Dead macbook
Filed in: Random Shutdown Add comments
My random shutdown was slightly more permanent 
.
13 months after purchase in May 2006, one morning my Macbook wouldn’t switch on. It was dead. Genius Bar at the nearest store diagnosed a faulty logic board, which needed replacing. In the UK this is a very expensive repair – about $1000, Apple didn’t offer any help and therefore I have lost heart with Apple despite having invested in 3 systems, Airport software etc. over the past few years.
Has anyone else had this problem or am I a one off. Is there anything I can use when talking to customer services to see if they will change their mind ?.
Bill
September 5th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
today my system has abandoned me 5 times already .. I’m a bit scared
September 6th, 2007 at 5:54 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHbrQqrgVgg
September 9th, 2007 at 2:57 am
Mine seems to have had the same problem… about a year later like you. I brought it in and I was 3 days over the warranty, but luckily they covered it anyways bc it was so close. I just got it back today. They replaced the logic board and it seems to be working fine. good lucky with yours though.
September 12th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
I have the same problem as you. My macbook has not started up after using 12 and half month. The warranty was over just two weeks ago! I need to change logic board and it will cost me $1000. It is about to buy another laptop. I am not sure if I should fix it.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
How weird – mine is doing exactly the same after about a year! I can be working and it just shuts off. From what I’ve read, I don’t think I’ll even bother trying to get it fixed
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:40 am
I bought a Macbook December 2006. After 4 months use, it started to randomly shuting down until it didn’t boot at all.
I took it to the Apple customer service here in Portugal and they changed the motherboard. But the service was awful. They took a long time and I actually had to threaten them calling a lawyer so they would just give me the machine, because I needed it to work. The first time I went there they tried to dismiss me, sending me home to reinstall the Os, instead of just listening to what I was saying. I had to insist… even after the laptop went inside for the “technician” to inspect it.
October 6th, 2007 at 4:10 am
What the hell do you guys do with your macbooks to make them die like that, i have had my macbook for almost 1 year and a half and nothing has happened yet, i do work and lots of gaming on it everyday and also loads of restarts because of the need to switch OS and nothing has happened at all. weird
October 12th, 2007 at 10:51 am
We bought our Macbook on 30 June 2007. It was a bit of a gamble because we had never used an Apple before but we thought it was great.
Graphics were fab and the overall machine much better than the pc.
But then one day it shut down and wouldnt turn back on. We returned it to John Lewis on the 29 August and were told that it had passed the 28 days refund but they had a right to repair, so it was sent away and finally returned to us on 13 Sept. After getting it home, it just kept shutting down every few seconds. We returned it again on the 15 Sept and have still not recieved it back. After ringing John Lewis and complaining, they have agreed to give us a full refund. Now what to do? Liked the Mac but will we have the same problem if we buy another?
November 7th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
..ordered a macbook from Apple’s website Nov 2nd, 2006. This past weekend, on November 4th 2007, the macbook froze. It is dead and will not boot. I took it to the apple reseller store and they gave me an address where I can pay someone a hundred dollars to have them tell me what’s wrong. They could’t get it to boot, the keyboard is dead, and all it will do is flash the screen when you first turn it on. The logic board part itself costs $599, so the whole job would cost as much as the macbook itself. am so frusterated and feel really ripped off by apple right now. i have an ipod, own apple stock and influenced several friends and family to make the switch to mac. when the laptop works, it’s awesome, but this is a horrible experience. can’t believe it is possible for a product to become totally inoperable 48 hours after its warranty expires.
November 8th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Follow up to last message… Spoke with apple care in the US. they listened, asked questions. ..gave a case number and told me to call apple care in denmark (where i am living now). The Danish guys agreed to extend the warranty. (the macbook died two days after warranty) ..delivered the Macbook to Humac in copenhagen (apple reseller) for repair today. ..hope it comes back working and if so, one has to hand it to apple for standing by their products. within two weeks, the macbook should be ready. i will post the results! cautiously optimistic.
