New Macbook PRO sold with faulty Nvidia chip
from an email I sent to [email protected]:
Hi Steve,
Just to vent my frustration, a quick note to you. Sixteen days ago, I took a deep breath and paid 2600 dollars for a new 15'' Macbook PRO. Since I come from the PC world, I spent the better part of two weeks getting acquainted with this type of hardware. This weekend, I did something that I had been wondering about for days... 'how do I switch between the installed ingraphical processors?'. It transpired that I had to go to the "Energy Saver" control panel and make a selection there. Funny thing is, I had never seen this option in this particular Control Panel, or anywhere else. I then checked the hardware of my Mac and lo and behold... only the 9400M chip was listed, no 9600 to be seen.
Obviously, I went back to the Apple store. Since I'm two days late in noticing this hardware failure, I don't qualify for the 'DOA policy'. Instead, Apple Technical Service offered me to repair the motherboard. This could take 'a week or so'. Or more.. Since my laptop is my workstation, I'm now scrambling for a replacement desktop at our school. I have this feeling I've been let down. I believed in what your products stand for and paid handsomely for the privilege. It now appears I was sold a faulty product and I'm treated poorly. It certainly feels that way.
Thanks for listening.
regards,
Erik Coolen,
The Netherlands
Hi Steve,
Just to vent my frustration, a quick note to you. Sixteen days ago, I took a deep breath and paid 2600 dollars for a new 15'' Macbook PRO. Since I come from the PC world, I spent the better part of two weeks getting acquainted with this type of hardware. This weekend, I did something that I had been wondering about for days... 'how do I switch between the installed ingraphical processors?'. It transpired that I had to go to the "Energy Saver" control panel and make a selection there. Funny thing is, I had never seen this option in this particular Control Panel, or anywhere else. I then checked the hardware of my Mac and lo and behold... only the 9400M chip was listed, no 9600 to be seen.
Obviously, I went back to the Apple store. Since I'm two days late in noticing this hardware failure, I don't qualify for the 'DOA policy'. Instead, Apple Technical Service offered me to repair the motherboard. This could take 'a week or so'. Or more.. Since my laptop is my workstation, I'm now scrambling for a replacement desktop at our school. I have this feeling I've been let down. I believed in what your products stand for and paid handsomely for the privilege. It now appears I was sold a faulty product and I'm treated poorly. It certainly feels that way.
Thanks for listening.
regards,
Erik Coolen,
The Netherlands
Comments
They're going to fix your laptop for free (as they should under the warranty). Sounds to me like you're being treated very well.
Yup.. I get a nice, rosy feeling about my treatment. I'm sure you would feel the same. I only hope that quality control hasn't slipped up elsewhere as well. Ah well... I'll find out soon enough, once I get it back. Not sure when that'll be, though... nor is Apple.
This is a hardware problem and it's being repaired under warranty for an issue you didn't check for over 2 weeks. That's standard with a lot of companies though they will maybe do 30 day returns.
Before sending an email to sjobs, consider what response you expect. Will he send through an order to somehow make the engineer fixing it work faster? Repair jobs like that take time. It would be great if Apple had a 24-hour repair policy but how feasible would it be to implement that kind of system?
Apple will know what times they can do repairs in - they won't be going deliberately slowly. It is frustrating when it happens to you and in that frustration it's easy to fire off an email to 'the manager' but what else could Apple do to make the situation any better?
Even if they extend the DOA return time, some people will complain that they are only a couple of days outside that limit.
The more people who abuse Steve's inbox, the less effective it will be when dealing with real problems.
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In the real world, people get annoyed when they fork out more than 2000 dollars for hardware they depend on for a living and end up having to return it to the repair shop within weeks. The uncertainty about how long all this 'repairing' will take does not help things either.
Should I have checked everything within two weeks after purchase? You bet. Should I have checked it in the shop, right there on the counter? That would have been smarter still.
Bottom line? I'm a bit annoyed, surprised and even angry with myself for thinking Apple quality would be somehow different. I guess I've had hassle free (PC) hardware for too long. Call me spoiled.
The more people who abuse Steve's inbox, the less effective it will be when dealing with real problems.
.
In the real world, people get annoyed when they fork out more than 2000 dollars for hardware they depend on for a living and end up having to return it to the repair shop within weeks. The uncertainty about how long all this 'repairing' will take does not help things either.
Should I have checked everything within two weeks after purchase? You bet. Should I have checked it in the shop, right there on the counter? That would have been smarter still.
Bottom line? I'm a bit annoyed, surprised and even angry with myself for thinking Apple quality would be somehow different. I guess I've had hassle free (PC) hardware for too long. Call me spoiled.
In the real world, people get annoyed when they fork out more than 2000 dollars for hardware they depend on for a living and end up having to return it to the repair shop within weeks. The uncertainty about how long all this 'repairing' will take does not help things either.
The uncertainty will depend on a number of things, it's always been a week at most for me. As Christmas approaches, your delivery times may slip though.
I agree that being sent a computer that hasn't been tested fully is not the best idea. I've seen computers sent out with dead Ram chips. Simply turning it on before sending it shows the fault.
The trouble again though is feasibility. Can they reasonably employ people to run through a standard series of tests before shipping every machine to a customer? They probably could but weighing up the amount of failures they get, it's probably more cost-effective not to.
Although, they do pre-install the OS so maybe they can do some sort of automated hardware check and flag problems before shipping. Unless the pre-install is done with the hard drives separate from the machine before they are inserted.
Bottom line? I'm a bit annoyed, surprised and even angry with myself for thinking Apple quality would be somehow different. I guess I've had hassle free (PC) hardware for too long. Call me spoiled.
I see this quite a lot in people who switch from PCs to Macs only to have magsafe adaptors fail, hard drives fail etc. Then they say well why did I pay so much more for a Mac.
Hardware like anything doesn't quite work like that. Paying more for something doesn't guarantee flawless operation. It just reduces the chance of encountering an issue.
The cheap PC industry works on the notion that using the cheapest combination of parts lowers the cost and should a fault occur, the replacement parts are cheap. The higher end market works on the notion that more expensive components (mobo, PSU, drives, displays etc) are less likely to fail in the first place.
They can still fail though. It's understandable that the disappointment is greater when an expensive machine fails. With a cheaper machine, you almost expect it but the issue to tackle is not Apple's QC but more so what is expected of them.
In many ways, this is why refurbs can be better than buying new. They are cheaper, fully tested and have the full warranty.
The guy should be swapped with a new MBP and problem solved.
It is a manufacturing defect and can happen to any product. I agree that good QC should have ironed it out. I don't believe the Apple products undergo anything more than rudimentary QC process and is quickly packaged and out of the door to be sold!.
For a premium product like the MBP, one would expect additional $50 worth of QC effort to really iron out defects such as these. My 9600GT is just perfect and very fast except for the additional heat generated which is normal.
My 9600GT is just perfect and very fast except for the additional heat generated which is normal.
:-)
Thanks for this post. So Apple does deliver the goods sometimes.. grin.
Yesterday, I called the Apple Technical Center that has my MBP ad asked them how things were going. Unfortunately, they were still 'testing' the motherboard. When I asked them when they would finish testing and order a new motherboard they answered 'maybe tomorrow' (today). Once they get the new motherboard, they'll do more testing. By that time I'll have been the proud owner of a new Macbook PRO for three weeks, one week of which it'll have been in some repair shop.
Yesterday, I wondered how much my MBP would fetch 2nd hand. Going back to a PC platform seems more alluring these days.
yeah, those ingraphical processors are tough cookies.
Indeed they are... much tougher than their graphical cousins. Much, much tougher.