Apple Launches Repair Program For Longstanding 2011 MacBook Pro GPU Problems

AmiMoJo writes: Apple has just launched a MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues to provide out-of-warranty repairs for MacBook Pros and Retina MacBook Pros sold between February of 2011 and December of 2013. Symptoms of affected computers include "distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen," "no video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on," and unexpected restarts. Some users have been complaining about 2011 MacBook Pro GPU issues since shortly after the systems launched. Those complaints continued for well over three years—outside of the warranty window even if you bought AppleCare, at least if you bought the systems at launch—and were more recently the cause of a class-action lawsuit.

Comments

heh heh

[drinkypoo]

Those complaints continued for well over three yearsâ"outside of the warranty window even if you bought AppleCare,

That's like Sears. Bought a window AC from them, failed inside the 1 year warranty. They drug the replacement process out for so long that the warranty expired, then they tried to claim that since it was now out of warranty, they had deleted all information on the claim and they wouldn't cover it. Took many hours on the phone to even get the unit replaced with an inferior model, spent says in over-100 temps with no AC as a result. Now I sincerely hope Sears goes out of business. Petty? Too bad.

If you make your warranty claim before the period expires, though, they don't have a legal leg to stand on.

This is not Apple's first epic hardware failure. The one by which I've been personally bitten is the B&W G3 data corruption bug. Rev.1 used a CMD IDE controller which sucked, and which Apple implemented very poorly. Works okay in the Ultrasparc 5, causes data corruption with most UDMA devices in the B&W G3 mac. Apple's solution was either spend more money on FWB toolkit (a third party utility) or spend more money on a PCI IDE card, which due to the apple tax was $100 back when exactly the same card with a different rom was sold for the PC for $20. No logic board replacements. When they folded the old TechInfo Library (TIL) into the modern Knowledge Base (KB) they got both older and newer articles than the one in which they described this problem, because Apple would like you to forget both that they make crap and that they will leave you twisting in the wind even when they know it was their fault and their products are not suitable for their described purpose.

Apple is different from other OEMs only in that it is sleazier.

Re:heh heh

[drinkypoo]

You're delusional if you think other OEMs are not as sleazy...

Apple is sleazier because they delete important documents that you need from their library if they make them look bad. If you go to Microsoft's site you can find them self-reporting on flaws in products as old as DOS 5.0. They kept the pages up for the use of their customers, who want to be able to figure out if a problem is their fault or the vendor's fault, even well after the software was obsolete. Apple just wants to hide their flaws, and who cares if you have problems? Buy some new hardware, peon.

Now granted, there are other companies just as sleazy as Apple out there. But frankly, the only one which is as popular is Sony.

Re:heh heh

[Greyfox]

My parents had the same customer service problem with a TV they bought from Sears back in the 70's. They've held that grudge for decades. Sears may have sold some quality tools at one point, but it's not the first time I've heard complaints about their cheap consumer appliances and poor customer service. They're reaping the rewards of that now. It's difficult to suck more than Best Buy, but they're making a pretty good go of it.

I had an Apple desktop machine back in the mid 00s. Actually still have -- I'd loaned it out to my room mate and just got it back. It burned up two of the high end ATI cards it came with before I gave up and put the lower end nvidia card in there. There were a lot of complaints about this on the Internet, but Apple never admitted there was a problem there. The usual solution (Which only seemed to somewhat forestall the inevitable) was to use a third party application to spin the fans in the machine up to the point where it sounded like an airplane taking off. Or just don't ever do anything involving 3D. That's kind of funny, buy an 8 core xeon machine with 16 gigs of RAM and then never push any 3D with it. And you it was very difficult to put a third party fan/heatsink on the video card either, since those cases have no power (or any other kind of) cables in them.

Now that I have the machine back, I'm going to look at slapping some large SATA drives in it and use it as a file/media server.

Re:heh heh

[tibit]

Holy shit, the CMD controllers! You brought back some bad memories. /shudder

Re:heh heh

[UnknownSoldier]

> That's like Sears.

WOW. Sears actually has crappy customer service!?

That sucks.

And here I thought this Sears joke my brother sent me was exaggerating ...

We had to have the garage door repaired. The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said "We had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower."

  He shook his head and said, "Lady, you need a 1/4 horsepower."

I responded that "1/2 was larger than 1/4"

"NO, it's not. Four is larger than two."

We haven't used Sears repair since.

