# AppleCare question



## Indy (Jun 7, 2010)

So when I bought my mac mini, I paid them to do the data transfer but didn't buy applecare.  Now I want to upgrade the memory, and I can't decide what to do about my flash player.  The virus that ultimately killed my PC originated in that fake popup that said to update adobe flash, and of course I said no for six months then finally said yes ok and the rest is history.  It might have been fixable but I wiped the hard drive and that didn't do it, so I lost patience.  My hubby really didn't want me to beat it to death and burn it in the backyard, so I bought a mac and he scrapped mine for parts.

Now that popup made an appearance on my mac, AND the flash player quit working.  I don't watch a lot of videos, but if I want to, well I want to.

The question is, does apple care cost more if you buy it later? And yes, I'm too lazy to call, plus they are perky and I have to psych myself up to deal with perky on my day off.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

You have several unrelated subjects in your message, I think.

Applecare can be added _for a while_ after hardware purchase without it costing more.

It won't help with adding memory or your Flash problem. The thing to do about Flash is either learn to compare the slightly different pop-up windows, or to go and install it from Adobe's site, not from any pop-ups. I ignore all those pop-ups wanting me to upgrade software, you don't know where they originate. I go to the official site.

If you already got infected by clicking the pop-up, you will have to manually edit some files to get rid of it. The fake Flash will not cause Flash to stop working (unless there is a new exploit around that I have not heard about), it just causes your browser to get redirected. Something else is going on if Flash spontaneously stopped working.

More info on how to check to see if you got hit by the exploit here:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-check-if-your-mac-is-infected-with-the-flashback-trojan-168859

As far as adding memory, I added it to my Mac mini myself, but it is an older model and may not be as easy now as it was on my older model.

I'm not generally a fan of extended care policies, they rarely make economic sense in the long run. A month or so after I bought my MacBook, Apple called and offered me Applecare for about a third off the normal cost. In a weak moment I agreed, and it paid off. In five years, my laptop has been through two defective batteries, a fatal hard drive crash, and two Superdrives that went bad. I still don't have a working Superdrive, as it is out of coverage now, and it's too easy to just plug an external one in and use that (or alias it to the DVD drive in my desktop machine).

It's quite a coincidence that the only Mac I've ever needed Applecare for was the one that I actually bought it for. I've been using Macs since 1989.

Mike


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## Indy (Jun 7, 2010)

Thank you.  I saved that page and will be working through it shortly, after I get some coffee.  I think I may have missed an actual adobe update in there somewhere, and there is info on that as well.  I never told the stupid popup to do anything on this computer; I'm old but not quite demented yet.

I have instructions on the memory upgrades and maybe we'll get frisky and put some in, if the flash works out ok.


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