November 15th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
The macbook came back working perfect. I’m sticking with Apple.
November 22nd, 2007 at 8:30 am
Just few months ago (about a year after I bought it) it started to have the random shutdown though it’s rarely used (just few hours a week). I thought is was firmware problem that I download & update every firmware available in apple website which didn’t works. I still had the problem till finally the computer shutdown and could not start. I sent it to apple store and told the logic board was damage and I have to pay for the replacement as it’ already out of guarantee. I couldn’t believe that I have to pay for defect came from the factory. This is my first apple pc and it would be the last.
December 21st, 2007 at 3:20 pm
i had a friend try and format my macbook and we can’nt get the os disc installed back on it,all i have is an egg timer in the middle of the screen with nothing installed at all,any1 help me please,my mac is about 3/4 years old and have been told i need the original disc,if this is true any1 no were i can get this PLEASE HELP .
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
This just happened to me. I still get some time between turning on and it “panicing”, as the ‘genius’ said it was. I want to try and salvage some files from it.
If I plug in my ipod and try to copy them across will it screw up my ipod too?
January 7th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
same thing.
my macbook died after putting it to sleep. i basically use it for desk bound computer and hardly use it for any other thing except checking mail, writing reports, surfing the net. that’s it.
and so one day it just died when i tried to wake up from sleep mode.
it was 1.4years old. i did not get the apple care, thinking that it wont get any more problem after they solve it with the firmware update.
i was told by the apple service provider that changing the logic board cost me 1.2K
it too much.
this is my first mac and is my last.
interestingly, my company was about to purchase a few for office use, now after hearing my story and how a computer ought to be reliable especially for work, my boss is rejecting the idea of getting Apple products.
February 24th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I loved my Mac. I purchased my Macbook on December 2006. In late January 2007, about an hour after burning a cd, it shut down unexpectedly. It never woke up. No display, no fan, no sleep light, no nuttin’. It took it to the Mac store twice, and both times they informed me that I would need a new logic board, and that this would cost $1100 (unfortunately I did not purchase AppleCare—I did not foresee that the computer would last only 13 months, which seems to be the magic number here).
I telephoned Mac (AppleCare) a few days ago to see if they would do a “repair exception.” I thought at first that I was getting somewhere; however, the guy I was speaking to claimed that the only problem Mac will recognize and will cover is one that affected the Macs built in mid-2006 rather than late 2006. He claimed that the only known problem affecting the logic boards of my generation of Macs was “environmental”—whatever that is supposed to mean. He also let go that Mac is now using a completely different logic board. However, judging from the number of posts on the internet about this very same issue, it seems to me that Apple has a bigger problem on their hands than they would like to admit.
I was a huge Mac fan up until my Mac failed. Now I hesitate to purchase any of their products. My ghetto $60 Sony Walkman has lasted 5 years. My brand-new thousand-dollar computer could just barely made it past the one-year mark.
February 24th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
What am I saying!! I purchased my Macbook in December 2007; it died in 2008.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Bad news kids… Same story. My Macbook will not wake up. It is not even a year old. I purchased it in June of ’07. Does this mean all of my data is gone forever?
March 18th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Well, got another story here. Macbook died-ed after 14 months, no applecare protection plan, talked to Customer Relations nicely and they decided to pay for my new logic board, but I pay the labour cost.
Guess what.. I’m already getting random shut downs 2 months after the logic board was replaced.
March 29th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
my MB just died on me, unexpectedly. no random shutdowns before. it’s only about 8 months old. it won’t react to anything i’ve tried. thank god i still have the 1 year warranty…
April 13th, 2008 at 1:58 am
It is dead after a mere two month. I didn’t do ANYTHING! I took care of it like my baby! I am so depressed.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:03 am
ddexfaux…
ddexfaux…
November 13th, 2008 at 4:03 am
My 18 month old Macbook just died-no warning. I took it to the Genius Bar and they said it was probably a dead logic board. The repair shop called yesterday and said Applecare won’t cover it because it has evidence of liquid damage. This machine has not had anything spilled in it. Does anyone know what might cause a white-like stain? Could something have overheated and released this white deposit?
