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17 days out of warranty... Logic board dead

S

Sisyphus2112

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 21, 2011
2
0
Mid 2010 Macbook Pro... 2.4 GHz 13" 320m. Bought it last September for school, swapped in a WD Scorpio Blue 750 gig HDD. Just upgraded to Lion 3 weeks ago, no issues whatsoever.

This is my 2nd Mac laptop, never given me any trouble. I baby this thing, never once dropped it, never brought it within 100 feet of water, never let anyone else touch it etc. ...

...Until yesterday afternoon. Put it to sleep, came back three hours and it hung on wakeup. Force restart, got the flashing system folder missing icon. Not the first time I've seen this before on a mac, so wasn't too worried. My initial instinct was (as every Apple support person I've contacted since then has painfully repeated) that my drive was dead.... until it wouldn't boot from my Lion CD.

Then when I tried to boot from my OEM Snow Leopard CD, it locked at the boot screen ("Hold down the power button etc...)

Then it wouldn't boot onto the original hard drive (which I kept) when I swapped it in. It won't boot into diagnostic mode. PRAM reset does not work, SMC reset does nothing... Nothing works. Even swapped out the RAM for some good sticks I had. NADA.

I've called Apple three times. It took me until the third service person to convince them that it was in fact the logic board and not the goddamned HDD. The guy told me that he hasn't heard of any logic board failures from my generation of Pro, and that since I'm out of warranty the repair + shipping is $299.99...

...That or I go to my local "Apple certified repair person", because we don't have an Apple store in my area. This I'm definitely not doing because A: the guy screws people and B: When I called him to consult him about it he chastised me for opening my machine by myself.

I'm no dumbass with computers, I'm a Sysadmin and I have a truckload of certs. However, I am also a poor college student living paycheck-to-paycheck.

When it came time to decide whether or not to renew my Applecare 17 days ago, I opted out of it. Mostly because I didn't have the $200, but partly because my Powerbook from 2002 still works perfectly. I was confident the Unibody would do just as well. From what everyone else says they do, but apparently mine just had to take a **** on me.

So, what do I do guys? I don't have $300 at the moment, not unless I stop eating and paying rent. I'm a 3rd year engineer and I relied on this computer heavily, especially with two web-only classes, and I need computing power again ASAP.

Is there any way I can talk to somebody at Apple and convince them that I should be covered since the computer is so young? I appreciate any and all advice you guys can offer me. One of you might just be a lifesaver.

Thanks all,
Sisyphus
 
Honestly, you knew the rules and you gambled. You don't win every time. Unless you bought the laptop with an AmEx or something that has its own warranty, you will just have to pony up the costs to get it fixed.

You can also try to get a second job (or a first job) to cover the unexpected expense. Heck, millions of people do it every day. They actually do that before coming to the forums to complain about things being broken.
 
Go in and talk with them. Hopefully they'll do something. I was 4 months out of warranty on my iPhone, and they said had it been within 2 months they still could have done something. So you may have a chance of them helping you.
 
What are you posting on Macrumors for?

Forget 3rd party repair centers. Drive as far as you need to an Apple Store and plead your case.

No one else is going to be able to give you the type of service that an Apple Store will.
 
How many miles away is the closest Apple store?

The gas may be cheaper and the genius may appreciate your determination.

My belief is always that a face to face encounter has a better chance at a positive resolution.
 
kappaknight said:
Honestly, you knew the rules and you gambled. You don't win every time. Unless you bought the laptop with an AmEx or something that has its own warranty, you will just have to pony up the costs to get it fixed.

You can also try to get a second job (or a first job) to cover the unexpected expense. Heck, millions of people do it every day. They actually do that before coming to the forums to complain about things being broken.
Click to expand...

Thanks for chastising me, bud. I work a full time job alongside taking 19 credit hours this semester to pay for school. I'd pick up a night job in a heartbeat if it didn't mean my grades would suffer. The decision not to extend the warranty was made purely based on my experience with the longevity of Apple machines versus my financial situation. I know it's hard for you to understand, but some of us don't have mommies that buy us every Apple product that we throw a tantrum over. Go bother someone else.

To answer the other posts...

I'd drive to an Apple store in a heartbeat, but the nearest one is 200 miles away. YUCK! At that point gas would be approaching the repair cost I'm facing.

I've also heard a lot of stories in my time about Apple being very reasonable with recently-out-of warranty devices and high repair costs. I was just wondering if there was anyone in particular I should contact about my problem. It's my belief that 17 days is pretty recent, and like I said I've only had this machine for a year!

