What model is your machine?
I feel like the MC371 series will be Apple's next recall. See here.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1338136/
He is in the minority. Most people check their email, facebook, eat something, read slashdot or a tech blog, look at the news, etc for the first few minutes of their machine being on before they get to the processor intensive work, because the processor intensive work is often intensive to the user as well. Video editing requires the user do something. Compiling code requires the user be coding something. Most people like to screw around for the first ten minutes on the computer before they actually get to work. Some people make a phone call or use the bathroom after hitting the power button. Most people make it outside the first ten minutes without high CPU usage. So, most people are not going to fall victim to an overheating machine whose fans do not turn on for the first few minutes of the laptop being on.
The few people who do blast out the gate, two minutes into their machine being on and stress it 100% will find themselves with a lot of dead Macbook Pros if it is this particular logic board. I have confirmed my findings on over 30 2010 15.4" boards at this time. The fans will not go on over a certain RPM until the machine has been on for a while, regardless of what the temperature sensor reports. I have an app that can run before the OS boots that stresses the CPU 100%, so in under 10 seconds after I hit the power button I can put the CPU at full load. It kills the board everytime with the fan plugged into the board.
As a repair shop tech, I don't complain. More work for us! If Apple foregoes BGA soldering and comes up with some proprietary method to attach the CPU to the board, I will complain then. I haven't checked to see if this has changed in a 2011 model.
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If he's killing MBPs with such ruthless efficiency I doubt a ThinkPad would fare any better. ThinkPads are the laptop of choice where I work and they're well made and very sturdy, but they're not ihatemymbp proof. Maybe one of the military spec Panny Toughbooks?
Oh and Target disk mode for the win to get his data off. If not, yank the drive and stick it in a caddy. It's not rocket science.
On a Thinkpad, the fans turn on based on the temperature sensor, not based on the amount of time the machine has been on. He likely would not kill a Thinkpad(or an older Macbook Pro)
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It never ceases to amaze me how after one or two (or three or even four) bad experiences with a company, the consumer vows to spend his entire life as a crusade against that company, despite the overwhelmingly positive experiences that 99.1% of other consumers have reported.
I had an ASUS gaming laptop with the 8800m that kept overheating (CPU and GPU), and it was eventually a known problem that developed with some of those models. Am I right to conclude that ASUS generally makes unreliable junk? No, I would be narrow-minded to believe that in the face of strong evidence to the contrary --since ASUS is consistently ranked as one the most reliable computer manufacturers.
Every company has made a lemon at some point or another. I'm as close as one can get to a Thinkpad spokesperson without being one, and I admit they have made some awful models. The fan on the T41 being one. Every major company has a few lemons.
I just find it interesting how many Apple has. heh.
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RLY. Half a dozen MBP replacements which were all faulty? If it was 1 computer this thread would have been different, but half a dozen? Was he using them in the shower? Did he power it with a car battery? Something isn't right.
I have a strong feeling he was getting to 100% CPU usage before the ten minute mark on each one, killing each CPU on each board as each board he was given would suffer from the same defect. Or "feature" , depends how you look at it.
