Quality control issues with new PowerBooks...particularly the 15"? - Page 6

You guys (and gals) have me scared ****less. I was gonne order my first Mac right after Panther was released but now I'm gonna have to wait. And that waiting is killing me. I can't leave these boards... Please God why?

maybe you can buy some nice stuff with your name on it
to enjoy yourself while you're waiting for rev b.

Actually my name is Gabriel. But thanks for the tip!

My Powerbook 15 1.25 has been with the dealer for three days now waiting for a new display. They are all on back order according to Apple.

yup, just spoke to AppleCare after mine went back again 7 days ago and they said it's awaiting the LCD.

I registered a complaint.

Welcome to liability hell.

See, the best thing for Apple to do with the legal climate as it is is pretend innocence while frantically trying to fix the problem behind the scenes, and to withhold any formal acknowledgment of the problem until they have a solution in hand or imminent.

This is a rotten state of affairs, but it makes their lawyers happy.

I am very disappointed in Apple also. Kind of wish I had waited and gotten the 12-incher instead. I have absolutely no confidence anymore in the 15-inch model. I think the design itself is flawed somehow, and all of the problems Apple is having are symptoms caused by the flaw(s).

I don't think it needs to be that serious. I think Apple engineers need to figure out where to reinforce or modify the framework inside the lid so that it doesn't make contact with the LCD like it does and make those spots. Right now, they are just going to keep running through perfectly fine LCDs (what a waste!) to keep people happy.

This has happened in the past with compaq laptops and thinkpads and dells and they all survived...Apple will figure this out.

They (the engineers) need to take defective units and experiment and see what works in the modification and people will see white spots and send the units in and Apple may even be able to fix the situation without trashing the LCD.

It may be like when they figured out how to put electrical tape behind the keyboard of the Pismos to make them more solid-feeling.

They had 9 months to release a decent product. They released an inferior one. I have been to both the Clarendon and Tysons stores and all of the 15 inchers have one defect or another: white spots, latches, etc. In fact I have not even seen one yet that was perfect. Most of the people who are not complaining probably do not know about white spots. It is a huge problem.

EDS66, feel free to stop by and see my new 15" Al PB. There's nothing wrong with it. Everything works perfectly.

I envy you.

EDS66, it's not about envy as much as it is about luck. If you put your eye of detail toward anything manufactured today you'll find flaws if you really look at them. Whether they are computers, cars, televisions, recliners, even books. Nothing is immune. Apple users have a sharp eye for quality because we demand it far more than Windoze users. There are problems with any product line. But there are also successes. Keep a watchful eye and I'm positive that you'll find a Power Book that you'll happily call your own. One that doesn't have the defects. I was lucky back when I got my 600 MHz iBook, and I was lucky when I got this new Power Book. If all you did was believe that everything was defective all around you, you'd never get anything done. So keep your chin up. You'll find just the one you're looking for.

I registered a complaint to the AppleCare guy, but is there anyone/place I can write to have a serious moan? I feel like after 3 weeks (and continuing) without a brand new machine I deserve some sort of response/acknowledgement/apology.

I don't wanna hear about no moth*fu**in' ifs. All I wanna hear from yo' ass is, "You ain't got no problem, Jules. I'm on the moth*fu**a. Go back in there, chill them boyz out and wait for the calvery which should be coming directly."

You ain't got no problem Jules. I'm on the moth*fu**a. Go back in there, chill them boyz out and wait for the Wolf who should be coming directly.

You sendin' the wolf?

You feel better now moth*fu**a?

5h!t ya boy, that's all you had to say!

As a member of the Honda ST1300 Forum (motorcycle) and the Mazda RX8 Forum, any member of either of these forums will tell you I am no apologist for either of these company's. When something is wrong with my bike or my car I bitch and moan about it. Most members don't really like me because I pretty much call them liars if they don't have the same problems with their machines that I experience. I know they do in that their machines were built exactly as mine was.

That said, with my new 15" Powerbook, I've become one of those who claim to experience no problems whatsoever. I've become one of those guys I hate so much on the other forums! Really! No white spots, no popping lid, and a warm but not hot backside. How can this be? These machines are built to exact standards. As in any manufacturing process, some will get through that shouldn't. But reading this thread one would think its 50-50 as to your odds of receiving a faulty laptop.

