Good-bye MacBook Pro; have a safe trip
After two trips to the King of Prussia Apple store, the MacBook Pro experience continues to erode. Each trip is 45 minutes, so I’ve invested 3 hours for the two there-and-back trips; a real productivity killer when you factor in the work I’ve lost due to kernel panics and application crashes.
The first time around I thought we had the problem licked. The second time, the techs found no issues. Friday afternoon, the system degraded again and I spent about 2.5 hours on the phone with a Apple support representative. He was extremely helpful and sympathetic, but unfortunately is as stymied as everyone else on the issue. He suspects that the Apple store techs never ran the Extended hardware test as that’s where we’re seeing the issues.
First off, thanks again for everyone’s many helpful suggestions and comments. I’m certain that it’s not an issue with my environment since that’s out of play during the Apple hardware test. For the third time, the hardware test is showing issues that appear to be associated with the memory, the main logic board, or both. Here’s the odd part: the test results themselves are inconsistent.
My support rep had me run the hardware test with every combination of the RAM modules in and out of the MBP. First we would remove one and run the test, then we would swap with the other and run the test, etc…. The results were interesting:
- The hardware test never failed when only one RAM module was in the computer. Therefore, we couldn’t isolate if one of the modules was bad.
- We ran the hardware test three times on the phone with both RAM modules in the computer. Two times it failed and one time it passed.
The outcome is that I won’t be wasting any more driving time. I received a postage paid box from Apple and the unit is going in for extensive testing and (hopeful) repair. This is the third time in three weeks that the unit is in for repair, and while some readers thought I might get a new replacement due to the three strikes, I ultimately don’t mind if the unit I bought is fixed to 100% capabilities. I don’t need a new unit; I need a working unit. I don’t expect to have the unit back for a week, so everybody cross your fingers with me that we have some final resolution. Maybe we can create our own "reality distortion field" around my MacBook Pro and trick it into working. 
you might actually get a new (or newer) unit. My iMac upon return was bundled with an additional 1Gig or ram and a larger HD
good luck Kevin! I’m with you – it doesn’t matter whether its completely new or not – as long as it works!
“The hardware test never failed when only one RAM module was in the computer. Therefore, we couldn’t isolate if one of the modules was bad.”
Sounds like a logic board problem. After all, every RAM chip has to be accessed by certain pathways, and those pathways are on the logic board. Perhaps it’s not your chips but one of your chip sockets? Anyway, it’s shipped off to the central service centre now, which I think is very good news for you. And BTW, you may well get a replacement system, anyway. I’ve read of this before: someone shipping off their Mac with an intermittent logic board problem and getting a replacement system shipped back to them. Basically, they’ll replace whatever is necessary to make it go away. If it’s difficult enough to pinpoint, it may be more economical for them to just swap the whole thing than to throw endless man-hours at troubleshooting it.
Good luck!
Good Luck!!! (Firing up refurbished reality distortion field generator in basement)
Isn’t this three strikes? Get a new machine!
So, does this blogspeak mean that the KoP Apple Store has poor support? If so, I’m off to the Freehold, NJ one…
I really feel for ya! If it is any consolation, I went through the same thing which I have summarized on my blog: http://weblog.techdad.net/archives/apple-support-saga-in-one-place/
The end result was very good however! Just be persistent!
Edie, I don’t want to write off the support resources at the K of P Apple store; in fairness, this issue has been sporadic and those are the toughest to diagnose. I do think that for the 2nd repair they only looped through the standard hardware test and not the extended one, but I can’t say that with certainty. Additionally, everyone I spoke with at the store was courteous and seemed willing to try and help.
It seems hit and miss with these macbook pros.
I bought mine online and havent had a single problem with it. I mainly run winxp on it and no crashes, nothing.
However, one of my clients saw the success I was having with using it as a pc laptop and bought one from the local mac store, they had very similar problems to what you describe. after a few attempts at trying to take it back to the store to get it working again, they finally gave up and bought a big, bulky dell.
After talking to me a second time and wonering why I wasnt seeing the problems they were having, they tried it one more time with a different employee and had the same crash problems.
I wonder if it has anything to do with getting it from the macstore or not. it seems like anyone I know that gets it online ends up with a good machine. They wouldnt sell restocked merchandise would they?
Good luck!
Man, I was playing with one at the Apple Store last night. Wicked fast. But HUGE!!
Hey, Kevin,
Just a thought, but this might just be the time to point out to Apple about your connection to this website and how X million people a day read your saga….
Who knows, His Steveness might just FedEx you a brand new MBP….
You guys on this website seem like the Guru’s of Apple Computers! I needed some advice, sorry if im talking off topic. but i really dont know who to talk to. I am a college student studing Graphic Design at UH. I wanted to buy a macbookpro c2d and was confused on buying a new or refurb, and if i really will notice any differnce in the 2.16 w/128 graphic card and the 2.33 w/256 graphic card models, and if i should stay at 2gb ram or 3gb. I will be using mostly adobe software, and will be ocassionaly editing video and using win xp or vista. Was hoping you guys here could help me decide. Thanks a lot.. its so hard 2 get good advice.
adam, I’m no Mac expert having only had mine for about a month but for video editing and graphic design you need all the horsepower you can afford no matter the PC. I would go with the 2.33 GHz with 256 MB of graphic memory and 3 GB of system RAM if you can afford it. You will appreciate all the power when you start editing video or doing serious graphic work.
Thanks, James….and any opinion on new or refurb macs? Some people say it is actually better to buy refurb because it is more thoroghly tested than the new ones. It also seems that there is some kind of rule that after 3 times not getting fixed apple usually gives a new computer, so eitherway isnt that a good option then?
Adam, I’ll let Kevin tackle that one.
I am experiencing this EXACT same problem currently; my work laptop was being upgraded from 1GB to 3GB, and no combination of 2 modules (Apple’s original 1gb and the new 2gb, any of _4_ different ones) works. However, any single module of any size in either slot is just fine and dandy. Talk about screwy.
Now to see if I can get it fixed without running out of warranty time and disrupting work too much, since this is my only work machine