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Unibody Macbook Pro Woes

J

jsbarone

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 8, 2007
158
0
I seem to have the worst luck. I'm writing this on my third Macbook Pro replacement, and this one (2.8ghz 15" 4gb) seems to be the worst of all. Why?

Less than two weeks after receiving it, the left fan started making a rattling noise. We're not talking about a once in a while thing---it sounds like there's a card in the spokes of this thing. I thought it might go away if I ran the fans for a while, but it only got worse. I called Apple and was told that I was just a hair outside of the thirty day replacement guarantee, so I'd have to bring it in for repair AGAIN.

That's not the only issue---starting three or four days ago the computer would just freeze in the middle of something or nothing. I could be on digg or stickam, or listening to music, or just recovering from one of the freezes and it would freeze again. The mouse wouldn't move, screen wouldn't change. I couldn't make any input changes to it. Sounds like hardware to me.

Going with that train of thought, I popped in my OSX install disk and tried to run a hardware test. I hold D and it boots up to what almost looks like a DOS prompt, but isn't. Kind of like a black screen with an underscore in the top left corner. I left it there for about 5 minutes and nothing happened. I tried again and again and again. I also tried tapping F2 at the start up sound and nothing happened there either. I'm at a loss.

So now I have to bring in my Macbook Pro that I use every day for work, and possibly lose it for 6-8 days AGAIN (for the sixth time?). I've always heard and thought that Apple had GREAT hardware as well as software, but I'm really beginning to wonder if that's true.
 
jsbarone said:
I seem to have the worst luck. I'm writing this on my third Macbook Pro replacement, and this one (2.8ghz 15" 4gb) seems to be the worst of all. Why?
Click to expand...

Because you touch yourself at night?

Just kidding, seems like you have bad luck. Call Applecare and get it replaced again, or ask for your money back.
I don't think there is anything helpful we can tell you here other than "get it fixed" and "sorry about that." I assure you, apple has no personal vendetta to settle with you.
 
drewsof07 said:
Because you touch yourself at night?

Just kidding, seems like you have bad luck. Call Applecare and get it replaced again, or ask for your money back.
I don't think there is anything helpful we can tell you here other than "get it fixed" and "sorry about that." I assure you, apple has no personal vendetta to settle with you.
Click to expand...

I heard that having 4gigs of ram in the late 2008 MBP's cause problems. Id post the article if i had it on hand. Maybe it was on engadget.com.
 
I hate to suggest this, but the 2.8 is a CTO option and the stores don't carry them; so you'll always have to wait for them to be mailed/repaired/replaced; where as if you had a 2.53 you could just get it replaced in a store and be on your way.

I know a few people here did this, and I think it's pretty ridiculous that they've had to, but it worked out for the better. Apple did used to carry the fully upgraded models in their stores with older MBP's. So it's weird to me that they don't have a few 2.8's around.
 
It's crashed a few times today. I was looking in the console for some kind of clue, but I don't know what to look for. Any help? I'm going to bring it in for repair on Wednesday.
 
I've gone through a bunch of mbp 2.8 4gb 320 hd replacements due to problems. I did not have to send mine back because I asked to do a credit capture. They will email you a form to sign that states that if they don't receive the original fauly laptop back within 30 days of shipping the new replacement then they will charge your credit card the price of the replacement. I was denied this when dealing with a "regular" apple tech, but when dealing with someone who was higher up (I think) I was granted my request. So I would ask for a supervisor and request this. Hope this helps, and good luck on your next mbp!
 
You can also escalate to Apple's Corporate Care people. Just send a nice email to Steve Jobs and they'll take care of you. I had a lemon Core Duo MB that had to be repaired three times, so they upgraded me to the latest C2D MB for free after I asked nicely.
 
