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First defective Arrandale?

Relznuk

Relznuk

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 27, 2009
391
0
UT, USA
I bought my Core i5 15" base model tuesday morning. Turns out it has fauty external USB ports. Unlucky? Perhaps not. I called AppleCare, and after running me through some software-based steps, including reinstalling the computer once again from scratch, they transferred me to Customer Relations. After reviewing my case, the customer relations agent said, "Wow. This is the first i5 I have seen problems with. It seems like you've gone through some headache as well. Apple would like to apologize by replacing your unit with an upgraded one. I'm willing to send you the mid-level 2.53 ghz machine with a high res and anti-glare option. Will that be sufficient?

Of course I said yes.

Now just waiting for the replacement to come.
 
Relznuk said:
I bought my Core i5 15" base model tuesday morning. Turns out it has fauty external USB ports. Unlucky? Perhaps not. I called AppleCare, and after running me through some software-based steps, including reinstalling the computer once again from scratch, they transferred me to Customer Relations. After reviewing my case, the customer relations agent said, "Wow. This is the first i5 I have seen problems with. It seems like you've gone through some headache as well. Apple would like to apologize by replacing your unit with an upgraded one. I'm willing to send you the mid-level 2.53 ghz machine with a high res and anti-glare option. Will that be sufficient?

Of course I said yes.

Now just waiting for the replacement to come.
Click to expand...

Lol, one would start hoping for faulty usb ports :D
But not me :D I want to get it as soon as possible!
 
Relznuk said:
I bought my Core i5 15" base model tuesday morning. Turns out it has fauty external USB ports. Unlucky? Perhaps not. I called AppleCare, and after running me through some software-based steps, including reinstalling the computer once again from scratch, they transferred me to Customer Relations. After reviewing my case, the customer relations agent said, "Wow. This is the first i5 I have seen problems with. It seems like you've gone through some headache as well. Apple would like to apologize by replacing your unit with an upgraded one. I'm willing to send you the mid-level 2.53 ghz machine with a high res and anti-glare option. Will that be sufficient?

Of course I said yes.

Now just waiting for the replacement to come.
Click to expand...

If you can bear the brunt of waiting, you've just got yourself a positive fault.
 
Relznuk said:
I bought my Core i5 15" base model tuesday morning. Turns out it has fauty external USB ports. Unlucky? Perhaps not. I called AppleCare, and after running me through some software-based steps, including reinstalling the computer once again from scratch, they transferred me to Customer Relations. After reviewing my case, the customer relations agent said, "Wow. This is the first i5 I have seen problems with. It seems like you've gone through some headache as well. Apple would like to apologize by replacing your unit with an upgraded one. I'm willing to send you the mid-level 2.53 ghz machine with a high res and anti-glare option. Will that be sufficient?

Of course I said yes.

Now just waiting for the replacement to come.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's great customer service. Bit of an inconvience but well worth it in the long run.
 
The OP is very lucky indeed. I can promise you for everyone that gets great service like that there are people who get strung along and screwed over. I know I have been one of them. I had to fight tooth and nail for over a month for Apple to make good on something that was their fault.

Fans will use this as an example of "how great Apple is" but truthfully it is just an example of how nice that individual was.
 
Wow, good service!

After I have gotten 3 logic boards, 4 batteries, 1 screen, 1 keyboard, 1 charger and my ram replaced Apple still thinks there is nothing wrong with mine MacBook Pro.
 
This is the 4th time I've heard of this issue of the usb ports not working on an i5. I'm starting to see a trend here. I'd say move on up to an i7.

I've noticed every generation or two, the 15" mbp always has some sort of issues. Perhaps this generation's issues with the 15" is the usb not functioning correct on the i5s?

If you must keep the i5 due to a limited budget, I'd say get another exchange. BUT if the next machine is having the same issue I would move on up to an i7 as thus far I havnt heard any issues with the i7s.
 
jjahshik32 said:
This is the 4th time I've heard of this issue of the usb ports not working on an i5. I'm starting to see a trend here. I'd say move on up to an i7.

I've noticed every generation or two, the 15" mbp always has some sort of issues. Perhaps this generation's issues with the 15" is the usb not functioning correct on the i5s?

If you must keep the i5 due to a limited budget, I'd say get another exchange. BUT if the next machine is having the same issue I would move on up to an i7 as thus far I havnt heard any issues with the i7s.
Click to expand...

You haven't heard of any issues with the i7 because there are a lot fewer people buying i7's. Besides the CPU, everything else is identical.
 
m85476585 said:
You haven't heard of any issues with the i7 because there are a lot fewer people buying i7's. Besides the CPU, everything else is identical.
Click to expand...

Not to mention the fact that faulty USB ports have absolutely nothing to do with which CPU is installed! Upgrading to an i7 would have no effect on this problem.
 