Re:heh heh

[_xeno_]

If you want another example, I've complained about problems with Windows and my Samsung laptop on Twitter before. In both cases Microsoft and Samsung contacted me through Twitter and managed to solve my issues.

Issues with Apple products, on the other hand?

Forget it, they don't exist. They have no Twitter presence, their online tech support consists entirely of "find an Apple Store." Their online support is completely useless because their "knowledge base" doesn't include many incredibly common issues, even when you can find forums with threads that go back years and many, many pages of people with the same issue.

Apple's stance is "it just works" and if for any reason it doesn't work, fuck you, it just works, clearly you're holding it wrong. If something goes wrong in Windows you can probably fix it. It may not be easy, it may take some time, it may involve registry tweaking, but it can be fixed. If something goes wrong with Apple, well, you'd better go buy a new shiny because it won't be fixable! (If anyone wants specific examples, iCloud loves to randomly flake out and refuse to sync anything, and I've literally never seen AirDrop work.)

Re:heh heh

[drinkypoo]

Sounds like someone who never had a problem with HP.

Oh no, I have ranted long and loud (and recently!) about HP's response to the nVidia die bonding problem which plagued Quadro FX1500 and one or two other GPUs around the same time. It took me literally over 24 hours on the phone all told with various HP employees, plus two visits to my home by a tech who didn't even bother to be static-safe while he disassembled my hopelessly complicated HP EliteBook. (It's not so complex a human can't understand it, but it probably has twice the screw count of any competitor and yet still lacked the rigidity of even a typical macbook.)

HP is hopelessly incompetent, and the left hand doesn't even know which ass the right hand is digging around in, but they're just not as sleazy as Apple. Maybe that's because of a lack of competence, and not for lack of trying. Based on their recent history, that seems a reasonable assumption.

Re:heh heh

[AmiMoJo]

I like the UK system. The law says that goods must be of "reasonable quality" and "last a reasonable length of time". What is reasonable depends on the product. For a mid range TV five years would be reasonable, so if it dies before then you have a few options. You could ask for a refund or exchange, or the retailer might offer a partial refund based on (purchase price / reasonable lifespan) * number of years it was working.

The best part is that the retailer is the one responsible, so they can't just say "take it up with the manufacturer". They must also deal with the issue in a "reasonable length of time", which typically means maximum 28 days. If repairs take longer than that you can demand a refund or replacement item.

Re:heh heh

[azav]

A dialect form of dragged.

Re:heh heh

[drinkypoo]

You could ask for a refund or exchange, or the retailer might offer a partial refund based on (purchase price / reasonable lifespan) * number of years it was working.

Here in California, you can [theoretically] take a product covered by warranty in and get it replaced on the spot. But Sears in particular has an answer for that, too. They just change the model number for the next year! Now it's a new product, and they're not obligated to hand it to you. That way, the worst they're on the hook for is a refund. Meanwhile, the prices have increased, so they're going to get some money out of your wallet even on a warranty replacement. Or, they won't have the same-with-new-number model in the store, and you'll have to settle for something inferior, as I did. The "replacement" for our failed AC provides less cooling and consumes more electricity. If I wanted to wait until the heat wave was over, I presumably could have had a more direct replacement. That wasn't really an option.

The same thing often happens in tech, with expected product cycles no longer than warranty periods. The product really does get discontinued that quickly in many cases. But Sears apparently does it on purpose. Air conditioning is a pretty-well settled technology, at least at the home window unit scale.

Re:heh heh

[phorm]

"the only one which is as popular is Sony"

Never bought an HP product, have you?
MO sounds quite similar.

Re:heh heh

[thegarbz]

even when you can find forums with threads that go back years and many, many pages of people with the same issue.

Don't be silly, you wont find that stuff on their forums. They delete the comments. It's been covered on slashdot before.

Re:heh heh

[fluffernutter]

That's a lot of system problems from a reputable vendor that has total control over the quality of the product.

Re:heh heh

[_xeno_]

Well, not their forums, obviously, but like the MacRumor forums or other enthusiast forums. Because like you said, Apple deletes comments rather than admitting issues.

Re:heh heh

[BronsCon]

Hey, now, I bought a lemon of a Compaq once. They sent me a new HDD, now questions asked, when that failed. Then a new battery. Then a shipping-prepaid box to send it in for a new CPU. Of course, they shipped it back with the media buttons nonfunctional and most of the case screws missing, but they made that right by sending out a replacement HP (not Compaq) laptop that was comparably positioned, in the HP lineup at the time, relative to the Compaq's position in that lineup at the time of purchase. In other words a hefty upgrade, given that the CPU failure occurred in the last week of warranty.

