Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Apple Over 2011 MacBook Pro Graphics Issues

[Gav Mack]

Good information. Thank you

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Agreed. We are very lucky in the UK to have some of the best consumer protection legislation in the world.

It's marvellous.

The 2012 do still overheat, but not as much and still do benefit from pasting and polishing to extend their lives as Apple's pasting methods are as consistent as a one eyed decorator with glaucoma!

 

[cjmillsnun]

Sorry guys

but I´m really just sick of this whining people who don´t have anything else to do than bashing users of other devices or bashing on companies without even trying to fix their own lives.

Mostly people who have no technical knowedge are the ones who whine the most.

All solderings are aging, that is why a car is not soldered, but more permanentely fixed. And if a soldering point ages the resistance grows and that produces heat. polishing a soldering point will not help it just shines. If you want to fix something like this you have to resoldere it, e.g. withe a heating fan instead of a soldering iron.

And No, no company should pay for something like that, if comanies would have to pay for this, it would be like a lifetime warranty, which has to be paid for. So just stop whining.

Sorry, that's bollocks. I have early 80's vintage computers that are 100% fine. I also have a laptop that is from 2007 and again, it's just fine. A computer from 2011 should NOT be failing.

 

[finalcut]

2001? I don't think so...

meant 2011 of course

 

[Renzatic]

Sorry, that's bollocks. I have early 80's vintage computers that are 100% fine. I also have a laptop that is from 2007 and again, it's just fine. A computer from 2011 should NOT be failing.

Exactly. If we were talking about 7-8 year old computers, he might have a point. But 3 years? It's ridiculous to assume that's due to normal wear and tear.

 

[Tubamajuba]

Ho Odedia,

just start the real live.

The world is no wonderland where all wishes come true.

It is still an electrical device that will age over time. So if you have a device that´s still in warranty, be happy, if not it is just bad luck. It´s the same with a car a TV or even a toaster. After some time you might have an issue with it and you might have to repair it. If you want a lifetime warranty for your device, just buy an insurance.

If there would have been a lifetime warranty the device would have cost you 6000 $ , insurance included over the years.

What you said would be correct if these machines were dying for different reasons. But it's the exact same thing happening to the exact same part on the exact same models, with a very plausible cause. I can't claim to know anything about the legal ramifications of that, but it goes beyond the issue of warranties. Such a blatantly defective product is receiving the kind of scrutiny and outcry that it deserves.

Apple didn't intentionally design a product that would fail like this, but here we are. They can do this the easy way and just take care of the people that bought these machines, or the hard way where lawyers are involved. Either way, the situation will be rectified.

 

[gonzomkl]

@ renzatic,

yes because you have to warrant on a given repair. And if the system itself is unfit to work as expected this can be a different case, if you can roove that it is unfit for its purpose.

that a soldering shows wear and tear after some years of work is not unfit for its purpose, it is just what hapens to solderings. And it is the same in all soldering in the world, because soldering is no lifetime connection, but is still the only way to connect electronical components to each other and to mainboards.

If you want to be sure that any electronical device, for an unlimited time, you will have to perform tlc on the device as you have to do on a car as well. On a soldered electroical device this means resoldering. But this will be more expensive instead of repairing the device when it shows an issue, at least if you are not able to do so on your own.

Tne MBpros of 2011 where built like every other mashine at this time, and it suffers the same problems than others, this is why this law suit will fail, because it is just not based on any technical background, or the fault of a user or manufacturer, it is just wear and tear.

And of course the hope of some american money greedy lawyers that want to earn their money.

 

[Brandhouse]

Damn right Apple should be hauled over the coals on this. Prior to Monday week ago I had a rock-solid-never-had-an-isse with my late 2011 17" Mac Book Pro. Then out of the blue I had an error message informing me the was a graphic issue detected and the bug needed to be sent to Apple.

And then it all happened. The screen went to thick vertical pink and grey stripes and then onto a grey screen, with nothing after that. A quick Google and I found the problem and promptly took it to a certified repairer.

$1,245.00 later I had a new logic board inserted.

I also signed a online petition against Apple, when I signed it the were a little over 7,500 signatures, that later went ballistic. http://www.change.org/p/timothy-d-c...pt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

It's an obvious issue that Apple need to come to the party and acknowledge.

 

[Glassed Silver]

Lawsuit? Quit whining and bake your logic board. Works wonders.

That must be the famous great Apple support I keep hearing about.

Sample AppleCare call:

Q:"My computer keeps having graphics issues on a massive scale, I wonder where I can send my laptop to now. Can you help me?"
A:"Of course, don't worry. First let's see if you're still covered by warranty, oh it's already 3 years old, did you get AppleCare with your Mac? No? Ok, I'll have to charge you 49 USD now, please. ... Thank you. Now, instead of sending in your laptop, you can just put it in the oven for a quarter hour and try again. Hope that help, kthxbye."

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[saldin]

In 2008 it was nVidia's fault. they paid the bill.