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:42 am
mac book died think was the update 10.5.6 from firmware not being updatedfirst before new update
February 28th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Dead logic board….exactly the same happened to my G3 iBook years ago, and after about 8 new logic boards I gave up. The problem wasn’t fixed in the new logic boards….So many people had the same problem it was all over google. If you took it apart, and “wedged” the graphics chip in place, then it would work for a few more months….
Sounds to me like they still haven’t managed to fix the problem.
Never again Apple for me.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Mine lasted all of 13 days. Then the screen died. This happened today, they’re giving me a new one.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Another dead macbook. Crappy logic board. Will not buy another mac.
May 8th, 2009 at 5:59 am
My Macbook has done the same. Lasted a bit longer than the rest of you. 15months. Turned it off at night never to go again. I work with pc’s all day and for simplicity of software Mac is great. For reliability of hardware and admitting issues when they have them I will definitly stick with pc’s in the future.
May 10th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Same here – Macbook ‘lasted’ just over two years then died overnight – Apple Care in place but they refused to mend because of ‘dust’ inside – the Apple people don’t care and make up any old excuse thinking you are an idiot – The board is obviously at fault – don’t buy any Apple product – that will sort ‘em!!
June 7th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Now it has also happened to me. I was performing the recommended Apple software update when suddenly a warning message appeared that the software hadn’t been installed completely. I was a bit surprised but not really worried – however, when I wanted to restart the MacBook, a big “folder” icon with a “?” appeared, and that was the end. It was only about 18 months old. I have been using Macs for 20 years and am very sad.
July 29th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
This happened to my MacBook pro. Battery lights indicated fully charged but the on button did nothing at all – no hard drive noise nothing. Thinking I couldn’t afford to have the motherboard replaced I was about to sell it on eBay for parts when my partner persuaded me to take it by the local mac repair shop. They immediately spotted that the charger I have been using for at least the past 3 months (the last time I took it to a business meeting) is not compatible with this laptop! The laptop works fine with the correct power supply! My MacBook pro power supply must have been swapped for what I now know is a MacBook powersupply at some meeting or other which, as I said before, was at least 3 months ago and appeared to work fine until last week. The 2 chargers look identicle to me except the MacBook power supply discretely says on it “60w” and the correct power supply says “85w”.
I hope this stops someone scrapping a perfectly good laptop as I nearly did And thanks to the marvelous londonmac.com in clerkenwell.
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I had issues with my MacBook Pro and luckily found a third party repair centre in London, UK… and hey, they we’re seriously knowledgeable and provided a fantastic Apple Mac repair service for my Apple MacBook Pro when the keyboard and trackpad stopped responding after it suffered liquid damage … they also upgraded the hard drive and sorted some OS and data issues on a second visit some months later… and that was on a Sunday too! My Macbook Pro has worked like a dream ever since… first class support… their website is http://www.macemergency.co.uk/ and you can call on 08448121999
March 27th, 2010 at 2:31 am
not all none power ups are due to dead logic boards but Apple always seem to change them, hmm cash benefit here.
know problem is the integral power module in the keyboard. if worn shorts the board and looks like a dead logic board. (Mac book), this happened to me, a £20 replacement from ebay fixed this issue for me. Luckily i noticed the electrical ‘zap’ came from the switch when it failed. so it was the first place i investigated.
Apple charge a lot for their boards and to fix them, so if you can get a real board from a third party seller and swap that your self, turning a £700-£1000 fix into a £200 fix.
June 18th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
I had the same problem.
Best guys in the UK are http://www.macrepairs.co.uk
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Dead logic board….exactly the same happened to my G3 iBook years ago, and after about 8 new logic boards I gave up. The problem wasn’t fixed in the new logic boards….So many people had the same problem it was all over google. If you took it apart, and “wedged” the graphics chip in place, then it would work for a few more months….
http://www.poolelocksmiths.co.uk