Of course, the HP was one of the models with GPU issues and it died a week out of warranty, so, there's that. I ended up junking the system before they issued the recall, so yeah, I guess, fuck HP.

Re:heh heh

[Lumpy]

Yep HP servers with major flaws and HP will even send threatening letters from their lawyers if you mention anything.

Re:heh heh

[BronsCon]

But, you've got to admit, for all the sleaze, the *assembly quality* (not build quality, as that includes the use of components that don't fall over on themselves) of Apple hardware is top-notch. Given that everyone in the consumer market is using components that fall over on themselves, and they're all sleazy, that actualy does put Apple head and shoulders above the rest. Still, nothing they should be bragging about.

Re:heh heh

[Savage-Rabbit]

That's a lot of system problems from a reputable vendor that has total control over the quality of the product.

Over 20 years of buying Macs for my family? I don't think so. My employer hands outs Samsung brand Android phones to employees who want a company bought phone. You'd be surprised at how many of those get trashed every year. A couple of dozen of them got sent to the recycler with a broken display from the wear an tear suffered by people pocketing them. According to the Samsung agent the ribbon connecting the display to the motherboard came loose (and people whine about 'bend-gate'). The same goes for their sizeable fleet of Lenovo and Dell laptops, workstations and monitors. The Lenovo laptops for example suffered from ethernet cards that just died after a few months of operation and we had to issue large numbers of users with USB ethernet adapters. Some of the Dells started to suffer bulging battery syndrome and we also had a brief flirtation with using Windows laptops from HP who suffered kernel panics every 3rd or 4th time you plugged them into a (HP brand) dock. I have a lot more examples but I'll let this suffice. I can't honestly say that these other 'reputable vendors' have a noticeably lower fault rate than Apple. I'm just sick and tired by these opinionated wing nuts who come here writing an angry post condemning some companies entire product line based on their experience with one or two their devices that they bought. If you are in the IT business get used to the idea of suffering equipment failures or get out o the IT business.

Re:heh heh

[phorm]

I was thinking more of consumer equipment, where the warranty papers are oft-times only useful if you've run out of toilet paper.

Their favourite strategy seems to be "in case of defective design, replace the same part that broke continuously until the warranty runs out"

Re:heh heh

[_xeno_]

OMG!! Apple doesn't have a Twitter presence! .... Get a grip will you?!?

What, do you think the first thing I did for tech support was to whine about a problem on Twitter? I was trying to figure out a problem I had with Windows/my Samsung laptop and complained about it on Twitter, and because Microsoft/Samsung actually want their customers to be happy they reached out through it and helped me solve my problem.

With Apple, you search the web for your issue, find a ton of enthusiast sites where people are having the very same issue, and discover that there's no solution from Apple yet but they're sure there will be oh so soon now. (Originally posted: 2009.)

Apple does not deny the existence of problems with their products because they do not flip you a bird when you ask them for support

No, they just don't offer support. At all. So it's less that they flip you the bird and more that they just entirely ignore you. Except at the Apple Stores, I guess. Or did you mean I was supposed to shell out for Apple Care if I wanted their software to actually goddamned work?! (Another example: in OS X Yosemite, Apple flat-out broke DNS. Solution: copy over the DNS resolver from the previous version.)

Re:heh heh

[drinkypoo]

Sears may have sold some quality tools at one point

They still do, but they don't carry most of them in the stores. They still make the ratchets that are like 5 degrees per click or whatever the nice ones are, but you have to order them. They don't cost more, they just don't have them in. Presumably they aren't quite as durable, and cost slightly more to make, so why stock them if you can't make as much profit? And so it goes. Buh-bye Sears, you won't be missed now that my local auto parts store and harbor freight both offer lifetime warranties on hand tools.

Re:heh heh

[dowens81625]

So what your saying is, I shouldn't pull the RAM out of a Macbook Pro with a dead logic board, to replace bad RAM in a Dell, or pull a SSD drive from a Lenovo Laptop with a dead Graphics card to replace a failed drive in a Macbook Pro?

At the end of the day ALL the hardware is the same, with only a small difference in the percentage of hardware failures once it makes it to the users hands.

