Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Launches Extended Repair Program for Hard Drives on Early MacBook Models

Interesting. I'd replaced the HD in our kids' Black MacBook (I'll have to double-check, but I believe it's one of the models listed above) last October, never even thinking to contact Apple about it (we don't have AppleCare on the machine so the warranty ran out long ago).

Last week, the replacement (a Hitachi drive) also failed, after just a few months of service. I'll be contacting Apple for reimbursement of the expense of the replacement drive, and I've already sent the Hitachi in for replacement from Hitachi. At the same time, I kinda think there's something flaky with the HD controller on the machine.

In any case, $80 to reimburse the HD replacement expense would be nice. If they just send a replacement drive, I'll have another drive to use with an enclosure I guess ...
 
All I can say is go WD-Green. Never had a problem with their HDs and I have a lot of them. Oh, and back up your stuff.
 
Well, good thing I replaced the hard-drive on my Black Book with an SSD a while back. This is yet another proof that spinning platter on a portable device is not really a good idea.
 
My hard drive failed in June on my 2.16GHZ black book but apple fixed it for free even though I didn't have apple care. I know have a 1TB external HD.
 
scottness said:
Apple's not to blame here. They don't make hard drives. Seagate maybe, but not Apple.
Click to expand...

It's an Apple product with known defects, so it really should be their problem. At least, this is what people tell me is the advantage to buying a Mac versus building your own PC, right? You don't have to deal with each component maker?

In a typical Apple fashion, though, they acknowledge the problem too late and don't notify users. You have to be on the lookout, and you often have to cite the acknowledged issue at the genius bar.

I had something similar happen with my sister's eMac years ago. The CRT tubes had a known defect and the monitors were failing. Apple told my sister they wouldn't fix it until I found an article on Apple's website similar to the one about the MacBooks. She printed it out and brought it back with her.

Boom. Instant, awesome service from Apple. But only AFTER she showed them proof that Apple would repair or replace it.
 
I still have my drive somewhere. Hoping the store has a record of the repair, too. The most recent case issue is a crack in the exact front center, from the edge to the trackpad button.

May be in trouble, cuz my receipt only says I bought a hard drive and it wasn't an Apple store, just an AASP.
 
The hard drive in my MacBook died during the warranty period, and so was replaced under the standard warranty anyway. It was replaced with a FUJITSU MHY2120BH but this now has unrecoverable bad sectors, so would this be covered by this extend warranty program?

Also, interesting to know the cracked case problem is not just me. How far out of warranty will they replace this as I now have three holes around the edge where bits have snapped off?

I must admit I have been very disappointed with the 13" MacBook as it has had two drive failures, the CPU fan died, firewire has stopped working, and the holes in the casing. In contrast I bought the 12" PowerBook a month after it came, was carried about all the time, unlike the MacBook which mostly stays at home, and it lasted for years.

Michael.
 
neiltc13 said:
Yet more evidence that the quality of Apple's computers has gone down the toilet in recent years.

I don't think anyone can say "it just works" with a straight face any more.

When are they going to start doing this for Time Capsule?
Click to expand...

Actually, this is totally Seagate's fault here. You can't fault Apple for picking one of the premier HDD manufacturers only to find later that the series they purchased had a defect. It probably took this long to start replacing drives because they had to get a deal worked out with Seagate for the replacements.

Honestly, I would have torn out the original drive ages ago and put in a higher capacity one.
 
Funny, I took the 60GB drive out of my Macbook a long time ago and upgraded to a larger drive, but I still use the old macbook drive in an external case and it works great. I was honestly surprised that it has lasted this long, even before finding out about the high failure rate. Guess I am the exception!
 
I wish they would do this for the 2006 White iMac's too! Hundreds of GPU/mother boards died just out of warranty! Stinks but this brings some hope! And not a Hefty £400 repair!
 
Add me to the list that had a drive die out of first year warranty, I even sent it off for repair at an HDD clinic as I had data that existed nowhere else - the one and only time in over 25 years that I haven't had a backup of something :-( - I bought a new drive, as they took the old one apart and then binned it, so this doesn't help me either unless Apple agree to refund people that bought (which they won't do - real money is not the same as supplying new drives to them!).
 
Makindosh said:
can i squeeze in the boat wit u all??? :(

hope our boat wont sink...
Click to expand...

I'll save you...

From the actual Apple Bulletin...
http://www.apple.com/support/macbook/hd/repairextension/

Some customers may have paid for out of warranty repairs that qualify under this program. Apple will contact affected customers (where contact information is available) with details on the reimbursement process. If you believe that you paid for a repair covered by this program and you have not been contacted, you may contact Apple Technical Support.
 
lame, my old white macbook had this issue and I paid out of pocket to replace the drive :/
 
Rootus said:
Already replaced the 120GB in my MacBook after it click-click-click-click-click died. Fortunately it was covered by Apple already because of AppleCare, so no big deal...
Click to expand...

Sucks for me... they said it was due to the fall. I really want to know if that's true or not now...
 
My MacBook purchased in August 2006 hasn't had any problem so far.

