What should I do now?
I purchased my Macbook Pro in May 2006. I have an Apple Care Plan. Anyways, ever since I’ve had the computer I’ve been having random restarts. I’ve taken it in for repair multiple times. It’s getting really ridiculous, and I just want a replacement. I have basically had everything inside of it replaced by now, but it still has random restarts. Most recently they replaced the hard drive. Now it’s even worse, half my programs won’t even open, it freezes up a lot, AND it still randomly restarts. I don’t know what is causing the problems, but it’s gotten to the point where I pretty much don’t even use the computer anymore because it’s so annoying to deal with. I just want them to replace it. Every time I take it to the Mac Store they run some diagnostics test, say they don’t know what the problem is, and can never fix it. Should I take it back to the store, or would it be better to try and talk to them over the phone or something? I just don’t know which route to take to try to get it replaced. I don’t want any more repairs because they aren’t doing anything. I’ve taken it in to the shop 4 times for this problem and one time they sent it away for repairs for a week. Any suggestions on my next course of action?
Thanks.
January 27th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Go buy your self a new Dell or Toshiba and put the mac in the closet and just think of it as a bad memory.
Apple does not have to really fix anything because most mac users can be tricked into thinking they did something wrong, not the perfect mac. In the mac world you only have one source for hardware.
In the PC world, we know bad hardware when we see it. And all the manufacturers know if they don’t fix it the buyer can go elsewere.
And now that the hype about how wonderful 10.5 will be has evaporated and the cold reality of it just being a poor Vista want-a-be (constant crashing, hard to see UI changes, stupid new features, non-working componets, major security failures) you will find Vista much easier to use, ok they did do some small dumb things, but overall vastly better than any OSX.
January 28th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Typical mac-hater response right there. ^^^^
People are generally easier to work with in person, and the Apple store people are generally pretty nice. Explain to them your situation, and that it’s happened multiple times. If you don’t let them know that, then they will have a harder time locating the problem. The problem is somewhere in the hardware, they just don’t know where.
After enough issues they might replace it. Mac store people and the help lines are generally VERY helpful, despite what all these haters say.
January 29th, 2008 at 12:59 am
I am in the exact same situation, sorry for the odd question but, i i send it to Apple(I have apple care) are they gonna request a recipt for the macbook? i think i lost mine…..
January 29th, 2008 at 1:24 am
They won;t need a receipt if you have the serial number
January 30th, 2008 at 3:59 am
Not sure if this applies to products under extended warranties such as Applecare, but some states have laws requiring replacement of products with more than three failures due to defects during a warranty period. Worth looking into.
Unfortunately, a company that has to replace a lot of components under warranty, such as the Mac logic boards, tends to use refurbished parts as a cost saving measure. These are parts that were originally defective and replaced under warranty. The failure rate of refurbished parts tends to be high. Apple claims that their refurbished parts are thoroughly tested and on a par with new parts, but that isn’t borne out by people’s experience.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:02 pm
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3282451#3282451
Same story!
I don`t know how it is in your country, but here in Germany after two repairs not fixing the problem they have to give you back your money.
I threatened them with a lawsuit and it worked.
February 6th, 2008 at 3:27 am
yoyo, I figured out away to for my macbook to not crash randomly!!!!!!!!!!!
Remove the battery pack, plug in your macbook to the AC. Just run it off the AC adatpter. I don’t have time to wait for apple to fix my macbook right now.
February 10th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I had the same problem…My macbook would randomly shutdown for no reason. I took the unit into my apple service ctre without any success.
I got so frustrated that I started searching on the net…the condition is called “Random Shut Down Syndrome” (which I found on my own!!)
I found the fix on the Apple site, downloaded the installer and the problem is fixed!
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbooksmcfirmwareupdate11.html
Hope this helps. I know how bloody frustrating it is to spend good money on a product and not have any support what so ever.
Shell
February 16th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Hey there..
I had the same problem. The computer would just turn off with no warning. So.. I brought it into the Apple Store for repair. It was actually as simple as downloading the system update. Apparently, according to the girl at the desk, it has to do with the heat and some error on the system that had to be updated. I guess the threshold for internal heat was set too low, so the computer would turn off as a way of preventing overheat.
Maybe this helps??
Paul
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Right, so we all have pretty much the same problem. For some of us a firmware update does the trick, for others simply running the macbook off the AC without the battery in the machine works too.
For the rest of us its not that easy. I have been having the RSDS (Random ShutDown Syndrome) too and have taken my machine to apple. The first time they said i had too many different types of software on the machine and that i needed to reinstall and that would solve the problem …….. it didnt work.
I then took it in again for the same problem and they said that it was the hard drive that was faulty and that they would replace it under warranty ….. it wasnt the hard drive. When I went to collect the machine, the engineer brought it out and after two weeks he said he couldnt find a problem. He switched the machine on in front of me to show it was working and low and behold (there must be a God) the machine shut down randomly. He tried to tell me it was the battery, but as a bit of a techy myself i knew he was talking dicksi out of his arse. Anyway, apple now still have my machine and its been 3 weeks.
I suppose I’m holding on for them to either replace the logic board or the entire machine.
Lets see what happens
March 4th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Hey I just wanted to tell everyone that Shelley Jacobson’s solution worked!!!
I did it about two days ago and my MacBook is working perfectly fine and it hasn’t shut down at all. If you want to get it fixed GO to the link she posted and download the new version 10.4.8 and then download the fix.
Good luck!
March 27th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Vince, et. al.: My Macbook, a Christmas present, crashed randomly right out of the box. Nothing was loaded on it, not even a single photo. At that point, I should have marched it to an Apple store, but of course, I assumed it was something I was doing wrong. It could take two full screens to recount the AppleCaring, and the Genius Bar sessions and returns to place of purchase, where the “problem could not be replicated” while a technician was watching.
Suffice it to say that every single time the machine was on, it shutdown and rebooted on its own.
The memory, logic board and hard drive were replaced. The operating system was removed and funnily enough would not install. I had phone help try to talk me through the length re-install and the discs could not be read.
They gave out email addresses then never answered pleas for help.
They said case numbers were created to document my calls and complaints that mysteriously were blank.
Three months down the road, I parked myself on a stool at a Genius Bar and watched a Genius replace every part and still fail to have a hard drive be recognized. Even hooked up an external hard drive to try to load the OS.
Eventually he grabbed the box, disappeared for 20 minutes and presented me with a brand new one. So never give up.
I was told that had I come in immediately, it would have been replaced with no questions asked. Live and learn.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:25 am
I’ve owned my mbp for 13 months and have the 3 year extended warantee. The harddrive has been replaced twice. once right after i purchased it and the second time was 3 weeks ago. Before dropping it off at the apple store this last time, the battery was fine and i never had any issues with it before. After receiving it back, it will only stay on for 10 mins and then shut down. They are sending a new battery – even though they have never physically looked into why my mbp is shutting down with a full charge. I have asked to have these issues diagnosed and to not just replace hardware… which is basic troubleshooting – Apple is replacing the effect hoping it will last past the warantee, and leaving the cause of these issues in tact for the next time or until the warantee expires and you have to pay out the backend or be convinced to purchase new. I will admit that osx and the mbp are very user friendly, much more so than windows, but nothing is worth all of these hardware problems. especially considering they charge so much more than an equivalent hardware on a windows machine. and the applecare tech was trying to tell me needing service once a year normal. maybe for apple it is.
October 21st, 2008 at 3:04 pm
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