New, faulty Macbook

[papasurf]

Hi guys

I thought I'd let you know about my story of finding my new Macbook was broke.

I managed to find a bargain on a brand new Macbook on ebay - it was new and boxed/unopened. A 13" black one, with 2GB RAM and 120GB drive and most importantly 3-years of Applecare support. Great I thought, and it was at least a third less than the price of buying it direct from Apple.

The system came today and I opened it and started it up. On the configuration screens (specifically the "Select your keyboard" one) I select "British" and suddenly everything goes wrong. Grey screen of death, kernel panic. I panic. Try again, same thing same place.

OK I think, let's try a different keyboard/country layout in case it's that. But alas, still no joy. Next I do a complete erase + install from the supplied OS X install discs - still doesn't fix it. I phone Apple tech support and they tell me to do the remove battery/hold power for 10 seconds then try again thing. No joy.

Apple won't swap the machine over as it was bought on December 4th and outside their normal replacement period, but I can get it repaired (a process that I know from experience takes a few months here in the UK!).

Does anyone have any advice? It's driving me crazy! I trust the guy i bought it off on ebay and he's been supportive and phoned Apple for me to try and help but he's getting nowhere either. The machine was sealed and brand new, it definitely hadn't been opened.

The strange thing is my colleague at work had exactly the same fault with his Macbook Pro last week - it panics in the same place, but he managed to get his replaced as he bought from Apple direct and he reported it on the same day it arrived.

I feel a bit stupid and very disappointed with what I thought would be a good piece of hardware from a decent company.

I don't really know why I am posting this. I guess to let you know of my experience and to see if anyone has any advice?

Thanks

 

[eenu]

Does anyone have any advice? . I guess to let you know of my experience and to see if anyone has any advice?

Thanks

Yeah never buy stuff like that off ebay!

When you buy expensive things like that you run a small chance of getting a big bargain and a big chance if getting a big headache!

I went through 5 macbooks, all went back to apple within a day or so of receiving as they were junk. The Vice President of Apple got personally involved in my case as the machines i received were disgusting. Given how well documented across the net the poor quality of these machines has been i would never ever dare buy one on ebay!

This is not to say that there aint perfect ones out there.....there certainly are but as far as i am concerned there have also been a substantial number of issues which is normal for a Rev A.

Going back to your case, and sorry my post won't make you feel better. Learn from this experience and the only thing you can do now is take it to an apple service centre and have it fixed under apple care.

 

[Cybergypsy]

should have bought from Apple a refurb...if you paid using paypal, on a credit card... stop the payment...and send it back you really dont know what was don to the macbook anyone can buy the round seals Apple seals it with...

 

[jeremy.king]

I managed to find a bargain on a brand new Macbook on ebay

I feel a bit stupid and very disappointed with what I thought would be a good piece of hardware from a decent company.

Ummmm.....you bought from eBay not Apple. Theres a reason it was 30+% off and you are finding out the hard way - you have no idea what that machine has been through. If you trust the seller so much, ask for a refund, return the faulty machine to him and let him deal with the warranty repairs.

 

[papasurf]

Thanks for the "help" guys

The problem is now sorted - it needed a PRAM reset, something Apple tech support neglected to tell me.

A guy in the office bought a Macbook Pro direct from Apple and has had 3 machines now with exactly the same problem, however the PRAM reset didnt work for him. He just keeps getting sent dud replacements by Apple.

Also, it "panicked" when i tried to set up Airport for the first time by clicking on the finder pulldown but managed to get it working by first setting it up in the system prefs.

 

[Beren]

Same here

Thanks for the "help" guys

The problem is now sorted - it needed a PRAM reset, something Apple tech support neglected to tell me.

A guy in the office bought a Macbook Pro direct from Apple and has had 3 machines now with exactly the same problem, however the PRAM reset didnt work for him. He just keeps getting sent dud replacements by Apple.

Also, it "panicked" when i tried to set up Airport for the first time by clicking on the finder pulldown but managed to get it working by first setting it up in the system prefs.

Hi Papasmurf,

I thought that you might have been someone from my work posting about the issues that we have had. We have had 3 (!!! ) brand-new Macbooks (not Pro - first 2 white, last 1 black) and all have kernel panicked on the keyboard select on setup. The first one I managed to get working by zapping the pram (first thing I have ever seen zapping the pram fix!) only to have it panic when I tried to set up the airport! Apple claim that they don't know if this as a problem, but this is 3 different machines for us - 2 direct from Apple online and the last from a local reseller.

Actually, we are a major ISP in New Zealand and a lot of our developers love Macs. Of the last 7 we have bought 6 have been dead on arrival. I don't know if we are unlucky or if Apple's quality control has turned to ****.

Insane!!!!

Beren