And even with nVidia footing the bill, they still tried to skirt their responsibility in the Seattle Rex case: http://www.seattlerex.com/seattle-rex-vs-apple-the-verdict-is-in/

At one point, the judge asked Apple how much it would have cost them to have simply replaced my logic board when I had taken it in, and one of the Apple guys said “Oh, it wouldn’t have cost us anything, Nvidia foots the bill for each board we replace.”

The judge’s face almost hit the floor as he shot me a quizzical look, to which I just shrugged. I knew that he, and everyone else in the courtroom was thinking the same thing:

If Apple could have replaced my logic board at no cost to themselves, then why in the hell did they drag this out for so long, and why did they send two people to court to try and make sure that I got absolutely nothing? Friends, this is a question I have been asking myself for three months, and it is a question that I do not have the answer to.

 

[cjmillsnun]

yes because you have to warrant on a given repair. And if the system itself is unfit to work as expected this can be a different case, if you can roove that it is unfit for its purpose.

that a soldering shows wear and tear after some years of work is not unfit for its purpose, it is just what hapens to solderings. And it is the same in all soldering in the world, because soldering is no lifetime connection, but is still the only way to connect electronical components to each other and to mainboards.

If you want to be sure that any electronical device, for an unlimited time, you will have to perform tlc on the device as you have to do on a car as well. On a soldered electroical device this means resoldering. But this will be more expensive instead of repairing the device when it shows an issue, at least if you are not able to do so on your own.

Tne MBpros of 2011 where built like every other mashine at this time, and it suffers the same problems than others, this is why this law suit will fail, because it is just not based on any technical background, or the fault of a user or manufacturer, it is just wear and tear.

And of course the hope of some american money greedy lawyers that want to earn their money.

I suspect this lawsuit will be successful. Solid state components should not wear out (with the exception of flash memory). There are no moving parts. Yes the top of the solder can oxidise, but the part that is in contact with the component and the board should not.

 

[MarcusCarpenter]

Its about time tbh

 

[GeeYouEye]

Huh, the picture of the graphical glitch looks different from what I'd seen before on 2011 MBPs, but looks exactly like what I saw on two different 2013 rMBPs when I was in Germany. I had that graphical glitch repeatedly (happened on wake from sleep, switch from discrete to integrated GPU, and possibly other times), on two separate computers. As soon as I came back to the states, the problem went away, and never came back. I suspect something to do with the power adapter not handling 240V as well as it should.

 

[SSonnentag]

My 2011 model was out of warranty when the screen went nuts. Apple repaired it for free, no questions asked. Dropped it off one day and picked it up the next. It's been working fine for over a year now.

 

[nutjob]

Apple: "You're looking at the screen wrong."

 

[Mgkwho]

THANK YOU. $326 for a logic board replacement two months after AppleCare...and time/transportation/productivity loss costs with five separate visits to the Apple Store later...

-=|Mgkwho

 

[HKZ/MST3K]

Lawsuit? Quit whining and bake your logic board. Works wonders.

I paid $3k for this machine, it better goddamn work without having to be baked in an oven. Piss off with your idiocy.

 

[RockSpider]

Exactly. If we were talking about 7-8 year old computers, he might have a point. But 3 years? It's ridiculous to assume that's due to normal wear and tear.

I've got 3 computers at home right now, not Apple's, I really wish they'd break down, but they won't, I've got too many computers. Not long ago I gave away a 7 year old HP laptop and a 5 year old Netbook both still in excellent working order.
I've used motherboards over 10 years old and never had a problem, I've only ever had one motherboard completely fail out of hundreds.

 

[Thermonuclear]

In some ways, things used to be worse

In some ways, things used to be worse.

My 1986 Mac Plus, purchased new, broke three times: a bad RTC chip, and two power supply failures. I had to pay for all because of Apple's crappy 90 day warranty at the time along with there being no effective consumer protection law. I was lucky only in that I didn't pay for any labor as I did all the repair work myself.

Apple knew about the problems with its poorly designed Mac power supplies. That's why from the 1987 Mac SE to this day, every Mac has had a discrete power supply; I believe all of them being made by third party companies with somewhat decent experience. I have no doubt this happened because Apple was forced by the marketplace to offer a full year warranty on its hardware.

These third party power supplies were a major improvement, and I think they may actually have lowered the total cost of production because of a smaller labor cost of assembly. In any case, these supplies have been far more reliable. Apple's original Mac power supplies used in the 128K, the 512K, the 512KE, and the Plus all had some components with only 1,000 hour in-use life ratings. That's just six months of 40 hour per week usage. Fortunately for most early Mac owners, component ratings are usually fairly conservative, so not everyone experienced the stinky smoke pouring from the case vents above a freshly blown power supply. But many did, some like me more than once.

Back in the 1980s, there was no web and so no easy way for victims to compare notes on a large scale. Now we have the web and better consumer protection law. Without these, I have no doubt that Apple and perhaps other companies would return to their past practices of using cheap, short lived components.