Re:heh heh

[drinkypoo]

But, you've got to admit, for all the sleaze, the *assembly quality* (not build quality, as that includes the use of components that don't fall over on themselves) of Apple hardware is top-notch.

Design and assembly were both top-notch back in the Macintosh II days, really and truly. Then around the Performa era, it all went to crap. Apple machines used to look professional and competent, yet sleek. Then they started to be all about shiny shiny, the assembly moved out of the country, and the manufacturing is now basically the same low low standards as everyone else. What they still have above others is design, and many of their products are provably designed better than those made by competitors. You can literally feel it when you pick them up. But sadly, it's not backed by the kind of build quality that you expect when you pay Apple prices, and when you couple that with the general holding-it-wrong attitude of the company even without His Jobsness, the reasons for the love become really difficult to see.

Also, I have to admit, the IIfx was a bit of a pile. So I take back what I said about the Macintosh II series.

Re:heh heh

[Plumpaquatsch]

Ahhh, so tell us exactly how Samsung fixed your computer via twitter.

Re:heh heh

[Plumpaquatsch]

Here's how Samsung does Online support

Re:heh heh

[Plumpaquatsch]

That's a lot of system problems from a reputable vendor that has total control over the quality of the product.

Remember kids, Apple doesn't build anything - unless there are problems, then they have total control over every part used and production step. at all times.

Re:heh heh

[Plumpaquatsch]

Anecdotes aside, consider that Apple sells like 25-35 million Macs each year - likely more as time goes on.

And unlike other companies, these are spread over less than a dozen different models.

Re:heh heh

[lsatenstein]

Those complaints continued for well over three yearsâ"outside of the warranty window even if you bought AppleCare,

That's like Sears. Bought a window AC from them, failed inside the 1 year warranty. They drug the replacement process out for so long that the warranty expired, then they tried to claim that since it was now out of warranty, they had deleted all information on the claim and they wouldn't cover it. Took many hours on the phone to even get the unit replaced with an inferior model, spent says in over-100 temps with no AC as a result. Now I sincerely hope Sears goes out of business. Petty? Too bad.

If you make your warranty claim before the period expires, though, they don't have a legal leg to stand on.

This is not Apple's first epic hardware failure. The one by which I've been personally bitten is the B&W G3 data corruption bug. Rev.1 used a CMD IDE controller which sucked, and which Apple implemented very poorly. Works okay in the Ultrasparc 5, causes data corruption with most UDMA devices in the B&W G3 mac. Apple's solution was either spend more money on FWB toolkit (a third party utility) or spend more money on a PCI IDE card, which due to the apple tax was $100 back when exactly the same card with a different rom was sold for the PC for $20. No logic board replacements. When they folded the old TechInfo Library (TIL) into the modern Knowledge Base (KB) they got both older and newer articles than the one in which they described this problem, because Apple would like you to forget both that they make crap and that they will leave you twisting in the wind even when they know it was their fault and their products are not suitable for their described purpose.

Apple is different from other OEMs only in that it is sleazier.

Is sleazier mean lack of ethics?

Re:heh heh

[_xeno_]

Gladly. They linked me to the correct drivers for my laptop after the Windows 8.1 upgrade had trashed them. As I recall there were a bunch of drivers I needed to reinstall since Windows 8.1 had decided to revert to Microsoft stock drivers, and they told me to where to get them. (Which was necessary since by default Samsung uses a driver download program which at the time didn't know what to do with Windows 8.1 and therefore refused to download anything. So in essence they were solving a problem they themselves created.)

Basically I didn't even ask Samsung for help but got it anyway. Try doing that with Apple.

Re:heh heh

[Plumpaquatsch]

Gladly. They linked me to the correct drivers for my laptop after the Windows 8.1 upgrade had trashed them. As I recall there were a bunch of drivers I needed to reinstall since Windows 8.1 had decided to revert to Microsoft stock drivers, and they told me to where to get them. (Which was necessary since by default Samsung uses a driver download program which at the time didn't know what to do with Windows 8.1 and therefore refused to download anything. So in essence they were solving a problem they themselves created.)

Basically I didn't even ask Samsung for help but got it anyway. Try doing that with Apple.

You know why Apple doesn't help people with shit like this? Because this only happens on Windows. "An OS update killed the drivers for my PC". Pure gold.