Tastannin said:
You can also escalate to Apple's Corporate Care people. Just send a nice email to Steve Jobs and they'll take care of you. I had a lemon Core Duo MB that had to be repaired three times, so they upgraded me to the latest C2D MB for free after I asked nicely.
Click to expand...
An alternate way would be to call Applecare and ask for Customer Relations. Basically the same people. They'll take care of you.
 
jsbarone said:
I seem to have the worst luck. I'm writing this on my third Macbook Pro replacement, and this one (2.8ghz 15" 4gb) seems to be the worst of all. Why?

Less than two weeks after receiving it, the left fan started making a rattling noise. We're not talking about a once in a while thing---it sounds like there's a card in the spokes of this thing. I thought it might go away if I ran the fans for a while, but it only got worse. I called Apple and was told that I was just a hair outside of the thirty day replacement guarantee, so I'd have to bring it in for repair AGAIN.

That's not the only issue---starting three or four days ago the computer would just freeze in the middle of something or nothing. I could be on digg or stickam, or listening to music, or just recovering from one of the freezes and it would freeze again. The mouse wouldn't move, screen wouldn't change. I couldn't make any input changes to it. Sounds like hardware to me.

Going with that train of thought, I popped in my OSX install disk and tried to run a hardware test. I hold D and it boots up to what almost looks like a DOS prompt, but isn't. Kind of like a black screen with an underscore in the top left corner. I left it there for about 5 minutes and nothing happened. I tried again and again and again. I also tried tapping F2 at the start up sound and nothing happened there either. I'm at a loss.

So now I have to bring in my Macbook Pro that I use every day for work, and possibly lose it for 6-8 days AGAIN (for the sixth time?). I've always heard and thought that Apple had GREAT hardware as well as software, but I'm really beginning to wonder if that's true.
Click to expand...

If you hold hold "D" and restart you should get to the hardware diagnostics (you don't have to use the DVD on the latest models). You get the black screen and prompt but then you should get a Mac OS 9 looking screen for the test. If you can't get to that then it sounds like you have a hardware problem, either a disk or motherboard most likely.
 
I called Apple about my laptop last night and made a support claim for my left internal fan. Initially, it was only slightly louder than what I would consider normal, but over the past three days, it's escalated to, literally, shaking my desk and sounding like a cat in heat. I noticed that with smcfancontroller (I think?) that at higher speeds, the left fan would be almost half the speed of the right fan, but at normal idle, it was about the same, albeit much, much louder. I was advised by Apple to stop using the laptop at that point and they had me bring it in to a local technician today (I don't have an Apple store within 200 miles of me). Hopefully I'll have it back soon because I need to finish my graduate school applications!
 
Here is a video of my first gen. MBP doing the same thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDjmYiUdybI

I was actually one of the first, to post that up and let me tell u....it's a pain in the @ss to get this problem solved.

My fan only made that noise whenever the GPU was utilized, esp. in 3D games. The harder the GPU was pushed, the louder it got. At the beginning, a small slap to the fan would quiet it down, but that was only a temporary fix.

I had to make numerous trips to the store and calls to Apple before I had this problem solved. My trips to the Apple store were mostly wasted because the problem was intermittent. Two of my fixes were from the Houston center. The first trip there, they didn't even replace the assembly. The second trip, they finally did something to it and it never made a noise again.
 
Quick update. I have an appointment tonight, and I imagine it will result in a repair. I'm going to be adamant about replacing the mobo and fan. I'm beginning to wonder if it's actually the airport card that's at fault. Intermittently over the last few days it's been turning off by itself, and I'm unable to get it to turn back on without a restart. The computer also crashes a LOT more frequently when I'm downloading something (it can't finish a Dreamweaver Trial download of 600mb without crashing.) I'm also going to make sure to call Apple Customer Service and complain about the quality control. I emailed Steve but I'm not sure whether or not to expect a reply from him. I guess we'll see.
 
my unibody MBP's fan begins making noise yesterday after playing 2 hours 3D game in windows... it's just 60 days old.... the fan will be fixed on monday.
how they gonna do that repair? replace a new fan or replace the entire mobo?
 
408 said:
my unibody MBP's fan begins making noise yesterday after playing 2 hours 3D game in windows... it's just 60 days old.... the fan will be fixed on monday.
how they gonna do that repair? replace a new fan or replace the entire mobo?
Click to expand...