 

[RockSpider]

I paid $3k for this machine, it better goddamn work without having to be baked in an oven. Piss off with your idiocy.

That's the reason I don't buy expensive Apple stuff, I've had dealings with them over cheaper stuff like iPads, I know what they're like, " Do you have Apple Care".

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In some ways, things used to be worse.

My 1986 Mac Plus, purchased new, broke three times: a bad RTC chip, and two power supply failures. I had to pay for all because of Apple's crappy 90 day warranty at the time along with there being no effective consumer protection law. I was lucky only in that I didn't pay for any labor as I did all the repair work myself.

Apple knew about the problems with its poorly designed Mac power supplies. That's why from the 1987 Mac SE to this day, every Mac has had a discrete power supply; I believe all of them being made by third party companies with somewhat decent experience. I have no doubt this happened because Apple was forced by the marketplace to offer a full year warranty on its hardware.

These third party power supplies were a major improvement, and I think they may actually have lowered the total cost of production because of a smaller labor cost of assembly. In any case, these supplies have been far more reliable. Apple's original Mac power supplies used in the 128K, the 512K, the 512KE, and the Plus all had some components with only 1,000 hour in-use life ratings. That's just six months of 40 hour per week usage. Fortunately for most early Mac owners, component ratings are usually fairly conservative, so not everyone experienced the stinky smoke pouring from the case vents above a freshly blown power supply. But many did, some like me more than once.

Back in the 1980s, there was no web and so no easy way for victims to compare notes on a large scale. Now we have the web and better consumer protection law. Without these, I have no doubt that Apple and perhaps other companies would return to their past practices of using cheap, short lived components.

I repaired non Apple PCs for years, most of the problems I found were software related, a few power supplies, a few Video cards, some sound cards, a few Hdds and the odd monitor.
I built a lot of PCs out of years old components and never had many major problems, back in those days I wouldn't have given Apple machines the time of day.

 

[TheRainKing]

*cough* sale of goods act. Covers you for 6 years

Good idea!

I did think about doing that before, but it sounded really complicated so I didn't bother in the end. However, after reading your post I decided to do a bit of googling and the first thing that came up was a thread from Mac Rumors https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/786261/ After reading that success story I'm thinking about giving it a go.

 

[MacModMachine]

Sorry guys

but I´m really just sick of this whining people who don´t have anything else to do than bashing users of other devices or bashing on companies without even trying to fix their own lives.

Mostly people who have no technical knowedge are the ones who whine the most.

All solderings are aging, that is why a car is not soldered, but more permanentely fixed. And if a soldering point ages the resistance grows and that produces heat. polishing a soldering point will not help it just shines. If you want to fix something like this you have to resoldere it, e.g. withe a heating fan instead of a soldering iron.

And No, no company should pay for something like that, if comanies would have to pay for this, it would be like a lifetime warranty, which has to be paid for. So just stop whining.

ummm.....technical knowledge?

you have no idea how anything is put together,

let me enlighten you, cars are not soldered , there welded together because there made from steel and have nothing to do with electronics.

these are not solder points , they are FLOWED on BGA chips , if they ever come undone than it is a manufacturing defect. They laptop would never get to a temperature that would allow these to disconnect without first burning up the chip that it is soldered on UNLESS there was a defect.

 

[marf1million]

I've been worried for a while now that my 17inch early 2011 MacBook would give out on me. Luckily nothing yet but I'm very interested in seeing how this turns out.

 

[CyBeRino]

ummm.....technical knowledge?
these are not solder points , they are FLOWED on BGA chips

They are actually solder points. Just the method of application and heating is different. (The solder is applied in balls stuck to the chip, and the the entire board is stuck in a reflow oven to melt the solder.)

 

[MacModMachine]

They are actually solder points. Just the method of application and heating is different. (The solder is applied in balls stuck to the chip, and the the entire board is stuck in a reflow oven to melt the solder.)

not true ,

they are not done in ovens , but using IR reflow.

 

[wizard]

If it's because of lead-free solder, than thats pretty damn stupid... How much lead could be in a laptop? Apple's laptops have never had great thermal management, they are thin beyond necessity and that means more internal heat. No wonder this miracle solder cracks.

It is pretty stupid but the regulation comes from the EU. It is stupid in the sense that they demanded the removal of lead from electronics when there was no suitable replacement and frankly there still isnt a suitable replacement. The blame for this stupidity rest in the hands of Europe and there out of control regulatory bodies.

They're really just doing this to please the eco crowd so they can display their famous environmental stats on each keynote.

They are doing it because regulations require it.

If their products were properly and easily serviceable (see 1st gen iMac G5) you wouldnt have to worry so much about recycling them when they break.

Im not sure what that has to do with this discussion.

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not true ,

they are not done in ovens , but using IR reflow.

It has been a long time since I've seen so many wrong posts from one guy.