenient schedule
If the Service works for you, and not for itself, then it is always open! absolutely. The schedule should be convenient to fit in before and after work. Good service works on weekends and holidays. We are waiting for you and working on your devices every day: 9:00 - 21:00
The reputation of professionals consists of several points
Company age and experience
Reliable and experienced service has been known for a long time.
If a company has been on the market for many years and has managed to establish itself as an expert, people turn to it, write about it, and recommend it. We know what we are talking about, since 98% of incoming devices in the service center are restored.
Other service centers trust us and refer complex cases to us.
How many masters in areas
If there are always several engineers waiting for you for each type of equipment, you can be sure:
1. there will be no queue (or it will be minimal) - your device will be taken care of right away.
2. you give to Macbook repair an expert in the field of Mac repairs. He knows all the secrets of these devices
Technical literacy
If you ask a question, a specialist should answer it as accurately as possible.
So that you can imagine what exactly you need.
They will try to solve the problem. In most cases, from the description you can understand what happened and how to fix the problem.
Apple produces a fairly wide range of portable and desktop computers. These lines are updated every year. New devices replace the old ones, and along with this, the model names also change. It’s good to navigate them without any hints and additional information Only a trained person can access the Internet. Before you find out your MacBook model, read the tips provided.
All kinds of ways
To begin with, we will describe the simplest and available options to find information about your computer model:
- original box if you bought the device in official store, and not from hands;
- back panel devices, if the corresponding sticker has been preserved;
- receipt kept after purchase;
- About This Mac information menu;
- find out your MacBook model by serial number.
If everything is clear with the first options, then it’s worth dwelling on the last one in more detail.
Using the serial number
You can go to the menu with information about this PC. Copy it and paste it into the appropriate field on the page technical support Apple https://checkcoverage.apple.com/ru/ru/.
To continue, click the “Continue” button. On the next page all information about the computer will appear. This method relevant for those who want to buy a MacBook from their own hands.
Macbook range
It was first released in 2008. On this moment The model range of the device includes several different assemblies, designed for different circles of consumers. Currently in the lineup portable devices There are 3 device options from Apple:
- Macbook is the most basic and original option, which has been produced since 2008. Of course, technical equipment is improving every year. However, it was this variation that became the founder in its segment;
- Macbook Pro – a version of a laptop with more powerful hardware and capabilities;
- Macbook Air is a lightweight and compact version.
Let's talk about each option in more detail.
How to find out your Macbook Pro model?
At the moment, the company produces 4 options that differ in technical characteristics:
- 12 inches, 2-core processor and storage up to 512GB;
- 13 inches, 2-core processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. These characteristics relate to the most basic version;
- 13 inches, 2-core processor (overclocked), 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. Supplemented with device support Touch Bar and Touch ID;
- larger 15-inch version with 4-core processor and 16GB random access memory, an option is also possible with Touch Bar and ID.
How to find out the Macbook Air model?
The lightweight laptop is available in a single modification, which includes the following components:
- screen diagonal 13 inches;
- 2 Core i5 or Core i7 to choose from;
- 256GB or 512GB on internal storage.
How to find out your iMac model?
Besides laptop computers, Apple releases a range of iMac desktop all-in-one PCs. The lineup includes the following options:
- 21.5 inches, 2-core or 4-core Core processor i5, 1 or 2 TB drive;
- Core i5 or Core i7 (other characteristics are the same);
- 27 inches, overclocked Core i7 processor, storage up to 3TB.
Since the exact configuration is determined by the buyer himself, the main difference between all iMacs is Retina displays 4k and 5k.
The Cupertino company also produces computers:
All Apple computers have a similar design. Many models of the same series cannot be distinguished by external features. This is taken advantage of by scammers who inflate the year of manufacture or technical specifications in order to sell the Mac at a higher price. I have been working as a repairman for many years. Apple computers, I have encountered cases of such fraud. Anyone who is interested in how not to be deceived when buying a used Mac, I invite you to the cat.
Apple computer identification
The MacBook model identification system is not simple; it consists of several parameters. Let me explain using my Mac as an example.- Series: MacBook Pro
- Model name: MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch
- Model year: mid 2012
- Model Number: A1398
- Model ID: MacBookPro10,1
- Model number: MC976LL/A
A1398 is a MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch, produced from 2012 to 2016, having 5 different models with different configurations.
The year of manufacture of the model determines the technical characteristics, and therefore the price for a used Mac. The year of manufacture can be viewed in the system; it is associated with the model identifier.
Another parameter that determines the price is the equipment:
- amount of RAM,
- storage capacity (ssd/hdd),
- processor type and frequency,
- graphic arts.
Serial number
The serial number is unique for each Apple devices. The serial number uniquely identifies any Mac. It contains encrypted:- assembly factory
- year and week of assembly
- model and equipment
→ A similar situation has already been described in.
The serial number is written in the “About this Mac” system. You probably already understood from the screenshot at the beginning of the post that you can’t always trust him.
Serial number forgery
The serial number is written in the EEPROM memory chip, in the code EFI firmware. It is stored there in explicit form, as a set of characters and is not encrypted in any way.You can disassemble a MacBook, unsolder the chip, insert it into the programmer and rewrite the number to a more “advanced”, top-end one. The number can be replaced with a set of almost any characters and they will be displayed in the “About this Mac” system.