Re:heh heh

[_xeno_]

Yeah, when my work MacBook was upgraded to Mavericks, they just flat-out reimaged the entire thing because they knew that the upgrade wouldn't work. For the forced Yosemite upgrade (really wish I could have skipped this one) they offered an actual upgrade, but it didn't matter, because I had to reimage anyway after Yosemite refused to boot for reasons I still don't understand.

Granted some of that may be due to the IT department's software, but I'll take missing features (it's not like the Samsung laptop was unusable with the Microsoft drivers) over flat-out won't boot like you get with the past two OS X upgrades.

Of course, that's just my work MacBook, and it's working (for the most part) now. Apparently other Yosemite upgraders lost wifi and DNS. I suppose I could have lost wifi too for all I know since I just leave it plugged in to the network.

It's sad

[Anonymous Coward]

It needs a lawsuit for companies to do what they should, and some people even worship those companies, as if they were anything else than money to them

Re:It's sad

[jones_supa]

Well said, and that is precisely why I try to avoid becoming a fanboy of any companies. Me giving them money for a great product should be the only "thank you" that is needed.

I bet they would like an apology too

[NotDrWho]

From the smug "genius" who tried to blame the owner for the problem, who kept asking if they had dropped it, who insisted that Apple just doesn't make faulty products.

Re:I bet they would like an apology too

[BarbaraHudson]

From the smug "genius" who tried to blame the owner for the problem, who kept asking if they had dropped it, who insisted that Apple just doesn't make faulty products.

You're supposed to drop it:

Many Apple IIIs were thought to have failed due to their inability to properly dissipate heat. inCider stated in 1986 that "Heat has always been a formidable enemy of the Apple ///",[12] and some users reported that their Apple IIIs became so hot that the chips started dislodging from the board, causing the screen to display garbled data or their disk to come out of the slot "melted". BYTE wrote, "the integrated circuits tended to wander out of their sockets".[11] The fix Apple suggested in a technical bulletin was to lift the Apple III off the desk until it was three inches in the air and then drop it, repeating the procedure until the symptoms disappeared. While the fix was quite effective, many purchasers found the process alarming.

No love for 2010 lead-free devices

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is reportedly due to switchover go greener lead-free solder, resulting in cold solder joints which happened before the 2011 MBP ...but that was a breakthrough year for Mac and so there were far more complaints from those users than those from 2008-2010 and, after all, 5-7 years "is like forever" [T Cook], never mind that we're talking about solid state devices that should last virtually forever. Apple has closer to $200B in cash and is in a position to fix any laptop it ever made that has cold solder joints, but at least could go back to the switchover to lead-free solder.

Re:No love for 2010 lead-free devices

[LynnwoodRooster]

The RoHS Directive came into force in early 2003 and was required since 2006 and on. Apple had a good 4+ years to work with lead-free solder (well, not Apple but Foxconn) and apparently did so with great results for half a decade before the computers being affected. It's probably NOT a manufacturing defect, but a design defect - given that the manufacturing process has been solid for quite a while prior to this issue creeping up.

Discounted replacement

[Anonymous Coward]

Repair is coming a bit late for these long-suffering Apple customers. The first machines to suffer this problem are now four years old. Rather than make expensive repairs to those aging machine, Apple should offer these people a heavily discounted replacement with the Mac of their choice. And that large discount should take into account all the troubles they've gone through.

Another poster compared Apple to Sears. That's unfair. Apple's behavior is nothing like that in the 1970s that lead once-respectable Sears to its current low status. A few years ago, a graphics artist friend of mine told me that his firm had been hired to do an image remake on Sears. I was tempted to tell him that'd be a waste of time, that nothing could fix what people think about Sears. Once your reputation is lost that badly, it's gone forever.

Apple is rolling in money. I'd be great business sense to spend a small slice of that money to make sure Apple never acquires a Sears-like reputation. Were I Apple, I'd give everyone who reported this problem to them a new, free mid-range MacBook Pro or high-end MacBook Air. And I'd give anyone who purchased one of these troubled machines a $500 discount on a new purchase.

Re:Discounted replacement

[azav]

And I already had to pay over 500 bucks to have this fixed.

Re:Discounted replacement

[BronsCon]

Mine failed at the end of last month and I repaired it (myself) a couple weeks ago. You know, I have mixed feeling about this. I mean, I can do the repair in an hour if it fails again, which is much better than Apple's 2+ weeks turnaround; on the other hand, I shouldn't have to.

