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I got lucky... Apple repaired my modified iBook for free :-)

spaceballl

spaceballl

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2003
2,942
365
San Francisco, CA
Just thought I'd share a happy little story. So last January, my iBook 700 was getting all messed up. It would crash sporadically. Sometimes it wouldn't boot up properly. I took it in, and it was identified that I had a faulty logic board, which by http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/ , was covered as a free repair. I got my iBook repaired no problem.

A few months ago, I decided that neither the current nor next generation of Powerbooks would suit me and that in order to hold myself over until laptops that i felt were acceptable came out (7200 rpm standard drives, higher performing CPUs and GPU, 64 bit, etc), I would upgrade my stock 4200 rpm 20gb harddrive to one of the nice hitachi 7200 rpm 60gb drives. I'm an Electrical Engineer so i'm fairly experienced w/ taking apart hardware so the upgrade wasn't too bad. I finished it, and it was well worth it.

Three weeks ago, I was experiencing iBook problems. I was worried because while they ensure their motherboards for six months after replacement, because I had changed the HD, the warranty was void. I took it in, and they asked me if I had every messed with it. I lied. They totally missed the fact that I had upgraded my HD. They also found a problem w/ my optical drive and screen. The fact is this...

I have an iBook 700 with a brand new LCD screen, a brand new logic board, a brand new optical drive, a 7200 rpm hard drive, 640mb RAM, airport, and it is now under warranty for six more months, WELL after the initial warranty expired. The best part (and i opened it up to verify) is that all of the Apple seals have been re-sealed. My 7200rpm drive is sealed in under Apple warranty now :). When I eventually sell it, this will surely increase the resale value.

-Kevin
 
this is funny. But i doubt your after market drive will be covered under an apple warranty. good for you ;)
 
he he. great story. :)

that could have been very risky though.... imagine if they thought 'what the hell? there's a 7200rpm drive in here. no wonder it's got problems. lets just take that out of here...' :eek:

well, it's good that it ended the way it did, by lying to the good folks at Apple...
nono.gif


anyways... how is the new HD going? i mean there's a reason they don't put 7200rpm drives in laptops... how's the vibration and noise levels? doesn't it just shake the whole thing apart? :confused:
 
Does it void your warranty if an Apple engineer ("genius") installs a hard drive that you purchased elsewhere?
 
cb911 said:
that could have been very risky though.... imagine if they thought 'what the hell? there's a 7200rpm drive in here. no wonder it's got problems. lets just take that out of here...' :eek:
Click to expand...
Oh I know! I was sooo worried of one of two things. First, that they were going to see the drive in there, say **** it, and return it. and two, that they were going to do just like you said... see the drive and just be like oh let's trash that and throw in the standard drive...
cb911 said:
anyways... how is the new HD going? i mean there's a reason they don't put 7200rpm drives in laptops... how's the vibration and noise levels? doesn't it just shake the whole thing apart? :confused:
Click to expand...
hahaha actually because the drive uses newer technology, it sucks a bit less battery than my last drive so it's nice to have more battery life and higher performance. Vibration and noise are noticeably less than the previous drive. Boot up speed is a bazillion times faster. Apps start slightly faster. It's nice to have three times the hard drive space. The left palm area heats up a bit more than it used to.
-Kev
 
well glad to hear that it's all working out.

i'd be interested to hear how a new 7200rpm drive goes in a new PB... perhaps Apple will offer them as a BTO option soon? :D we can only hope... ;)
 
On my old iBook 900mhz I fired the power impute board thingy my falt 100% I took to the apple store told the guy what I did and he went and got his manger and told me because I did not shout at him and told the truth he would send it in for a free repair. I got the feeling they expect you to lie...
 
spaceballl said:
The left palm area heats up a bit more than it used to.
-Kev
Click to expand...

I think that HEAT is the main reason why you don't see 7200 rpm drives in the laptops. I think you might be running the risk of frying some of your components. But hey, if Apple will continue fixing it for free. . . .
 
