TechPedia

Over the past few months, since the arrival of the Intel based Macbook series, there have been MANY widely publicized issues with them, including:

severe heat issues, with systems getting unbearably hot (MB and MBP)

high-pitched whining from inside the MBP

serious discoloration on white Macbooks

warping of the external casing and chassis

sleep and power issues

battery issues, including no charging, no detection and inability to boot when on battery power

The various Mac related forums and sites are filled with complaints and pleas for help. The Apple.com discussion forums are a mass of angry and disappointed postings.

I am sad to report, however, that this has hit me personally, also. My MBP was experiencing unreal heat issues, until a recent firmware update that triggered the fans sooner, and it also soon developed an issue whereby the system would shut completely down mere minutes after unplugging AC power.

Frustrated, I tried all the normal troubleshooting (zap pram, condition battery, etc.), but finally took it to my local Genius Bar. Without even testing or booting the system, and based solely on my description of the issue, the Genius went to the back and brought a brand new, retail boxed battery. He replaced it, booted the system and sent me on my way. It’s been trouble free since then.

However, in another instance, we bought a Macbok for my partner, AC, and within hours of owning it we noticed some bizarre video artifacting, slow performance and a propensity for losing performance at exactly 148 degrees fahrenheit. Without fail, it would slowly kill system performance and cause much anger and anxiety.
I took it, again, to the local Apple retailer. We booted it up, opened some apps, watched the temp rise and finally watched the system die.
The Genius asked where I purchased it…I told him the name of the third party, and he suggested returning it as DOA. He said the logic board was pretty much toast and the GPU was failing.

I took him up on his advice and returned the system. A few days later, I went back to the store to buy a replacement, since my vendor was backordered. I bought the same spec machine (2ghz, superdrive,512,60g). We got it back to the office and AC installed all his stuff, tweaked the system to his needs and preferences and even set up Parallels, complete with shared folders, etc..
He took it home that night, fingers crossed. Within a few hours though, he noticed that the menu bar battery icon had a red x through it. He popped into System profile, and noticed there was no entry for the battery. He unplgged the system and it kept chugging along, clearly using the phantom battery.
He started testing a bit, and soon found that the system wouldn’t boot without AC power, but that it would run on battery power after being started up. However, the system refused to acknowledge the existence of said battery.

So, the next day (the day after purchasing it), he took it over to Apple. The Genius poked and prodded briefly, and asked him if he had the receipt, as they felt he needed a new system.

So, in a 10 day span, we are on our third Macbook. The one he has now has been running fine for almost 72 hours. Things are looking up!

BUT…(there’s always a ‘but’), I got an email today from a coworker who mentioned that his month old Black Macbook was in route to Apple to have the logic board replaced, as well as to have the keyboard replaced, as his L key stays ’stuck’ when presssed.

In conclusion, wow…c’mon Apple! Let’s get it together! You’ve been on a roll for the past decade…get your act together and put some more thorough Quality Control into place. The market needs you, but the market will not stand idly by as our expensive (and beloved) computers fall apart underneath our fingertips!

Have you had a problem with your MB or MBP? Let us know by posting below. If you want, post your serial number (the first 5 characters are fine, as they reveal the manufacture date and lot).