Macbook Random Shutdown

I have a Macbook, black, 2 GHZ, that was less than a year old. One day, the battery unexpectedly and suddenly stopped working. The laptop would still work if it was plugged in, but if the cord came out the computer would just shut down because the battery was not holding any charge at all, it wasn’t even being detected.

I took it to the local Apple Store, and they checked it, took out the old battery, put in a new one, and handed me a receipt for $0.00 as an “Under Warranty Repair”. I have an APP on it, but because it was under a year old, they didn’t even bother looking it up.

I have never had a bad experience with Apple customer support. When my iMac wouldn’t start up, the phone service guided me through reinstalling the OS from a disk, and all my files were preserved. Neither my Macbook nor my iMac have had any major issues since then.

in an earlier post here i mentioned that my brand new macbook core 2 duo randomly rebooted on sleep. using the 14 return policy, i had it exchanged at the applestore. but surprise surprise the new one does exactly the same thing.

so i called applecare and told them the deal, and mentioned that the problem is all over the internet and i knew that apple was aware of it. i then said i wanted a full refund on the machine. the lady didn’t argue with me at all, and right away gave me a case number to take it back. she told me to take it back to the store and give them the number and they would refund it, even though it is beyond the 14 days.

i found it suspicious how easy it was. i think they know about it and are trying to reduce the damage by not pissing us off.

so if you have a defective macbook, demand a refund!

I’m not sure if a link to this app has already been posted on the site - I only had a quick look for it and couldn’t seem to find anything, so apologies if it already has been.

http://www.conscius.de/%7Eeidac/index.html

This nifty little device allows you to manually set the speed of your MacBook’s fan when it starts to overheat (and as if on cue I can hear it mooing now). I find it really useful - found the link from a friend’s blog.

Thought I’d share my Random Shutdown experience -

It first started about 6 weeks ago and progressively got worse until I got fed up and held the power button in for ages one time. As most of you probably know now, this boots the machine into a ’safe’ 1 core mode and I found the problem improved to only a few shutdowns per day.

Last Friday (27th Oct 06) was the first opportunity I had to take it to be fixed at a place called iSupport in Southampton, England. Unfortunately I needed online access before this, and not having the internet at home meant that the Macbook was my only option - otherwise I’d have taken it in sooner!

On Friday the replacement heatsink was ordered, and I was able to keep hold of the machine to use over the weekend which was good. iSupport called me today to say the part was in, so I travelled straight there…

I also asked if I could hang around and have a look at the inside which I was able to do. The unit was then disassembled and the heatsink replaced in a few moments right in front of me. I did have some time for some photos though!

I now have a fully working Macbook which was repaired faster than I ever thought it would be - iSupport are highly recommended! After reading some people’s experiences with dealing with Apple direct through their stores, perhaps the local independent Apple Authorised Service Providers may be the better option?

It’s been over a month and I’m still up and running perfectly after sending my week 21 black macbook in for repair. Apple put in a new heatsink and logic board. Here’s what I have done so far and it has made my experience with my machine as good as it should have been when I first bought it:

1. Download all the updates as soon as you get your machine back from repairs (yes, that includes 10.4.8 and the FMC firmware update).

2. Go to the following link and download the FanControl 1.1 software to have full control over your fan speed (I recommend speeding up your fans between 500 and 1,000rpm). Now you can actually use your macbook on your lap!!! Note: this gui installs in your system preferences menu:

http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/index.html

If you would like in-depth instructions on what exactly Apple is currently doing to fix this problem, please see the following link:

http://flickr.com/photos/99055354@N00/

Last Monday Apple collected my machine for repair, to try and cure the RSS.

By Friday, the machine was back in my possession. Nifty. Except that during the repair, they appear to have broken the keyboard. Various keys now only work intermittently.

A further 58 minutes on the phone to AppleCare today, they finally diagnose that the problem is probably something to do with the keyboard, and it is probably a hardware fault (really!). The machine goes back to AppleCare tomorrow or the next day, but this time they say it will take up to 2 weeks to repair. Great!

I wonder when I’ll actually get to use my MacBook.

After three weeks, I have my MacBook back and it has not shutdown for the past couple of days. I will be more optimistic if, in a couple of months, I can say the same thing.

I am happy to have the machine back, but I look back at my repair experience with frustration. I have learned two things, 1) extended AppleCare support is definitely not worth the $250 Apple wants for it (I am thankful that I did not buy it), and 2) all computers suck, so why not look at a Dell (and save some dough)? Though, I guess there are still levels of suckage, I would not look at a Dell Dimension or Inspiron. So instead of paying $250 for AppleCare (that is twice what I paid for my last Sony extended warranty for a more expensive machine) I will put it towards a desktop. That, I think, is better protection. Granted, it is only a drop in the bucket towards a decent desktop, but still makes more sense to me now.

Would I buy an Apple again? Yes. Would I buy a model from a brand new Apple product line again? Not within the first six months of release. It is sad that I am now actually considering buying a Dell.

Good Luck to everyone still suffering!

At the suggestion of one of our members, ezra-g, I have created some new categories for our site..here they are:

• I have RSS
• Sent to Apple
• Apple Blew It
• Apple Fixed It
• Still Waiting
• Customer Relations
• Exchanges
• Compensation
• Ridiculous

When posting your story, you can now use the categories to group your entries. Let me know what you think. I hope it will help organize some of the really useful information we have been collecting here over the past month and going forward!

Cheers!
Matthew