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Apple Starts Logic Board Repair Program

Posted by pudge on from the put-down-your-stencils-and-back-away-from-the-wall dept.

QuantumSpritz writes "In response to issues with iBook logic boards flaking out, Apple has posted an FAQ detailing the problems and what to do if you're affected. iBooks purchased in the last 3 years are eligible, and you may be reimbursed if you've already had to pay for repairs."

4 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Figures ... by JMZorko · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The _day_ I purchase APP for my iBook 700 (which has been sent back to Apple 4 times for this problem in 11 months), Apple does the right thing imho. Oh well -- i'm covered for lots of other things, so it's cool.

    What i'm wondering is this: will they replace the board with a newer, better designed board that doesn't exhibit the problem? Yes, it's very laudable that they'll repair them without charge if this is found to be the issue, but i'd rather not have a laptop that dies every 3 months, regardless of whether the repairs are free. At least this means that I can sell my iBook 700 (and 900) and get the G4 model, without feeling like scum. I want to turn people _on_ to Apple, not sell them something that will turn them _off_.

    Regards,

    John

    --
    Falling You - beautiful
    1. Re:Figures ... by Trillan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apparently it's a particular component that's failing. From what I understand, the component (not the logic board) is defective.

      In other words, once you get a good motherboard it'll stay good. If you keep getting bad ones, they'll die in a few months so just keep trying!

      That said, it seems likely that Apple will try to flush the defective logic boards out of the parts inventory. Who knows how succesful they'll be, though? One would think eventually they'd run out...

    2. Re:Figures ... by babbage · · Score: 5, Informative
      Does anyone know a way to find out your iBook serial number via ssh connection? :-)

      Try this:

      /usr/sbin/system_profiler --help

      A while back I did a run of that -- I forget what flags I used, something like system_profiler -detailLevel 1 -xml -- and saved it to a .plist file in my home directory for later reference (generating the report takes a while; grepping the report output is very fast). One of the keys I've got in my report file is serial_number, and the value given does match what I get if I go to the Apple Menu and click About This Mac....

      So, yeah, you can get this info via ssh using system_profiler. It's basically a CLI version of the GUI Apple System Profiler, so you can get acceess to any system data that the graphical ASP program can show.

      --
      DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
  2. I love this place by hype7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The story about the Linux geek who got burnt by a fault that affects less than 0.2% of units shipped hits the front page, letting him complain about "hardware lock in". The vendor response about replacing the faulty part, and reimbursing people who've paid to get it fixed, makes only the apple.slashdot pages (ie buried in the paper).

    So much for "new media".

    -- james