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Venting about my MacBook Pro repairs

snowmoon

snowmoon

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 6, 2005
900
119
Albany, NY
I'm not sure how, but I'm not pissed that I switched ( yet ), but the aggravation level is rising with this system.

Bought end of February.

Works great... 1 month later... dust. Literally dust under the screen everywhere. Brought it in and 48 hour turnaround ( very nice ).... but the new screen has uneven brightness. I can live with it for a while until I can make time to be without it for a few days.

System starts hanging when switching apps. Not beachballing, but a hard hang always when using command-tab. Went away when I stopped using Firefox... of course Safari crashing every day or so wasn't much of an improvement.

System starts rebooting when I close the lid. Nothing consistent but at least once a week. VERY annoying

So I start troubleshooting..

Reset SMC
Reset PRAM
Remove 3rd party ram
Uninstall any 3rd party kext's ( Cisco VPN, MacFuse, PeerGuardian )
Archive and Reinstall

Still no dice...

And now the shift key falls off... I probably use the key a dozen times a day... a fraction compared to the rest of the keys on the system... and it falls off... I can't reattach it because one of the little tabs on the back is bent.

So I bring it in today... beg for someone to take a look. They are going to replace the top of the clamshell including display, logic board, and keyboard. They were very hesitant to replace the display "It's not that bad and you never know if the new one will be worse".

Knowing how much the display repairs are alone, I'm very surprised at their continued attempts to repair this beast. When this is done they will have spent far more on repairs that the unit is worth new.

And mark my word, if I have to bring it in again I am demanding a replacement unit.

Apple, so far, has been good about the repairs and it's probably one of the only reason I have not put it through a window at this point. I'm just frustrated since most of the people with MBP's do not have any of the problems that I seem to have with the unit.
 
I would go for the replacement system. But at least now you have first hand knowledge of the customer service available from Apple. I had that first hand knowledge from IBM before I switched.
 
I feel your pain. I recently had 5 unpleasant experiences with my local Apple Store regarding ONE problem with my PowerBook G4.
Four failed attempts to fix the same problem still didn't give them enough reason to give me a replacement laptop. Instead they strung me along for a 5th go round where they shipped it to Texas to be looked at.
Luckily it now works with no problems. Might I add, they replaced the exact part I suspected was the problem on the last go round.
I guess all I'm trying to say is good luck trying to get a replacement computer out of them.
Maybe since you have a Macbook Pro and you would be getting an equally (or somewhat equally) valued machine it would be less of a problem.
I tried and tried to get them to replace it and they wouldn't budge.
 
OK APPLE... GETTING REALLY PISSED NOW.

It's been one week since I brought the system into the genius bar and they started a repair order....

... they still don't even have the parts to do the repair. I double checked by calling yesterday and they all but yelled at me saying they would call me when the parts were in.

Arghh.
 
i feel your pain, ive had 2 macbooks go wrong and replaced and now my macbook pro is faulty so 4 replacements! i would demand a replacement
 
When I first had my MBP back from last Feb., it had lots of issues. I wasn't just furious and somewhat disappointed with it, I almost felt ashame to have one. I had mines in for repairs about 6 times.

1 - Pulsating keyboard backlight
2 - Trackpad button stuck
3 - A dysfunctional key
4 - Right speaker fan replaced
5 - Latch not latching
6 - Replaced battery
7 - Replaced MagSafe cord

While the pain of sending it in for repairs and all was a pain, I finally looked at the bigger picture and realized what a nice machine I had. Sure, all my friends made fun of me for having all these problems. But none of them can neglect that it's a FREAKIN' nice machine compared to their pos Lenovo T6x and Dells.

Just be patient. If you love your MBP, it'll love you back!:)
 
n8236 said:
When I first had my MBP back from last Feb., it had lots of issues. I wasn't just furious and somewhat disappointed with it, I almost felt ashame to have one. I had mines in for repairs about 6 times.
Click to expand...

OSX is great, this hardware is showing some serious QC issues. Dells that I have at work just work... something fails I have the part next day. My previous laptop was a Compaq x1000 and it was reliable as ever despite being lugged around everywhere I went with nary an issue. This unit has given me problems from the first month of operation ( and I'm not alone ).

You have far more patience than I. I would not have left the unit for a third hardware repair, I would have a new unit in my hands.
 
Still no word from Apple.

It's been a week and a half... still nothing from the Geniuses at the store about the parts.
 
I too had some bad experiences with my MBP. I had 2 displays replaced, new screen clutches, new hard drive, new keyboard, and misc. cables replaced along with 5 new batteries. The last call yesterday for an hour and a half, was from an issue with my Superdrive not working after I got it back from the keyboard repair three days prior. Thank goodness I got a Apple Tech who looked at my whole casefile and checking some things over the phone. Now I'm finally getting a new 2.4Ghz MBP C2D after only having my 2.16Ghz MBP CD for only 16 months. I would personally call AppleCare on the phone and tell them the problems you've had and what you've been told. I hope that maybe you'll get someone on the phone who knows what's going on, or transfer you to a knowledgeable person, and that they get the issue resolved or at least get a replacement computer. That's the best I can tell you after dealing with repairs/problems for 16 months. Don't get me wrong here, I love my MBP and wouldn't trade it for anything else.
 
Avenger23 said:
I too had some bad experiences with my MBP. I had 2 displays replaced, new screen clutches, new hard drive, new keyboard, and misc. cables replaced along with 5 new batteries. The last call yesterday for an hour and a half, was from an issue with my Superdrive not working after I got it back from the keyboard repair three days prior. Thank goodness I got a Apple Tech who looked at my whole casefile and checking some things over the phone. Now I'm finally getting a new 2.4Ghz MBP C2D after only having my 2.16Ghz MBP CD for only 16 months. I would personally call AppleCare on the phone and tell them the problems you've had and what you've been told. I hope that maybe you'll get someone on the phone who knows what's going on, or transfer you to a knowledgeable person, and that they get the issue resolved or at least get a replacement computer. That's the best I can tell you after dealing with repairs/problems for 16 months. Don't get me wrong here, I love my MBP and wouldn't trade it for anything else.
Click to expand...

I will be calling the store on Monday and then Applecare after that. If the store is unable to do the repair I don't know what else to do but demand a new unit so that I can get one with it and keep working. I'm getting used to the fact that one of my shift keys is gone ( the more useful one ), but I shouldn't have to.

I still love OSX, but I'm beginning to hate this model.
 
wow 48 hour turnaround for dust under the screen! did they replace the screen?

ive been waiting almost 3 weeks for my mbp to come back from repair due to the same issue.
 
lu0s3r322 said:
wow 48 hour turnaround for dust under the screen! did they replace the screen?

ive been waiting almost 3 weeks for my mbp to come back from repair due to the same issue.
Click to expand...

Yes, Apple's Houston depot did the work. 1 day shipping they turned it around the same day.

This time the local Apple store insists on doing the work themselves..... hence the problems.
 
Called again and the parts are mysteriously available. They forgot to call me yesterday when the parts came in.

Apple store does not win any kudos points for this one.
 
The store took a day longer than they expected. I found out through the AppleCare website since the store had not called when they completed the work.

They did the topcase, screen, logic board, fan assembly, speaker assembly, and keyboard assembly. The repairs seem to be good so far, the new screen is one of the AUO's that seem to be the best of the crop of the 6-bit panels that I have seen among all of them. Despite the fact that the whole top of the screen was replaced it still has a significant gap on the left side when closed.

19 days... from start to finish, Apple you really need to reign in the time it takes to get repairs done on these units. You also need to better track performance and congestion at the stores.
 
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