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Apple Begins Fixing MacBook Pro Issues
Hack Jandy writes "For those of you who bought one of the first generation Macbook Pros, a new replacement may be in your future. Flickering LCDs, overheating and intermittent WiFi connections are all common place for many of these first generation machines, but apparently Apple is fixing the problem. The article claims 'According to Apple, it has begun replacing the mainboard inside its MacBook Pros with a new revision. It calls the updated product "revision D," which is identifiable by product serial number.' If you have a reservation at an Apple Store, they may even replace your MBP with a new one."
Sweet. Apple's warrenty and repair service has never managed to let me down. Most other companies would state that the problem is in the users head, and save themselves $$$ by ignoring the issue.
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Beware first generation hardware, and if you decide to load the chamber and pull the trigger, get Applecare. I went through *three* iBook G3's before Apple replaced it with a shiny new iBook G4. Nice of them, but I would really rather have my 40 hours of lost productivity back.
There were two known cases of *prototype* 5200s with batteries manufactured by Sony "catching fire".
From then on, the 5200 had the reputation of the PowerBook that "caught fire", but there were no know or reported incidents.
I guess basically what I'm saying is this: you're lying, or trolling, or both. I kind of think you're trolling because you say it's "pretty embarrassing" to explain that. No it's not. It's not embarrassing at all. If your freaking laptop really did catch fire, it's not because of something you did. But since no consumer issues were logged for the PowerBook 5200 on this issue - and when verified, that is an *extremely serious issue* that requires action - I don't believe you.
Also, Apple has, over the years, maintained a fairly consistent number one position in initial quality, lack of need for repairs, and product support, according to Consumer Reports. This has been consistently maintained, and remains so to this day. Also, the iPod destroys your mass production argument.
Good troll, though. This could replace the "ok, so I'm sitting here and it's taking 17 minutes to copy a 4 meg file from my Power Mac G5" one!
I've had my stuff replaced by Apple in the past (1st gen 15" Al PowerBook. Doh!). Basically it goes:
1) Get box from DHL
2) They receive laptop by the next day, fix it, and drop it off at DHL.
3) You get nice new laptop back.
Takes about 3 days total.
Mike.
Mmmm......sacrelicious.
smalldog.com and powermax.com are both decent, speaking from other people's experiences.
You can use Apple itself for that. There are somewhat used machines at Apple's own online store - find the red "SAVE" ribbon in the lower right side of the page. I've ordered a Powerbook and an iPod from there - both times, I save a nice amount of money, and the products don't look used at all.
If you're looking for something actually older that'll cost far below new, you can always check macofalltrades.com.
Your fanboyness is seriously clouding your judgement.
Huh? Where's the "fanboyness"?
Do some research and you will find that they have problems with almost every product they produce. This isn't unique to them. It's common.
Actually, I don't disagree with this at all. Considering I've been working with Apple products in varying capacities for over 22 years, I've seen *plenty* of problems, and publicly take Apple to task for various issues (e.g. 1, 2, 3, etc...and that's just from the last couple days.)
Apple products have problems, defects, and failures, like any other product.
The point I'm making is that they are no more perfect than anyone else so get over it. Overall they make good quality stuff but so do many other companies.
No, no one's "perfect". But Apple actually is better, statistically. By the measure of various consumer reporting organizations like Consumer reports, they are consistently (valid from a statistical standpoint) better than all other computer manufacturers in the categories of support, repairs, and quality in a quantifiable way. Someone's got to be the statistical best in these categories, and Apple is consistently it. Sorry to disappoint.
What of it? Is this guy not alowed to have a problem with his iBook without some fanboy flaming him?
Um, "a problem"? Catching on fire is "a problem"? No, it was a myth of epic proportions that never affected any shipped consumer units for which Apple suffered on its portable line for years afterward. See this post for numerous examples of proof of this.
Oh yeah, I forgot...clearly he must be a troll...
If the shoe fits...
Although, that would really be "moooff", not moo, if it were the ghost of Clarus.
Seriously, though, I have had some of these issues with my MBP, particularly the noise issue, which is fairly annoying. Can anyone verify that they have in fact taken their MBP to an Apple store and had it replaced?
By the way, it's true that if you get the static noise sound, you can open the 'Mirror' widget, then close it, and it *usually* won't return unless you reboot or use your camera. Still obnoxious, though. I took mine to an Apple store last month, and a 'Genius' there told me that the noise was within spec for an Apple laptop, and that he couldn't help me. I told him, well, I guess I'll just have to wait until enough people complain about it. I guess that time has come!
