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I gave my MacBook to a service center that claims they are authorized apple service centre in Bangladesh (we don't have official apple inc in Bangladesh). They said they will reinstall Mac os Yosemite in my mid2012 MacBook which should solve my problem in the MacBook. After i received my MacBook back from the service center, i am noticing some lag and some tids and bits here and there which makes me feel like it's an altered version of Mac OS like those pirated BlackWndows installations. How do i confirm if they have given me untampered/unaltered mac os Yosemite or original Yosemite.

P.s. My "About This Mac" section doesn't even show which year-model my MacBook is whereas it did show the year-model properly before i sent it out to the service center. I feel that they have modified a lot of configuration files etc.

I want to challenge them if they are cheating like this and charging a lumpsome money for it?

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You never did say what the problem with your MBP was that Yosemite would solve.

As for "altering" the OS, that makes no sense as it would be far easier to install malware since they are the ones who are doing the install. They, by default, have all the Administrator credentials they need to do whatever they want.

It's just too easy at that point and not worth the extra effort of modifying the OS.

Now, all that said, if you believe that your OS has been tampered with, assume that it has been. This will bug and haunt you until you address the problem fully. You can address this by installing a new version of the OS yourself:

  • You can download a copy of Yosemite for free directly from Apple.
  • Make a USB Key or DVD installer (Macworld has a great tutorial for this)
  • Use the new USB or DVD and reinstall Yosemite (format your drives, don't upgrade)
  • Put that DVD or USB Key away in a safe place.

As for your hardware, there is no way possible for anyone to determine if they did anything nefarious to it; like swap out good components for bad. The one exception is your serial number that's embedded in the firmware of the logic board. When you click "About This Mac" the Serial Number displayed should match the serial number on the bottom of the machine. I added pictures for your reference. Those numbers should match.

About this Mac SN#

Macbook Pro SN# Location

If they don't match, then you have something to go on. But they are going to say that this is how they got it. If you purchased directly from Apple, then you are going to need all the documentation you can get that identifies your SN#. This is going to be a tough hill to climb, unfortunately, if this is in fact, the case.

Now...what was the problem that you were initially experiencing? If it is still present, then you need to search for it here on Stackexchange and if it doesn't exist or no suitable answer exists, open up a new question. There are some super friendly and helpful people here.

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  • Original problem was with hard drive which needed to be replaced. That they replaced and it solved my problem. But then, they also offered to install latest osx for me which i agreed to to get a running machine out of the box. But when i received my MacBook pro i saw that they installed the osx along with a lot of other useful/useless apps. And apparently, they do it for every os install order that they get. I really don't think they install the 30+ apps by hand for every machine they get. They must definitely have a ISO or image which installs the os along with all the other crap.
    – Rakib
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 13:59
  • Also i am noticing a few other weird things here and there: like absence of year-model in "about this mac",laggy screen transition etc... I am very much sure that these problems will go away if i make a fresh install myself. But before i do that, i want to dig in to find out as a proof that whether this copy of the os was a tampered one or not
    – Rakib
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 14:02
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    @syedrakib I understand better now, thanks. It sounds like they may have used another hard disk image of another Mac to "install" your copy. You can do the same. Make an image of the drive, save it, then reinstall the OS. That way you will always have a copy as to what they gave you. However, to determine if the OS was modified in anyway will be cost prohibitive. It is probably best to chalk it up to experience and move on.
    – Allan
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 14:40
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If you just think they've done it to save money, then there would be no point in them doing it. Unlike Windows, you can freely download and install the official version of OS X on any Mac hardware, so it would be easier for them to do that than to give you a bogus version. And if you think they've done it to spy on you, then there are much worse things they could have done to your hardware, such as installing a keylogger. So if you trust the service centre not to spy on you then there's nothing to worry about, and if you don't then you need to scrap your MacBook and get a new one. Either way, you don't need to worry about its OS X installation.

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  • But there is a matter of originality which they are not providing. My "About This Mac" section dpesn't even show which year model my MacBook is whereas it did show properly before i sent it out to the service center. I feel that they have modified a lot of configuration files etc
    – Rakib
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 7:27
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    As I say, if they're just trying to save money or work then there would be no point in doing this. And if they're malicious, then you can no longer trust your hardware as well as the OS.
    – Mike Scott
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 7:34
  • @MikeScott "Unlike Windows, you can freely download and install the official version of OS X on any Mac hardware" If they have a COA sticker on their hardware or the key is embedded in their firmware, they can reinstall the OS for free as well.
    – Allan
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 12:29

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