As for why I posted on MacRumours... I tend to trust enthusiast sites a little more for knowledge-based answers. That being said, this post is on several other Apple support sites at the moment.

If there's any other questions I can answer just let me know.
 
Seems like you're out of luck. If you desperately need a machine, you could try selling yours for parts and get some decent buck back, hopefully enough to get you a second hand machine quickly.

Another option, since your warranty ran out, you could try disconnecting the battery and power on with only the power connector attached. I know it sounds stupid but my friend had a similar issue and it worked for him... Worth a shot?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Email mr tim or whatever he is called
 
Contact Apple, if you can't drive there because of the distance, try calling the store and explaining the situation. Logic Board failure 17 days out of warranty should really get sorted.

Good luck.
 
kappaknight said:
Honestly, you knew the rules and you gambled. You don't win every time. Unless you bought the laptop with an AmEx or something that has its own warranty, you will just have to pony up the costs to get it fixed.

You can also try to get a second job (or a first job) to cover the unexpected expense. Heck, millions of people do it every day. They actually do that before coming to the forums to complain about things being broken.
Click to expand...

People generally buy apple products to avoid problems like these. When you spend $2000 on a laptop you expect it to work for a certain amount of time without having to get a second job to keep it running, smartass. If this forum isn't for these types of topics, what is it for? The majority of posts here are complete garbage from fanboys like "where do you use your new macbook pro?", so a useful post concerning warranty and repairs is always welcome.

OP, sorry to hear about your problem. As you have stated the apple stores have a pretty good reputation for fixing things that are just out of warranty. Even if it's 200 miles away at $4 per gallon I think it's worth a shot driving out to have them look at it. Since you're in college you should see if anyone you know lives there so you might be able to hitch a ride or have someone take it in for you. Post some signs around campus in the dorms, and offer to split gas. Good luck, and make sure to let us know what happens so others with this problem know what to do.
 
i would suggest calling and asking them to extend your Apple Care.

i've heard stories of them activating Apple care a few weeks after the deadline.

after that, give them another call and set up a repair for your machine.
 
Wow, your car must get some seriously bad mileage if going to an Apple Store 200 miles away would cost almost $300! ;)

Seriously, I think a face-to-face encounter at an Apple Store would be your best bet. If you can't make that happen, call customer service and plead your case. Whether you go to the store or call, just be nice, and don't act like you should be entitled to get it fixed for free, as that's not likely to get them to help you. Let them know that it's only 17 days out of warranty, let them know that you're a student and you really, really rely on this computer. You might get someone nice enough to help you out. But if not, there's not a whole lot you can do. Unfortunately for you, they're not under any obligation to help you. You let the warranty lapse, knowing that there was a possibility that something might go wrong. Hopefully you'll talk to someone that can help you out. Good luck!
 
Did you purchase with a credit card? My AMEX card provides an additional year of extended warranty beyond the manufacturer. I think VISA does something similar too.
 
You know this post is so funny and self serving. You put your long sob story here clearly acknowleging the fact that A you had the chance to buy AppleCare and did not and B you are out of warranty. So what do you expect to hear? Someone on this site offer you $300 because you are yet another "poor college student" with your hand out? Fix it for free? There is no magic bullet here pal.

You clearly said you NEED this computer, well then, YOU NEED to find a way to fix it.
You have been told to go to the Apple store, you said that was too far and expensive. It was suggested to save the money or find another short term job, it doesn't take long to earn $300, what a week or two at McDonalds a few hours a night or a weekend? No, that is too much work on top of your 19 credits. Worse case, get a credit card, put the repair on that and pay off the $300 a few bucks a month. Yeah you will pay a bit of interest, but in the end you will have your computer fixed and you will finish school. It is CHEAPER than ANY OTHER OPTION.


No one here can solve this problem for you. You can either send it to be repaired find a way to get the money or get to an Apple store (two times, to drop it off and pick it up) finding your gas money and hoping they fix it for free, but I wouldn't EXPECT them to fix it for free. It is a 50/50 shot.
 
sweetbrat said:
Wow, your car must get some seriously bad mileage if going to an Apple Store 200 miles away would cost almost $300! ;)

Seriously, I think a face-to-face encounter at an Apple Store would be your best bet. If you can't make that happen, call customer service and plead your case. Whether you go to the store or call, just be nice, and don't act like you should be entitled to get it fixed for free, as that's not likely to get them to help you. Let them know that it's only 17 days out of warranty, let them know that you're a student and you really, really rely on this computer. You might get someone nice enough to help you out. But if not, there's not a whole lot you can do. Unfortunately for you, they're not under any obligation to help you. You let the warranty lapse, knowing that there was a possibility that something might go wrong. Hopefully you'll talk to someone that can help you out. Good luck!
Click to expand...