Re:Discounted replacement

[BronsCon]

They may be aging, but any machine that was high-end 4 years ago is still adequate today. And what of the owners of 17" models? I'm so glad I was able to self-repair mine, because Apple does not offer a viable replacement for these machines. Period.

Of course, before I attempted the repair, I did run out and buy a new Retina model, since I needed a working machine within the hour (and I'm a 5min walk from an Apple store, so that's actually doable for me). While it is, in many ways, a better machine than the 17" MBP it now works alongside, there are many areas where it is also inferior. A mid-range MacBook Pro right now would mean a 15" 1440x900 display, dual-core i5 with integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM, and 500GB HDD; that is *not* a viable replacement for a 17" 1920x1200 display, quad-core i7 (of *any* generation), dedicated graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 750GB HDD, and such a replacement program would certainly lose Apple a *lot* of future business.

Where did you get your MBA?

Burned... and out of there.

[Thumper_SVX]

I've been burned by Apple one too many times now. I've been affected by manufacturing "difficulties" on every Apple product I've owned in the last 10 years with the exception of one; a 13" Macbook Pro that I only owned for 6 months because it was.. well.. crap. The "Pro" label was definitely an affectation rather than a true calling. I had a first-gen MBP that had the "squealing CPU" problem that Apple refused to acknowledge either... but they eventually relented and replaced the system board for one that squealed only slightly less. I've also had GPUs that just went completely tits up requiring a system board replacement... I'm probably forgetting a lot of the problems now, but the most reliable Macs I ever had weren't built by Apple.

And in fact my 2011 15" MBP just happens to be at a third party repair right now to not just fix the problem but actually replace the lead-free solder balls with the real stuff... so mine won't fail again. But I don't care. It's possible it might go to my son or it might go on eBay when it comes back.

My new platform of choice is an Alienware 15 running Windows 8.1, with an Ubuntu install I might also use when there's some support for the 970m GPU in here. I have a Surface Pro as well and it's great. Much as I used to despise Windows I find myself back in the Windows world because competition here is good. As a result, products either work or people go elsewhere; you don't have that option with Apple so they really don't care when their manufacturing processes fail miserably.

I have already voted with my wallet here. I've had enough of beta-testing gorgeous but fundamentally flawed products and defending them to my friends. Besides which, the operating system in which you function no longer matters; it's the applications that matter. It used to be that the best creative applications were on Mac, the best games were on Windows. Well guess what... the best games are STILL on Windows, but the best creative apps are available on both. And the fact that from my perspective OSX has become drastically slower every release since about Leopard is just the icing on the cake for me. Under Windows 8.1 my applications launch... and run... and my system rarely has any appreciable slowdowns. OSX occasionally just decides "Oh hey... yeah I know you asked me to do something but I'm busy over here doing some random and unrequested task to send your personal information back to Apple so you're going to have to wait. My manufacturer's data mining is more important than you."

Screw Apple. I'm done with them.

Re:Burned... and out of there.

[Thumper_SVX]

Thanks for posting AC...

One month in, no issues. Also for the record I have two other Alienware laptops that have been rock freaking solid except for a broken lid hinge on an Alienware M11X that was fixed by Dell under warranty. By sending a tech to my house no less. The other (an M11XR2) has also been rock solid.

Oh, and I know you're trolling... but Windows 8.1 is a fine operating system. Used it on my Surface Pro since release, before which it was Windows 8... and I've run W8 in some capacity since release.

Re:Burned... and out of there.

[thegarbz]

fixed by Dell under warranty. By sending a tech to my house no less.

This! I've had two experiences with Dell products. A laptop with a screen that started getting really hazy (tech came to my house to replace). And a laptop with a faulty motherboard, twice, once outside the warranty period. First time they came to the house to replace. Second time the agreed to do it under warranty because I'd previously had the same problem with the same device, only condition was that I get it to their service centre at my expense (conveniently a 2min drive from my work).

In the meantime I'm still not entirely sure how the genius bar actually works other than the observation of slowly, and in a manner which appears to be solely designed to frustrate the hell out of people with faulty products.

Re:Burned... and out of there.

[Lumpy]

Got a dead Alienware here. It's been in 3 times now.

All laptops are built to crap specifications nowdays.

Re:Burned... and out of there.

[Jesus_666]

I've also had GPUs that just went completely tits up requiring a system board replacement... I'm probably forgetting a lot of the problems now, but the most reliable Macs I ever had weren't built by Apple.