But my other MacBook purchased in October 2008 had a failed hard drive last month. No AppleCare so I bought a new HD and replaced it, but now after one month I have the flashing question mark again.

I'm sure it's a problem with the HD controller on the system, but Apple won't admit to that and fix it...

I'm getting fed up of Apple to be honest. Problems with my MacBook Pro so far:

1) A screen defect (scrambled display).
2) The airport card was defective and stopped working after 6 months.
3) Battery was defective and started to bulge whilst overheating.
4) Left hand fan broke.
5) Hard drive suddenly had 50% bad sectors resulting in loss of data (luckily had backed everything up)

Why can't they build anything of GOOD quality anymore?
 
Called Apple They Won't Replace My HD

Well I thought this service bulletin was good news because I have a macbook purchased in 2007 that had a failed HD. About 14 months after purchase, I booted the macbook 2GH to find a blinking question mark. Discovered the HD had crashed.... but the 1 year warranty had expired 2 months earlier. No problem, since the HD is so easy to replace in the 2GH macbook, I purchased a replacement from Best Buy.

However after reading about the warranty extension to 3 years, I called apple to see if I would be reimbursed for the HD. The first agent told me apple would reimburse me if I had my receipt for the new HD and put me on hold to verify with their supervisor. After 5 minutes the supervisor came on the phone and said the "extended warranty only covers when apple replaces the defective drive, not when the user replaces the drive." I explained that I didn't get apple to replace the drive because it was 2 months out of the original 1 year warranty. The nice apple agent said they were sorry but the 3 year extension only covers HD's that are replaced by apple not the user.
 
As someone who lost several months of code for an iPhone app to this HD failing, f*ck you Seagate.

I now have an Intel SSD in my laptop. Hopefully I wont have to worry about that again.
 
2007 MB, hey wait, that's me! Oh right, I replaced mine with a 320 MB a long time ago. Do people really live without backup still? I can't believe Apple stands behind drives for this long. I just assume a three year old drive is going to fail.
 
Apple vs 3rd Party Manufacturers

Apple makes hardware. But they don't make every component in their devices.
Apple uses name-brand components (hard drives, video cards, displays, etc) in their devices. They really aren't at fault for any defects in those third-party components. In this case, Seagate is at fault for shipping hard drives that were prone to mechanical failure. (As a side note, this is one of many Seagate drive failures I have been following. Their quality seems to have gone downhill in the past 2-3 years...I used to use their drives exclusively, but now I have personally had multiple fail on me, and I'm not the only one. I've switched to Western Digital and life has been fantastic. Sticking with them from now on unless things change.)

Even though Apple doesn't make all the hardware, there's a reason Macs tend to be more reliable than PCs.
When people claim "Macs just work," there's a reason for that. It's not the fact that every component of a Mac is made by Apple and backed by a guarantee. Instead, it's the fact that Apple designs their systems in specific configurations. This way, they control what hardware works with what software, and they can account for interoperability between the specific components that will be used. For example, they will design custom motherboard layouts and case designs to separate components that run hot for the most efficient cooling. This results in an overall more reliable device.

So, in summary: Apple certainly isn't infallible. But especially in this case, having MacBook hard drives fail isn't their fault. Seagate is one of a few major hard drive manufacturers, and Apple's use of their drives is quite acceptable. Maybe in the future we will see less Seagate and more WD, Hitachi, and Samsung hard drives in Mac portables.
 
smileyborg said:
Apple makes hardware. But they don't make every component in their devices.
Apple uses name-brand components (hard drives, video cards, displays, etc) in their devices. They really aren't at fault for any defects in those third-party components. In this case, Seagate is at fault for shipping hard drives that were prone to mechanical failure. (As a side note, this is one of many Seagate drive failures I have been following. Their quality seems to have gone downhill in the past 2-3 years...I used to use their drives exclusively, but now I have personally had multiple fail on me, and I'm not the only one. I've switched to Western Digital and life has been fantastic. Sticking with them from now on unless things change.)

Even though Apple doesn't make all the hardware, there's a reason Macs tend to be more reliable than PCs.
When people claim "Macs just work," there's a reason for that. It's not the fact that every component of a Mac is made by Apple and backed by a guarantee. Instead, it's the fact that Apple designs their systems in specific configurations. This way, they control what hardware works with what software, and they can account for interoperability between the specific components that will be used. For example, they will design custom motherboard layouts and case designs to separate components that run hot for the most efficient cooling. This results in an overall more reliable device.

So, in summary: Apple certainly isn't infallible. But especially in this case, having MacBook hard drives fail isn't their fault. Seagate is one of a few major hard drive manufacturers, and Apple's use of their drives is quite acceptable. Maybe in the future we will see less Seagate and more WD, Hitachi, and Samsung hard drives in Mac portables.
Click to expand...

I see. If we follow this path, Apple is never to blame as all the hardware is assembled in China. From outsourced components. Only if the software fails, Apple is to blame. Wait, no, we don't know what program from another company you've installed. That is what made that beach ball appear!

Apple is never to blame and anyone who says otherwise is a heretic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back