The Dude abides.
He's right, it was a 5300 and I'm about to do just that.
Free Conference Call -- No Spam, High Quality
Yes because I perform tech support, and they have the same problems on the week 12 MacBooks. They are NOT fixed, and it's totally bogus this story is going out widely across the net based on one random blog entry alone.
I've got a half a dozen 5200s, none of them have such problems.
Then again my 5200s are desktop all-in-ones.
You're thinking of the PowerBook 5300.
The only batteries that had problems were the Sony Li-Ion, which according to info at the time, caused two fires on the bench at Apple, but never caused a fire in any consumer machine.
And as it was a recall direct from Apple, I'm guessing you must have ignored it.
Yep, that would be embarrasing.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
No. It was a myth because no 5300 in consumer hands was ever known to have exhibited any fire problems. It was an occurrence in a laboratory setting with a Sony Lithium Ion battery. And I'm dismissing it as a myth because it was. People talked about the 5300 like it was the PowerBook that routinely caught on fire. Except that it was a problem with only Lithium Ion batteries, and only 100 units actually got into end-user hands, none of which were known to have exhibited the issue (no, really - no one has EVER recorded any fire issue in consumer hands with the 5300 (except one person here, today, coincidentally, claiming that he had one that caught on fire)).
And I do know that because my job for the past 11 years has been to be intimately familiar with all Apple products, problems, business issues, etc., from all perspectives, supporting one of the top three largest institutional Apple sites in the world. The 5300 issue was a myth, period. It was the thing everyone asked about when they were thinking of buying an Apple laptop. "Oh, is this the one that catches on fire?" And the store staff would explain to them, no, there was an overheating/fire incident with a Sony LiIon battery in a 5300 in Apple's testing lab, and all LiIon 5300's were recalled. Every battery after that was NiMH. So, yeah, it was true that a 5300 "caught on fire". A prototype, in a lab. Tens of thousands were shipped, all but 100 without LiIon batteries, and even those LiIon units were all recalled, with no issues reported to regulators (except for the one person here claiming that it happened to him and that he "never reported it").
So, that's why it's a "myth". Because it is. Someone else summed it up nicely here.
Also, I did ask him for proof, which he sidestepped by calling me a "stupid goon". I predict no such "proof" is forthcoming, but if it indeed exists, I told him I'd be more than interested in seeing it since it would be the first known actual 5300 fire incident in consumer hands, that conveniently was never reported to Apple or any regulatory or consumer agency, unearthed about a decade later.
A unit (ONE, 1, Uno) AT APPLE caught fire because the BATTERY MANUFACTURER (Hi Sony!) LIED about the specs of the Lithium Ion battery. ~1000 units had shipped to resellers and ~100 made it to customers, but Apple was able to get them ALL back. None of them caught fire except the lab unit.
http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/tidbits-295.htm l#lnk2
In short: 1)Apple's supplier was at fault, not Apple. 2)Apple caught the problem and acted immediately instead of waiting for consumers to discover the problem.
Seems like they did everything right, chief. Next time, troll harder.
Please help metamoderate.
I'm still waiting for these pictures...
Someone had to say it!
OK... I'll bite..
I just bought one of the Core Duo iMacs for my home machine. I brought it back from the Apple Store and booted it up. Everything was fine until I did a software update and then the thing just died. This was the first technical problem with an Apple product I had had in ten years of being an Apple customer.
So I was rather disappointed.
However, after talking to Apple's online live help I was advised to return it, so I took it back to the store and they tried it. They immediately gave me a brand new unit, and then they kept their help desk open for an hour past closing so that I could boot the new mac, do the software update and make sure I was happy with it.
I don't think I could have reasonably asked for anything more than that. A small number of products from any manufacturer will always be bad, but it's what the company does about it that counts. In this case, they replaced it, and then went out of their way to make sure that I was satisfied with the new one. I'm a happy camper now.
"by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS
If the "Celeron" brand makes you wince, "Celeron M" CPUs (based on the Pentium M architecture) have always been very good performers and an outstanding value. At launch, the new Celeron M CPUs will clock at 1.73GHz and 1.60GHz, have 1MB L2 cache, and 533MHz FSB.
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Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...