That's 400 miles OP has to drive. Unless he decides to move to the Apple Store.
 
Sisyphus2112 said:
I'd drive to an Apple store in a heartbeat, but the nearest one is 200 miles away. YUCK! At that point gas would be approaching the repair cost I'm facing.
Click to expand...

Hold up a second... 200 miles, round trip is 400 miles. with a car that gets 15 miles per gallon, that's ~27 gallons of gas. 27 gallons at $5 a gallon (much higher than it actually is, btw) is $135. A logic board replacement is only that much??? 0.o
 
phyrexia said:
That's 400 miles OP has to drive. Unless he decides to move to the Apple Store.
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand that it's 200 miles one way. I understood that when I wrote my response. My original point stands—that would have to be one heck of a gas guzzler for that trip to cost almost $300.
 
I thought the repair would be more than $299 with S&H?


Good Luck with finding a way around that, just wish AppleCare lasted up to 5 only because I love to keep my gear a long time.
 
Last edited:
Have you at least tried to use a different HD in the laptop? The 320 SSDs from Intel are known to suffer from the 8mbit error. Its a stretch, but, you could try throwing in a temporary drive in there and seeing if it will finally boot.

*edit* nevermind. just saw you tried that.

hmmm... could be a combination of both the ODD and HDD? (now that would be rare...)
 
GuitarG20 said:
Hold up a second... 200 miles, round trip is 400 miles. with a car that gets 15 miles per gallon, that's ~27 gallons of gas. 27 gallons at $5 a gallon (much higher than it actually is, btw) is $135. A logic board replacement is only that much??? 0.o
Click to expand...

The OP will have to drive back to the store to pick the machine up... So call it $270. Plus the opportunity cost of all that driving. For a chance that they might agree to fix the machine.
 
marc11 said:
You know this post is so funny and self serving. You put your long sob story here clearly acknowleging the fact that A you had the chance to buy AppleCare and did not and B you are out of warranty. So what do you expect to hear? Someone on this site offer you $300 because you are yet another "poor college student" with your hand out? Fix it for free? There is no magic bullet here pal.

You clearly said you NEED this computer, well then, YOU NEED to find a way to fix it.
You have been told to go to the Apple store, you said that was too far and expensive. It was suggested to save the money or find another short term job, it doesn't take long to earn $300, what a week or two at McDonalds a few hours a night or a weekend? No, that is too much work on top of your 19 credits. Worse case, get a credit card, put the repair on that and pay off the $300 a few bucks a month. Yeah you will pay a bit of interest, but in the end you will have your computer fixed and you will finish school. It is CHEAPER than ANY OTHER OPTION.


No one here can solve this problem for you. You can either send it to be repaired find a way to get the money or get to an Apple store (two times, to drop it off and pick it up) finding your gas money and hoping they fix it for free, but I wouldn't EXPECT them to fix it for free. It is a 50/50 shot.
Click to expand...

I don't know why people down voted the post with these logical and sound ideas. Really... while I do agree many of the questions here are garbage, sometimes people need to just man up and do whatever it takes to fix it. None of you will front him money for it so this is not the place to tell sob stories about a wrong choice.

So sick of these entitled people and their first world problems and on top of that - having absolutely no idea how to resolve simple issues.

OP, if you're not willing to call, get a job or drive, I really don't see how any of us can help you. Ultimately none of these people care if you fix it or not so the decision is yours on what you want or are willing to do.
 
First off, I really feel bad for you, as I am a college student myself.

Moving on though ... this goes to show how necessary Apple Care is. Question: Can you still buy it even now? or only during that first 1 year period after purchase?

And WHY would you take 19 credits? That's suicide in itself, let alone trying to juggle a job such as sysadmin during college.

I would try to have parents or family loan you the money to buy applecare if you still can, or to pay for the repairs. It does suck, but I had a similar situation - Life, it just happens!
 
Dwalls90 said:
First off, I really feel bad for you, as I am a college student myself.

Moving on though ... this goes to show how necessary Apple Care is. Question: Can you still buy it even now? or only during that first 1 year period after purchase?

And WHY would you take 19 credits? That's suicide in itself, let alone trying to juggle a job such as sysadmin during college.

I would try to have parents or family loan you the money to buy applecare if you still can, or to pay for the repairs. It does suck, but I had a similar situation - Life, it just happens!
Click to expand...

If you need Applecare to have a machine for 3 years, then it's no more Apple computers for me.

I haven't bought Applecare either because of the assumption how good Apple supposedly is and my PC computers having never failed within 3 years.
 
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