This is what I did:
The result of this experiment was the screenshot in the title of the post.
I do not exclude that it is possible to rewrite the serial number in EFI programmatically. There is a service utility Apple Blank Board Serializer, which registers the serial number if it is empty. The repair boards that Apple sends come with a blank serial number. But then, after replacement, a serial number is registered for a specific case. But this utility does not allow you to change the serial number.
Opinion: I admit that it is possible to modify this utility so that it allows you to change the registered serial number.
The computer I conducted the experiment on is an interesting example. It was a MacBook Pro 13 late 2011 in the top MD314 configuration with an i7 processor. The processor was faulty and I replaced it, soldered what was available - i5 2.3 GHz from MacBook Pro 13 early 2011 in the low-end configuration. It turned out to be a forced “downgrade”.
This is the information that will appear if we run Apple Hardware Test on it.
And if we “punch” the serial number, we will see that there should be an i7 2.8 GHz processor.
Screenshot taken from the resource www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
By the way, a good site for determining the technical characteristics and factory configuration by the serial number of the Mac.
The result of my repair was ready-made option for fraud. The junior model has the same number as the top model. Fraudsters simply do the opposite; they sew the serial number from the top version into the initially low-end configuration. Or they completely change the firmware.
In addition to the serial number, the EFI firmware contains the model and year of manufacture (MacBook Pro 13-inch, Late 2011), i.e. they can also be modified. The situation is more complicated with the model identifier (MacBookPro8,1), it is registered in the firmware of the SMC multicontroller. This chip is much more difficult to work with.
Changing the serial number in the EFI firmware using a programmer is a hardcore method. Not everyone can do this. You will need soldering equipment, a programmer and a person who knows how to use it. Simpler manipulations are much more common. This is a modification of the Mac OS system.
Substitution of information in the Mac OS system
All computer characteristics are specified in the “About this Mac” system. But this information, unfortunately, cannot always be trusted. There are programs and hacks that can change this information. There have already been posts about this:I did not understand and was not interested in how this is done, but I have seen cases of such fraud several times. I have this screenshot from my practice.
A specialist will immediately notice the non-compliance with 2014 and Intel graphics HD 4000 (integrated graphics in Intel processors core i, third generation " Ivy Bridge", appeared in 2012).
In fact it was MacBook Air 11 mid 2012. Only the year of manufacture was changed. But this was enough to deceive the buyer by about 10 kilos of rubles (the market difference between these two models). You could understand the deception by punching the serial number or comparing the characteristics of these two models.
I have also seen more expensive deception. A 2012 MacBook Pro Retina 15 in the lowest configuration was purchased as a 14-year-old in the top-end configuration. Everything in the system was changed (year of manufacture, processor frequency, memory size, storage capacity, serial number). The overpayment was about 50 thousand.
How to avoid being deceived when purchasing?
Now let's move on to the main thing - how to deal with all this. The serial number cannot be trusted, and the information in the “About this Mac” system cannot be trusted either.How then to live?
In similar posts to which I linked above, the authors, in addition to punching the serial number, recommend running the Apple Hardware Test utility.
Checking through the hardware profile in the Apple Hardware Test utility is reliable, but not universal method. Let me explain: Apple Hardware Test is a built-in utility that is installed on all new Macs. HDD. To start it, you need to press and hold the D button when turning it on. But if the disk has been changed or formatted, then it will only launch on models from 2011 that support loading via Wi-FI. To run over the network on some models you need to press ALT+D. Well, you will need a network connection.
On Macs since 2014, this utility has become useless for checking. It has been simplified; there is no longer an “equipment profile” tab. The utility will only show the test result and serial number from the EFI firmware. And this number, as we remember, can be changed.
A simple universal way to check
All Mac identification parameters can be changed in one way or another. You cannot replace only the hardware characteristics themselves (processor frequency, RAM capacity, disk capacity, graphics), because this information is taken from the hardware itself. Therefore, a simple universal way to reveal the deception is to boot from external storage(flash drive or disk) with installed Mac system OS and compare hardware characteristics.A feature of the Mac OS operating system is its unification for all Mac models. If you remove the hard drive from the MacBook and connect it as an external drive to any other Mac, it will be able to boot from it. There is only one condition - system compatibility. New model will not boot from a very old version.
There is also an option to rearrange operating system, but installation over the network is a lengthy process, and installation disk will have to do as boot disk.
Make a boot disk/flash drive with installed by the system very simple. To do this, you need to connect the disk to the MacBook and rearrange the system on it, just select the connected disk as the installation path.
On all Macs since 2011, you can rearrange the system via Wi-Fi or make an installation disk. I won’t tell you how the system is rearranged or how a boot disk is made. There is a lot of this information on the Internet and on the Apple website, and you can find posts here.
There is also an interesting option, this is instead external drive use any other Mac. To do this, you only need a thunderbolt-to-thunderbolt cable. If you press and hold the T button when turning it on, the Mac will switch to external disk mode and you can boot from it as if from regular disk. And you can install various test programs on a Mac.
To identify a Mac based on its hardware characteristics, I recommend using the program Mactracker.
This is probably all I wanted to tell you about the risks of fraud associated with changing the serial number or modifying the system. But don't forget that there are other risks. When buying second hand, you do not receive any guarantees of technical serviceability.
If the topic is interesting, I can write about it in the next post.