My 500GB HD has failed..count them...5 TIMES in 18 months. And they won't replace mt computer! September, 2010 MBP, failed for the first time in January 2011, second in April 2011, third in July, fourth and fifth this month. The first 3 were under warranty, but after the second, I was like, 'give me a new computer.' And they were like, 'um, no.' The 4th happened while I was working for 3 months on the west coast. Failed in SF, went to the marina store. I needed to be in PDX the next day, and I am an artist and am completely dependent on my mac. At this point, they know I have a lemon computer, but absolutely refuse to replace it. I said, 'I need this to be working now.' They gave me a temporary computer, that I had to buy and then return, while they sent my machine 'in.' Replaced the HD and back plate, tried to tell me it was my fault because there was some spray paint on it. Right. Failed in Portland 3 days later, the guy there said it was my fault again!! Are they kidding me? No, they are not kidding. They guy messes around for a bit, realizes my machine is a total lemon, but still refuses to admit it. Replaces the RAM and HD this time. SO it's been a few days, working fine. It just gets me completely irate, that I spend thousands of dollars on Apple products, lose tons of information, tons of pictures (my backup drive(s) also failed!) and spend countless hours dealing with Apple in person, and they will not admit they have a faulty product and give me a new computer! The reason every Apple store is always packed, is because everyone's **** is fricking BROKEN, and everyone needs to get it fixed, and it's all Apple's fault. They are keeping people happy and quiet by not charging to fix things when they break.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
500GB Hard drive failure - for the 4th time
- Thread starter scotsboi77
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I've had the HDD in my 2010 13" MBP fail 4 times now.
I figured it was just bad luck, because I'm incredibly careful with this computer, always letting it spin down before moving it etc.
I got so pissed off with it I just threw in a SSD a month ago, not even for the performance, just to see if it lasts longer.
They were the type of failures where the drive would just slowly start packing up, computer would become slow, programs would act flaky and eventually I'd start getting read/write errors in disk utility and SMART utility.
Sort of embarrassing really, my mums 4 year old toshiba crapbook has experienced zero issues.
I figured it was just bad luck, because I'm incredibly careful with this computer, always letting it spin down before moving it etc.
I got so pissed off with it I just threw in a SSD a month ago, not even for the performance, just to see if it lasts longer.
They were the type of failures where the drive would just slowly start packing up, computer would become slow, programs would act flaky and eventually I'd start getting read/write errors in disk utility and SMART utility.
Sort of embarrassing really, my mums 4 year old toshiba crapbook has experienced zero issues.
I'm another one
I gave up on my computer after the 5th failure in 2 years. Mine was a Summer 2007 Macbook 13". I bought the 3-year Apple care, and the failures were fall 2009, something like 4 months later, then 1 month later, then Fall 2010 -- I was outside the warranty period at that point, but found out there was some known harddrive issue on the 2007 macbooks, so was able to get the 4th repair covered. Sept 2011 the motherboard and a couple fans died -- ok, finally something new. Something like a week after getting that stuff fixed the computer started having the same symptoms as when the motherboard was failing so I thought, fine. Ok, the new parts are under warranty for 90 days or something. No, it was the 5th HD failure.
I tried to escalate to get some kind of replacement computer or at least feedback or acknowledgement that there was something more going on here than plain bad luck. Now when I tell people this story, the reaction is "wow, you must really be doing something wrong with your computer." The most intensive thing I do is stream media. I doubt my usage comes close to regular gamer territory. I handle and move it carefully, and with every failure moreso.
The reponses I got from apple directly and people at the genius bar were either: "there is nothing you could possibly be doing to cause this, and there is nothing that could possibly be wrong with the computer that would cause this" and "hard drives fail, what do you expect?" and (once the computer was 4 years old) "you should just buy a new mac". Really? And that was it. Is there not a possibility that my computer was just plain defective?
I realize it's probably too late now to get any kind of response from Apple and I've gone ahead and replaced the macbook with a ThinkPad (my last one lasted 7 years without replacing a single part -- and comparable useage to the macbook). It is such a relief, honestly, to find other people who have had this same experience. Ironically, the new ThinkPad was from a batch which apparently are experiencing repeat motherboard failures (mine's in the shop for the second time since I purchased it in Nov. 2011). So the saga continues. (Lenovo's understanding of the problem is that it is fixable, and the first mobo replacement occurred from the same bad batch, which weren't discovered to be problematic until later).
Independent of vigilence in backing up, *so many* repeat failures of the same component in the same computer over such a short period of time *when the computer is still under warranty* should tip them off that they need to be doing something more than just swapping out the dead component. I tried to advocate for myself, but I am not an expert so there is basically no power behind my statement that something isn't right here and I never was able to convince anyone that they needed to look deeper into my case.
I gave up on my computer after the 5th failure in 2 years. Mine was a Summer 2007 Macbook 13". I bought the 3-year Apple care, and the failures were fall 2009, something like 4 months later, then 1 month later, then Fall 2010 -- I was outside the warranty period at that point, but found out there was some known harddrive issue on the 2007 macbooks, so was able to get the 4th repair covered. Sept 2011 the motherboard and a couple fans died -- ok, finally something new. Something like a week after getting that stuff fixed the computer started having the same symptoms as when the motherboard was failing so I thought, fine. Ok, the new parts are under warranty for 90 days or something. No, it was the 5th HD failure.
I tried to escalate to get some kind of replacement computer or at least feedback or acknowledgement that there was something more going on here than plain bad luck. Now when I tell people this story, the reaction is "wow, you must really be doing something wrong with your computer." The most intensive thing I do is stream media. I doubt my usage comes close to regular gamer territory. I handle and move it carefully, and with every failure moreso.
The reponses I got from apple directly and people at the genius bar were either: "there is nothing you could possibly be doing to cause this, and there is nothing that could possibly be wrong with the computer that would cause this" and "hard drives fail, what do you expect?" and (once the computer was 4 years old) "you should just buy a new mac". Really? And that was it. Is there not a possibility that my computer was just plain defective?
I realize it's probably too late now to get any kind of response from Apple and I've gone ahead and replaced the macbook with a ThinkPad (my last one lasted 7 years without replacing a single part -- and comparable useage to the macbook). It is such a relief, honestly, to find other people who have had this same experience. Ironically, the new ThinkPad was from a batch which apparently are experiencing repeat motherboard failures (mine's in the shop for the second time since I purchased it in Nov. 2011). So the saga continues. (Lenovo's understanding of the problem is that it is fixable, and the first mobo replacement occurred from the same bad batch, which weren't discovered to be problematic until later).
Independent of vigilence in backing up, *so many* repeat failures of the same component in the same computer over such a short period of time *when the computer is still under warranty* should tip them off that they need to be doing something more than just swapping out the dead component. I tried to advocate for myself, but I am not an expert so there is basically no power behind my statement that something isn't right here and I never was able to convince anyone that they needed to look deeper into my case.