They'll just replace the fan. they're both seperate and easily replaced with the new unibody design. I opened this one up when the fan began making noise and it took me about 15 minutes to open, inspect and close it total. it's pretty quick.
 
jsbarone said:
They'll just replace the fan. they're both seperate and easily replaced with the new unibody design. I opened this one up when the fan began making noise and it took me about 15 minutes to open, inspect and close it total. it's pretty quick.
Click to expand...

that sounds good, my concern is just about that... if that's just a piece of cake, i won't worry about letting them fix it up.
 
They're replacing it again. While this is good, I can't help but worry that I'm going to have more issues, and I can't help but be frustrated that it's taken me three macbook pros (so far) to maybe get one that works. You'd think these were XBOX 360's from the failure rate I'm getting.
 
jsbarone said:
They're replacing it again. While this is good, I can't help but worry that I'm going to have more issues, and I can't help but be frustrated that it's taken me three macbook pros (so far) to maybe get one that works. You'd think these were XBOX 360's from the failure rate I'm getting.
Click to expand...

Well, at least you can admit (as many Apple haters conveniently won't) that other companies deliver faulty products at times.

Look man, you WILL get another bad machine IF that's all you are expecting. I just got a Macbook Air and it came with a dent in the casing and it wobbled on the table. Obviously it was warped. I almost kept it because now that Apple's products are assembled in China I didn't expect to get a "perfect" one. I decided to send it back and stayed positive that the new one would be without dents, dead pixels and not warped. It arrived in beautiful condition.
I understand what you've been through but if you think pessimistically you will get exactly what you expect.
I look at it this way, the Apple retail stores generally have very good working machines and I don't believe for one minute they are cherry-picking each box to be sure their demos are perfect so a customer should have just as good of an experience.
 
My hinges were making a creaking/popping sound every so often, took it in and they couldn't replicate the sound so they told me if I wanted to exchange I'd be charged a 15% restocking fee, even though its within 14 days. However, they said to try to document when it makes the noise so they could replicate it and that I actually have until Jan to return it since it was purchased during the holiday period. Either way I'm not too happy that I may have to go back to the store.

My popping noise all started when i went to wipe away some smudges on the hinge cover and I pressed down and it made a pop. Now if I ever go to remove smudges there and press down on the sides of the black hinge when i move the lid up an down the hinge cover makes a pop sound (like cracking your fingers) - that quick and about the same loudness. Anyone else experience this?
 
bigdb11 said:
My hinges were making a creaking/popping sound every so often, took it in and they couldn't replicate the sound so they told me if I wanted to exchange I'd be charged a 15% restocking fee, even though its within 14 days. However, they said to try to document when it makes the noise so they could replicate it and that I actually have until Jan to return it since it was purchased during the holiday period. Either way I'm not too happy that I may have to go back to the store.

My popping noise all started when i went to wipe away some smudges on the hinge cover and I pressed down and it made a pop. Now if I ever go to remove smudges there and press down on the sides of the black hinge when i move the lid up an down the hinge cover makes a pop sound (like cracking your fingers) - that quick and about the same loudness. Anyone else experience this?
Click to expand...

Can you take video of it? I got my freezing computer on video just in case. If not try calling Apple and complaining to a manager. They should take care of you.
 
jsbarone said:
Can you take video of it? I got my freezing computer on video just in case. If not try calling Apple and complaining to a manager. They should take care of you.
Click to expand...

Not sure its loud enough to be picked up by a video camera. I also complained about teh F row keys and the lid gap and the "geniuses" claimed these are all normal features and if I wanted to exchange had to pay a 15% restocking fee.:rolleyes:
 
MowingDevil said:
Suggest they should include those in the brochure and ask why Ive didn't mention that in his slick video promo?
Click to expand...

I know its absolutely ridiculous. I can live with slightly crooked f row keys and slight lid gap but i should not have to put up with a hinge that makes a noise.
 
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