AoWolf said:
I got the feeling they expect you to lie...
Click to expand...

well, honesty is a rare thing these days... unfortunately. they're probably so used to having people straight out lie to them, and they probably know that some people are just lying. but they must have been pleased to meet such a good customer. glad to hear that you got it fixed, you got what you deserved. :)
 
spaceballl said:
Just thought I'd share a happy little story. So last January, my iBook 700 was getting all messed up. It would crash sporadically. Sometimes it wouldn't boot up properly. I took it in, and it was identified that I had a faulty logic board, which by http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/ , was covered as a free repair. I got my iBook repaired no problem.

A few months ago, I decided that neither the current nor next generation of Powerbooks would suit me and that in order to hold myself over until laptops that i felt were acceptable came out (7200 rpm standard drives, higher performing CPUs and GPU, 64 bit, etc), I would upgrade my stock 4200 rpm 20gb harddrive to one of the nice hitachi 7200 rpm 60gb drives. I'm an Electrical Engineer so i'm fairly experienced w/ taking apart hardware so the upgrade wasn't too bad. I finished it, and it was well worth it.

Three weeks ago, I was experiencing iBook problems. I was worried because while they ensure their motherboards for six months after replacement, because I had changed the HD, the warranty was void. I took it in, and they asked me if I had every messed with it. I lied. They totally missed the fact that I had upgraded my HD. They also found a problem w/ my optical drive and screen. The fact is this...

I have an iBook 700 with a brand new LCD screen, a brand new logic board, a brand new optical drive, a 7200 rpm hard drive, 640mb RAM, airport, and it is now under warranty for six more months, WELL after the initial warranty expired. The best part (and i opened it up to verify) is that all of the Apple seals have been re-sealed. My 7200rpm drive is sealed in under Apple warranty now :). When I eventually sell it, this will surely increase the resale value.

-Kevin
Click to expand...
i wouldn't consider it a selling point. unless you bought applecare you have a 1 year, and that aftermarket drive most likely has a 3 year warranty.

iJon
 
cb911 said:
anyways... how is the new HD going? i mean there's a reason they don't put 7200rpm drives in laptops... how's the vibration and noise levels? doesn't it just shake the whole thing apart? :confused:
Click to expand...
This is seriously the best upgrade I've ever done to a laptop. It is MUCH quieter than my old drive cuz of the newer technology and it vibrates less! Like I said, the only external difference is that the palm heats up SLIGHTLY more than it used to.
cb911 said:
i'd be interested to hear how a new 7200rpm drive goes in a new PB... perhaps Apple will offer them as a BTO option soon? :D we can only hope... ;)
Click to expand...
I suspect that Apple will offer them in the next revision, considering that Dell and other manufacturers are already selling them. I'm guessing that the reason why there was initial hesitation on Apple's part was that because they currently offer an 80gb 5400 rpm drive. So they would be charging customers more money for less capacity. Obviously people in the know would get the point, but it would confuse the average customer. But now that there are 100gb 7200 rpm drives out, i'm sure they'll put them in.
iJon said:
i wouldn't consider it a selling point. unless you bought applecare you have a 1 year, and that aftermarket drive most likely has a 3 year warranty.
iJon
Click to expand...
Not necessarily talking about the warranty. The fact that all my parts have been recently replaced means they have far less wear and tear than any other iBook 700. But the motherboard, after every replacement, gets a six month warranty from time of replacement.

Let me know if you guys have any more questions!
 
Its a pain in the ass to upgrade the iBook's HDD because you have to take EVERYTHING apart to get at it..

Took me about 1 hour to disassemble and re-assemble it. And yes, there is instructions out there.
 
noel4r said:
so, how do you upgrade the hd on an iBook? are there any instructions out there?
Click to expand...
ugh. It's kinda a nightmare... So basically... You flip the iBook over, pull out the plastic feet, unscrew a bunch of ****, do this and that, and ugh... it was annoying. I found some fairly good instructions one place, but I forgot them. I think I got the link at xler8yourmac.com though.
-Kev
 
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