I'm planning on getting the 13". Is there any correlation between the two models/is it likely to have this problem too? Maybe I could get bumped up to a high-end 13" if it does :D
(but if my post suggests this, I'm really not hoping that it will have a problem)
 
m85476585 said:
You haven't heard of any issues with the i7 because there are a lot fewer people buying i7's. Besides the CPU, everything else is identical.
Click to expand...

How do we know that alot fewer people are buying the i7s? Both i7s and i5s are available in stores as well.

Either way, even if the i7s are lower in the sales department, you can tell of the defect % from the ratio.

So far I've seen 4 i5s with bad usb and 0 from the i7s. Anyway both models have only been released for 2 days so only time will tell if anymore issues will pop up.
 
GGJstudios said:
Not to mention the fact that faulty USB ports have absolutely nothing to do with which CPU is installed! Upgrading to an i7 would have no effect on this problem.
Click to expand...

Maybe apple is using a different component/method on the i5s as to the i7s near the circuitry of the usb?
 
jjahshik32 said:
How do we know that alot fewer people are buying the i7s? Both i7s and i5s are available in stores as well.

Either way, even if the i7s are lower in the sales department, you can tell of the defect % from the ratio.

So far I've seen 4 i5s with bad usb and 0 from the i7s. Anyway both models have only been released for 2 days so only time will tell if anymore issues will pop up.
Click to expand...

VRAM doesn't have anything to do with USB failures, nor does the CPU.

I'm guessing that there are fewer i7's being sold. They are more expensive than the i5's for a small speed gain. Typically the base CPU model is the most popular.

A sample size of 4 defects is not enough to make any comparison of the defect rate between i5s and i7s. That's basic statistics.

It is possible that there are more defects in the i5s if the assembly line those are made on is producing more defects, but that would be the only reason. If that is the case, I'm sure Apple will correct the issue quickly (or work with whoever is actually manufacturing them).

Remember, there are plenty of satisfied buyers who never have to come to this forum to complain. A few reports of problems certainly isn't enough to justify spending more on an i7, especially when there is a good chance the i7 computer could have the same problem. If there were major issues with the latest MBPs, the forum would be flooded with reports of problems by now, and there would probably be a story on MR about it.
 
m85476585 said:
VRAM doesn't have anything to do with USB failures, nor does the CPU.

I'm guessing that there are fewer i7's being sold. They are more expensive than the i5's for a small speed gain. Typically the base CPU model is the most popular.

A sample size of 4 defects is not enough to make any comparison of the defect rate between i5s and i7s. That's basic statistics.

It is possible that there are more defects in the i5s if the assembly line those are made on is producing more defects, but that would be the only reason. If that is the case, I'm sure Apple will correct the issue quickly (or work with whoever is actually manufacturing them).

Remember, there are plenty of satisfied buyers who never have to come to this forum to complain. A few reports of problems certainly isn't enough to justify spending more on an i7, especially when there is a good chance the i7 computer could have the same problem. If there were major issues with the latest MBPs, the forum would be flooded with reports of problems by now, and there would probably be a story on MR about it.
Click to expand...

I never mentioned anything about vram having to do with usb issues.

I'm sure there are two versions of the logic boards being produced with the i5 and i7 so there might be a different means/method/part of producing the i5s logic board that are having the usb issue.

Also I dont think its a small speed gain. The i5 geekbench comes around 5200 and the i7 at around 6300, thats a pretty HUGE difference in speed for a mere $200 upgrade. NO more is it just a small speed bump (slightly higher clock speed) upgrade for more $$ like in the core 2 duo models. Both are running 64-bit geekbenches as well.

4524085313_99cf9a8535_o.png

4524708298_0e0d687848_o.png


Its about a 1000 points difference which I believe is a BIG difference. Its another core duo mbp faster for the $200 difference!

Edit: I found another i5 with a faster geekbench score.

4524721524_85ebecb92d_o.png
Even though this one is much faster than the other i5 someone posted on geekbench, its still 500+ points more on geekbench and that is still ALOT for just $200.
 
The vram comment was in response to sashakla

That's a 10% difference between the best i5 score and the best i7 score. I'm counting the better score because it's easy to get a lower benchmark if the computer is in use, but you can never get higher than some maximum. I don't know if it's accurate to say that it is a Core Duo MBP faster, that would assume the numbers are linear, and I don't know if they are. If the test was comparing FLOPS or something like that it would be valid, but I don't know if you can make the same assumptions about an aggregate benchmark score.

The i7's turboboost is 8% faster than the i5's, so that's most of the difference. I don't know if geekbench is triggering turboboost or not, but I assume it would be if it is single threaded or if it runs for a short enough time.

The average user will probably not notice the difference between the i5 and the i7. For CPU-bound tasks like video editing, it might make a difference, but that's about it. Also, I wonder how much of the speed increase you might perceive is just from knowing that you have the faster computer?

I'm not saying you shouldn't buy an i7 if that's what you want, or if you have a specific application that will benefit from the extra speed, but for the average user the i5 is the best value.
 
Perhaps it might also be sound to wait for real life tests as well. I love to see how much 1000 more points is worth in time saved.
 
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