That one probably wasn't Apple's fault. Apple issued a recall for certain MBPs because Nvidia managed to screw up the packaging of the Geforce 8600M GT so badly that the thermal stress of running caused the chip to slowly break itself apart.

Not that Apple is free of sin. I had an iBook with a power jack that liked to desolder itself and my current MBP has an Nvidia GPU and Yosemite, which is an explosive combination due to Yosemite's Nvidia GPU driver being unstable when switching between the Intel GPU and the Nvidia one. Apple does screw up. But not every problem is their fault - and, in fact, their speed in issuing a recall is usually directly proportional to how much it isn't. The hand grenades Sony sold them instead of regular battery packs were recalled pretty quickly, if I recall correctly.

My next Mac will still be a Lenovo but that's mainly because I find the Retina MBPs higly unappealing. While Apple has terrible customer support, my Macs do have a tendency to outlive AppleCare. In fact, the only one that really died was the one with the 8600M GT. That one died once during the AppleCare period and once shortly after it ended - it turned out that the replacement GPUs were also faulty.

(As for speed, my experiences differ but I have to deal with UAC a lot and UAC is easily the slowest privilege escalation method on any major operating system. I'd take (g)ksudo over it any day.)

Re:Burned... and out of there.

[LynnwoodRooster]

Just remember - you can design a MacBook on Windows, but you can't design a MacBook on OSX!

Re:Burned... and out of there.

[Thumper_SVX]

... and how much would I have paid for an equivalent Apple product? Oh yeah, there isn't one.

Like it or not people have specific needs. For the specs I got the AW15 is comparable to an identical box from Sager or MSI... and MSI are cheap plasticky crap with nice internals while Sager has questionable post-sales support. Besides, only a complete retard pays retail for an Alienware; Dell has LOADS of discount coupons you can easily find on forums... for my part I paid about 75% of the MSRP for my machine only two days after it had been announced at CES.

There also isn't really an equivalent Lenovo or anything else out there that isn't in the same price range. This is a mobile gaming workstation... you tell me where to get better value with similar quality and support and I'll gladly vote with my dollars next time. This time, Alienware/Dell got my money because I felt this was the best for the money at this time.

I'm on my third iPhone 4S

[Ecuador]

I have a few iPhone devices for development purposes. The 4S has been a disaster. The first one had its wifi suddenly disabled (greyed out). Apparently it has some sort of temperature sensor for the wifi unit, (which only got enabled with iOS 6 or so IIRC) that tends to malfunction and disable the wifi. The following two units eventually had the same thing happen to them. Of course I had to pay for them because I was out of warranty. It is a quite widespread issue judging from the numerous forum posts, but Apple does not acknowledge it as a hardware failure - their instructions call for resetting network settings or a full restore of the unit which does not work. What does work is, quite interestingly, putting the phone in the freezer, but it does not fix the issue permanently. Apple is a special case though, due to the fact that the average Apple customer behaves like a member of a cult. For example, my boss had his 6-month old Mac Mini warranty voided because they found "dust" inside (it was in a pet-free, smoke-free office in case you are wondering). I told him that they can't do that, even if they did find "dust" it is not in their listed reasons to void a warranty and he simply answered "no, it is official, they told me so at the genius bar and gave me 10% off a new mac mini so I got one". So they usually get away too easily with bad hardware, like the low quality "superdrives" that would fail left and right, the aforementioned wifi module etc. I don't know if they are sleazier than everyone else, they sure are sleazy as hell but the difference is that the majority of their customers thinks they are infallible...

same thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got a mid-2010 MBP (15-inch) that will suddenly power off and then back on (sometimes twice in a cycle) with no real rhyme or reason. Can any /.'s make a guess as to (a) whether it's the same issue, and (b) if I should bother taking it to an Apple store? I've replaced the RAM and hard drive (1TB hybrid), but those were replaced long ago and I never had a problem.

Re:same thing?

[oldmac31310]

ram battery

Re:same thing?

[Lumpy]

The crap Lead free solder is cracking. full disassembly and put the motherboard in a reflow oven and it should be good for a while longer.
Blame california for the crap solder we all now have to tolerate.

Re:same thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got a mid 2010 MBP with the same issue as in the fine article (scrambled screen.) I suspect the problem affects more than just the 2011 models, but just less commonly.

Re:same thing?

[drinkypoo]

Blame california for the crap solder we all now have to tolerate.