Does it come down to a very small but very vocal minority or is this really an epidemic? Is there a working poll thread concerning this matter?

Now take this:

No new powerbooks 12" or 15" until end of November.

If they don't know about them it's probably because they don't see them

It's one of the few movies worthy enough to actually own on DVD IMO.

What a classic Pulp Fiction scene! Love that movie!

it is called mass production my friend some are great most are average and a few suck. I am having no issues with mine either. In fact how about a poll?

Wow. My father is looking to replace his old Compaq laptop with a PowerBook. He wanted to get a TiBook, but I told him he'd be better of waiting for one of the new AlBooks. After hearing about all the problems you guys are having, I think getting an old TiBook isn't a bad idea. I think the 1GHz model with SuperDrive is selling for $2000 now, a real steal.

Had the new top-end 15, but we all know how that went: shitty battery life and it turned into a torch. Sadly, I called Apple about the issue, Apple said it was a problem, returned it. Got a credit. Waited about a week and half. Purchased a 17-inch Powerbook...you know the new 1.33 one. It's great...BUT! It too turns into a torch at times, and I cannot stand to work on it after it gets hot. The palm area gets hot, and I'm just beside myself on what to do. I was contemplating returning it on Monday, but here it is coming into Thursday, and I just haven't made my mind up on whether or not I'm just not used to the heat, or whether or not the heat will deter my attitude in using it because it's too uncomfortable when it turns into a torch.

Meanwhile, I really don't want to return it and get a G5, because my master plan wasn't to get a G5 until they hit 3 GHz. Besides, I'm not really a desktop person anymore, ever since getting my first portable, the Ti400. It's like that old saying, "Once you go black you'll never go back." That saying also applies to using the 17-inch and then returning to the 15-inch Ti867 I still have. What a difference. I'm used to the 17's widescreen display, and I'm also used to the very nice keyboard. If I could only get over the fact that it gets hot on the palm rest, I would be happier than a pig in mud. I kind of want to what to see if Panther does something abou the heat on this thing, but I'm not too sure that's a smart move since I have until Sunday to return it to the Apple Store.

I originally was concerned about battery life in my new 1.25 15" Alu book. Since upgrading to 10.2.8, battery life has increased to over 3 hours. I have had no problems with the latch, white spots, heat, or any of the other issues in the thread.

IMO, this is an excellent revision. No calls to Apple Care, no problems. Thumbs up for me.

I was watching that stupid show "Becker" last night for some reason? Has anyone see the one where he is having a day where everything goes right for him, but he won't believe it? Anyway....

Macbippy is trying to time-line the screen issue with powerbooks by analyzing the s/n of machines. Some of you may want to participate:

http://www.hardmac.com/niouzcontenu....2003-10-16#803

The other news I had was that my machine is back to being repaired in Houston:



Let's hope that they found a permanent fix to the spots issue. I completely put the PB out of my mind, and I wasn't expecting it to be back in repair until next week, so maybe I will have it "early".

Anyway, back to Becker. My point in bringing this up was that I have had a seemingly horrible week: two of three kids throwing up, me getting sick, my wife working late every night, then going on a business trip today, and then last night, our "good" car started making horrible noises. The rental place only had a small car and a pickup truck, and I had to pay for the rental. And I have been stuck using my wife's 12" iBook to write exams and so on, in addition to using a Solaris box at work, and synching three times, twice a day to my linux box at home.

Today, my kids are great, acting great, I feel good, VW is going to pay for the HUGE repair to my car, and the small car turned out to be a new Beetle. Kind of fun to drive for a day or two, the kids love it. My wife is looking forward to driving it tomorrow. A small problem that I was having in my research has found a solution. And it looks like my PB will be fixed and back soon.

Oh, and soccer practice was cancelled tonight.

Apprarently the parts have arrived and my PB is under repair. Hopefully it will be back tomorrow . . . without any white spots (please!) and a new logic board.


-N

OK, cave, it's a race now.

Seriously, I hope our fix is real surgery and not a band-aid. We will find out soon, and over a couple weeks as the spots (hopefully) don't re-appear!

My dealer called me this morning also saying the display had arrived. They already changed the displays and are saying that the new one is perfect. Well, I will believe it when I see it.

