Thinking of getting MBP but need to start worrying about possible problems NOW

I have had my MBP for 18 months now with no problems whatsoever. If you get a lemon, Apple will replace it. If you are paranoid, purchase Applecare with it (I highly recommend doing so regardless).

 

The 'N' and 'C' keys on my keyboard seem kind of fuzzy to me, like the lines forming each letter aren't quite as sharp as the other keys. I've contacted Applecare numerous times over this problem and they claim that it's something which they can't cover. I'll be sending yet another letter today, and I plan to talk with my local district attorney later this week. I'll also be traveling to Washington to discuss the matter with my congressman.

 

I've had my MBP since June. I've had only two issues with it. Right after I installed Leopard (November?), my keyboard and trackpad would occasionally stop working briefly. Less than a week later, Apple released a driver/firmware update which solved the issue. In January, my battery suddenly dropped from 95% health to 40% health. I was on the phone with Apple for less than 10 minutes before they agreed to ship a brand new replacement battery overnight.

Both issues were minor inconveniences, but were resolved quickly. My display is perfect--no yellowing, no dead pixels. Lid closes flush.

Only major issue my office has ever had with a Mac was our PowerMac G5 Quad's watercooling leaked at the end of 2007, killing the logic board and processors. The same thing happened again earlier this year. Apple Geniuses at the store approved a replacement Mac Pro Octo. (Which, happily, works much faster on our batch encoding jobs ^_^)

 

I have just ordered a mbp so there'll be one less lemon for you to worry about.

In support of aquaman's righteous campaign to banish fuzzy consonants, I have written to Kofi Annan to see if he could step in to mediate in the matter.

 

Don't buy things expecting problems because if you do you will find some one way or another.

 

No problems with mine. I love mine. There are some genuine problems out there but there are a lot of "invented" problems from overly picky people. This isnt unique to mac, its EVERY electronic device. Thats what I suggest a warranty with any purchase. Its expensive at first but if you break it down year by year its not bad at all. About $10 a month for three years of coverage.

As far as lemons apple will exchange them, no need to be paranoid.

 

Recently got a penryn MBP, base model w/7200rpm. At first everything was fine but with continued use I noticed the screen would accumulate lots of dust and sometimes even smudge marks impairing my visual experience. I use my MBP 5 days a week (at least) and really can't afford the downtime cleaning the screen. Phoned applecare and they say it's my fault so they won't replace or fix it. C'mon Apple, get your act together! - you can't expect people to pay $2000+ plus for laptops that perform this poorly.

 

Seriously, you need a different hobby. I'd suggest collecting coins, then you can complain to the mint about all the scratches in the ones you get.

You should be aware of potential problems (like yellow screens on the 15") but looking for all the tiny nitpicks will mean you will never be happy with an computer.

 

more more more hahhaa

 

There seems to be a logic board problem which causes a high pitched noise. It affects all Penryn MacBook Pros. Unless you have a bad hearing or have constant ambient noise it will very likely annoy you. Also, it seems to be a design issue, so sending it in for a better unit won't help. It may get fixed by Apple, but I doubt there will be another revision of the current MacBook Pro since Montevina is not that far away anymore. In addition many people haven't noticed it so far, thus the critical mass for an immediate reaction by Apple hasn't been reached yet.

For more information: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=465864

 

When I turned mine on it caused a rift in the space-time continuum and the universe as we knew it ceased to exist.

It really sucks too because in that universe I was a lot happier and didn't nitpick every little thing to the point of not being able to enjoy it.

 

Thanks for this really great contribution to this thread.

 

Not sure when you are going to buy, but the are releasing a new model 31 days after your purchase. It's going to be both faster and cheaper...

 

Oh yeah, I forgot mentioning http://www.appledefects.com/wiki/index.php?title=MacBook_Pro

you can find lots of nitpicking issues there, e.g. swollen batteries, melting MagSafe adapters...

 

Likewise.

It's funny that most people aren't picking up the sarcasm behind the original post. It's a joke people. Enjoy it for what it is. Thx for the laugh

 

I see what you did there!

 

Exactly, hence my congratulations to the poster.

 

I did contribute, but I admit it was selfish. I only contributed to those with a sense of humor.

 

Oh! Haha, my bad. I was reading sarcasm in your post.

 

Wirelessly posted (Apple Communication Device: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I just returned from a genious appointment for that exact problem. One of them agreed to follow me home and wipe the screen as I'm working on it.

 

In order of how they happened.

My super drive doesn't read DVD's or CD's ~1/2 the time (doesn't grip the CD so it doesn't spin fast enough). I'm going to get this fixed while I'm in spain.

My battery was only holding 56% of it's charge and turning off randomly ~33%. Apple replaced it in <36 hours.

A few months ago, the computer wouldn't open. The button didn't press in. My frame is now slightly warped because of this, but once again I'll have it fixed while I'm in spain.

My Magsafe power light didn't go on. Apple replaced it in <36 hours.

P.S. What's a squeaky key?

 

The problem that has the highest chance that youll run into is the yellow at the bottom of the screen, it really is a gamble whether you get a good display or not. My replacment which has the same problem and will definetly be on its way back soon has a louder click with the touchpad, almost as if it has less cushion or something but it just seems louder when i click it than my other MBP's.

 

I bought a 15" MBP recently and am super irate....I just counted and there are less holes above the speaker on the right side of the machine. Unreal! I spent good money for this thing, I expect more!

Oh wait...disregard...I hadn't considered the power button takes up some of the space on that side.

I guess mine is okay. Granted it doesn't squirt chocolate out of the DVD slot which would be nice considering this is supposed to be a "pro" notebook.