Due, RoHS is not a california thing. It's a whole world thing. It's not the world's fault that some lames used a lame socket that's lame.

Re:Garbage

[UnknownSoldier]

Link to that data please? TIA

The imac mid-2011 has the SAME ISSUES

[Anonymous Coward]

They had a 'recall' for the mid-2011 imacs but I found they made the requirements so restrictive that they would not repair many models displaying failed ATI GPU's.

Their process was "we have a diag disk, and it must say failed" or they would not replace it. Of course the failure mode was dependent on heat etc..so at the store it would pass just fine, but using it at home.....fail, white screen, no display etc..

Re:Mr Apple...

[radio4fan]

Not now he's bloody not.

I used to run an Apple dealership, and back in those days (90s) stuff like this would have been the subject of a warranty extension program right away. I don't know when the policy changed, but it has clearly changed.

They've been denying this is a manufacturing flaw since it first became obvious. I've had the motherboard replaced on mine, and it failed again within a year. I've been getting by by using gfxCardStatus to select the intel video for a couple of months while I decided what to do.

I wasn't able to claim under European consumer laws as my proof of purchase is made out to my company (it only covers individual consumers, not business purchasers).

I'm really doubtful I'm going to get another Mac, even though I've been a Mac user for over 20 years. I'll probably just go for Linux and run OSX in a VM so I can run the iOS simulator.

I also have little faith that the new motherboard is going to work for any length of time.

Re:Garbage

[oldmac31310]

I don't doubt it, but as the fellow below asks - citation pls?

What I need to know is if they will reimburse

[azav]

What I need to know is if they will reimburse those of us who have already had to pay 500 bucks for this problem!

Re:What I need to know is if they will reimburse

[snsh]

Perhaps... I just got off the phone with them and they're mailing me a check to reimburse me for a MBP that I had repaired through an Apple Store last year.

Re:What I need to know is if they will reimburse

[phantomfive]

What I need to know is if they will reimburse those of us who have already had to pay 500 bucks for this problem!

Yes.

Re:What I need to know is if they will reimburse

[Required Snark]

Your sig: "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods..."

You just described Slashdot

Re:What I need to know is if they will reimburse

[azav]

You are the first person to discover and mention this obvious reference in 20 years.

Re:Mr Apple...

[azav]

I really like your OS X in a VM on LInux approach.

Honestly, I HATE Jony Ive's influence on the new UIs. They are terrible in clarity and readability when compared to 10.6.8 and iOS 5.

Seriously.

Lot of sour grapes here, but....

[ashpool7]

"Apple is contacting customers who paid for a repair either though Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to arrange reimbursement."

They're going to cut a check to apologize. Who does that?

you're in luck!

[swschrad]

free Apple stickers.

Informative? Seriously ??

[TechnoGrl]

The author cites as background for his grievances a 15 year old computer that Apple once produced and .... a Sears air conditioner. A. Freaking. Air conditioner.
The author, who in my mind is now being referred to as Mr. Dunning Kruger, then goes on to display his extensive legal knowledge by proclaiming "f you make your warranty claim before the period expires, though, they don't have a legal leg to stand on" without of course any awareness of various state's (or Federal) statute of limitations laws on bringing forth timely lawsuits.

And this is given a Slashdot rating of 5, and "informative" as well.
Which is why I get my tech news from Ars these days instead of here.

Re:Mr Apple...

[twocows]

Running OS X in a VM is easy if you do it right, at least it was for me. In my experience, trying to get it to run on VirtualBox was pure hell, but getting it to run in a VMware product is pretty easy if you use this (this is the newest version for the latest versions of VMware products; there's an older one by the same guy if you're running an older VMware product).

Has the defect actually been fixed?

[ayesnymous]

Has Apple actually fixed the defect? Or are they just going to replace people's logic boards with logic boards that still have the design flaw and will fail within a few weeks/months? That's what Apple has been doing already for people with Apple Care or people who were willing to pay to have the problem fixed - they just replaced the logic board with a refurbed logic board, and the refurb would inevitably fail with the same problem. A lot of people went back to Apple 3 or 4 times to get the logic board replaced because the replacement boards all suffer from the same problem.

This happens on my Late2010 mpb

[Gallomimia]

GPU is nVidia 320m I have several dozen screenshots of the problem. Yes, saving the screen to PDF or PNG actually shows the scrambled graphics as is. It only happens after severe overheats and is easily corrected with a simple restart of the affected app (game) a full system reboot is not required.