By the way, the dealer also told me that the display part numbers are now showing "in stock" status. This probably means that the powerbooks that people have been waiting for are shipping also.

Mine is now "ready to ship", as of noon today PST. I hope that means that it was actually shipped today (I'm finding that the repairstatus updates run about four hours behind events). It would be really nice to get it tomorrow, but Monday would be fine, too.

Well, you've pulled ahead of me, even though they've had my unit longer (since 10/10). Mine is still "Return to repair." No hope that I'll get it back tomorrow. Oh, well.

How long does it take for some repair status to start showing up?

I keep checking the repair status page and my case is there, but clicking on the Case No. or Dispatch yields a page with nothing there. I called for repair on 10/10, and I sent the notebook on 10/14 (tuesday). I know I'm probably not being very patient. But I at least want some indication that it arrived!

I want my mac back!

And unlike some here, I don't even have an older less cool mac that I can fall back on :-(

-Spyky

Mine SHIPPED! I'm almost as happy as when it originally shipped on the 23rd of Sept. I could have it tomorrow, but I hate to jinx it by saying (typing) it. Too late, I guess. All my AppleCare returns have been very fast, so I'm hoping...


Spyky, if you look at my data, you can see that mine showed up on the repair status Monday, and I sent it in Friday. That should count as at least two business days, as AB works on the weekend. I'd think it would show up tomorrow. No doubt they are really busy.



Check out the Case No. History. Interesting ("Capture"; "pooling" --- this term was mentioned by some Apple Store employees).

Anyway.

Well this is truly amazing. I am on my THIRD Powerbook in as many weeks due to severe white spot issues (I got my second exchanged yesterday) and I can see them beginning to develop AGAIN!!! I am gonna call Apple and raise a little hell about this. I don't mind having to swap it out once or twice, but this is getting out of hand. I put down over $2000 for a Powerbook, and as a college student, I don't usually put down $2000 on something unless its worth it. And I'm not being overly picky, I can deal with slight white spots, but 8 on my first one, 4 very bright ones on the second one...we'll see how bad this one gets. I'll call Apple and maybe they can appease me with a free wireless mouse or something...but they need to do something about this. I might just wait until it is resolved and get it repaired under AppleCare. ARG!!!

Ugh. That is a dragopolis. It is also why I was happy for a repair, instead of an exchange. Gawd I hope that whatever they did was a real fix.

Is there anyway to tell your manufacture date?

I'm considering returning my 17-inch because after a while it gets really hot and is uncomfortable to use. I'm I nuts? (I know I'm opening myself up with that question!)

I'm back in the game! Mine is supposed to arrive today. However, I'm not hopeful given my remote location and the fact that it's Airborne doing the shipping . . .

I saw this interesting tidbit on www.macintouch.com:


Makes sense to me. It seems like manufacturers are no different than any other process --- things must be relearned.

I have no idea when my machine is coming --- the repair status page doesn't offer any shipping/tracking info.

Well I broke down and called Apple Support today to ask the status. It seems that the online status isn't working for me. When I say that it shows nothing, I mean nothing. There is a bar that says status but nothing below it. As it turns out, my notebook got there Wednesday and is aparently waiting on an LCD. I hope that doesn't take to long. It looks like yours took 2 days. It's been two days since they received mine already, although I suppose the status might be a bit delayed.

You know, it is really annoying when things like status or tracking numbers just don't work. I like to compulsively check the status, and I can't do that if I have to call all the time! Grrrr. Reminds me of Airborne!

-Spyky

Mine is here. Looks great, as it should. Some notes:

Apple put in a new Samsung screen.

By pushing on the back of the screen, I can see some of the same pressure points as before, namely #1 and #2 in that "whitespots.jpg" background image posted at http://macfixit.com. They are not nearly as pronounced as they were before (I can barely see the effect at circle 1). I want to stress that only areas 1 and 2 show such pressure points. I had all five show up before.

White spots are gone (they'd better be, eh?). I checked with the spot-checker background and the LCD tester. I am of course skeptical, and will check daily for at least a month until I'm convinced they aren't coming back.

The return trip was 16 hours, door-to-door. Not bad. My 'book is none the worse for wear: no scratches or other problems. My HD was untouched, save for the fact that the powermanager was reset (my date was 1969, etc).

I'll post if anything changes or shows up.