“Apple Computer has acknowledged that a problem exists with some of its Intel MacBooks where the notebook computers may intermittently shut down, but has vowed to fix those systems free of charge,” Katie Marsal reports for AppleInsider.
“‘Some MacBooks may shut down intermittently under normal use,’ the Mac maker wrote in a memo to some of its service providers this week. ‘If this issue occurs on your customer’s MacBook and the computer meets certain requirements, Apple will cover replacement of the affected parts under warranty,'” Marsal reports.
Marsal reports, “In its memo to service providers, Apple mandates that affected MacBooks be repaired with a matching logic board and heatsink set. This new logic board and heatsink combo part should be available to service providers by the end of this week, the company said.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rainy Day” for the heads up.]
“Some MacBooks may shut down intermittently under normal use . . .”
That’s a relief. It’s about time that
this defect was recog
Ampar, you are hilar
Oh My G
od
Thank
Go to bed you all
And the hits just keep on comin’
Note to Apple: get it right or don’t put it on the shelf!
Actually, this was what was happening to Kevin Rose on Diggnation a few weeks ago. Bad PR for Apple.
BTW, my buddy bought the first Macbooks (1.83) when it first came out. No shutdowns for him. I would think the majority of these books don’t have this problem.
Um, yeah… so we should be happy that Apple is repairing a defect for free (when it SHOULD be covered under warranty anyways!).
I guess we should be happy that Apple has informed service providers. The Apple store I returned my MacBook to knew about the RSD a few weeks ago.
Now if the parts would just get here!
“Um, yeah… so we should be happy that Apple is repairing a defect for free (when it SHOULD be covered under warranty anyways!).”
That’s the problem with intermittent errors that are unduplicatable; the failure somehow has to be verified and a fix determined.
When a small, but vocal, proportion of the MacBook users report this problem but it can’t be duplicated what is Apple to do? Repair an unknown problem?
What this report is saying more than anything is that they recognize the problem and have determined a fix. It is still covered under warranty.
I don’t see what the big deal is here. Apple is doing exactly what they must do. All of these machines are under warranty. So they must fix them for free. What’s the big deal?
More Apple quality control problems. This seems to becoming a habit. I hope, in their rush to take over the computing market, they’re not losing sight of what makes them desirable in the first place.
My macbook had this problem. I took it to the apple store in OakBrook, IL, and the guy replaced it on the spot. He even extended the warranty to a year from when the replacement was issued, instead of from when I first purchased it.
But “Reality Check”, I couldn’t agree more.
Sometimes you have to put blame on the OEM manufacturer for apple. Foxconn China makes more mistakes and sometimes the quality is lower, then when Apple was made by companies in Tawian. Just to shows how cheap labor can make products that are not to par.
This is yet another example of the internet echo chamber.
The MacBook has been one of the more trouble free product releases apple has ever had. A friend of mine that works at apple says that it has one of the lowest return rates of any apple product.
Seems like these days, if someone does not get immediate satisfaction from Apple, they put up a web site.
There is is a unusually high amount of problems with Apple products due to their policy of springing untested hardware and software upon the masses.
It makes Apple appear to be a luxury computer dealer, using inferior parts.
This problem has only gotten worse under Jobs leadership.
How many times must we continue to delude ourselves and make excuses for Apple to those who want to switch?
Take for instance the PowerMac G5 beeping power supply, did Apple fix it in the new dual core models? No.
Take for instance the Mighty Mouse, the worse mouse Apple ever put out with a scroll pea that goes dead three months later. So does Apple fix it? No, they make a wireless version using the same cheap parts.
Take for instance the switch to inferior Intel processors, are they really cooler? Have you ever cooked a egg on the bottom of your Mac laptop yet? It’s been done.
Where is the quality control? Where is the testing of new products in some remote location for problems like this?
Why is expensive Apple prodcts inferior?
Re: Porn Star
Ah that’s nothing, look at Mac OS X “Jaguar” and “Panther” – alpha and beta operating systems with all their exploits.
Apple doesn’t have a reputation for producing quality, just sexy limited products.
I don’t know about the internet echo chamber, or have figures at hand of exactly what percentage of MacBook owners have had these random shutdowns. What I DO know is that there are two Apple resellers here in Hiroshima that I have been to. Each has two MacBooks on display. At each reseller, one of the MacBooks is having random shutdowns. I don’t know why they continue to have them on display. These two stores are big chains in Japan, but they don’t do such a good job of displaying Macs.
So much for the vaunted high quality Apple design and engineering…
I have had two lemon notebooks from Apple. Won´t buy another Apple notebook. And what is most irritating is the wall that Apple customer service puts up in denying the problems. I don´t know how much time I wasted with Apple customer service until they finally attempted to fix the problems. (Two new keyboards, three logic boards, new processor in one notebook – each a separate hassle to get it fixed.)
It was as far as i can tell a pretty hard issue to predict. it was a brand new product from the ground up, new processors, new this, new that.
with new products youre going to get issues, I do think apple shouldve found a solution to this problem far far far earlier than they did though.
I went to the store asked to talk to a manager and politely but firmly said that i use it for work and I need to walk out of this apple store with a working macbook, having a refurbished mac just wasnt an option for me.
He replaced it on the spot and Ive had absolutely no problems with this macbook. It was dissapointing to have it happen, but apple did all I could ask.
just a hint of youre unhappy with an apple product and you think it s genuinely not up to scratch, don’t even bother trying to haggle with an apple genius or anyone else, explain youre problem if need be and then ask to talk to the store manager in a calm collected way, and say you would like a replacement. Go to the people with the power.
In other news, Microsoft announces that errors, inconsistencies, bugs, and flaws in Vista will now be renamed “features”. A Microsoft spokesperson said,” We believe that these new features will add creative and adventurous dimensions to users’ experiences. We eschew the boring consistencies offered by other developers and encourage our users to explore the exciting world of unexpected catastrophe, unintended calamity, and suspenseful expectancy. Vista gives the user the heart-pounding levels of exhilaration and spine-tingling anticipation not found in other systems.”
at least apple is willing to come forth and admit that there is a problem with a simple resoultion, unlike many other maunfacturers. this problem is a low percentage problem. most of the “other” manufacturers do not report issues until it affetcs many similar models and even then it has to be a large percentage of each individual model affected before they will confirm failure issues.
Apple should repair any problems with their machines under warranty, no one is disputing that. As I see it, they’ve had a vocal minority reporting problems and having not properly looked into the situation have been able to officialy recognise the problem and have acted accordingly. As has been said, if it’s not a problem that can be actively reproduced then it will take longer to diagnose, that’s a reality.
Apple get coverage vastly disproportionate to their size, the slightest thing is blown up into this massive story. A small number of people with a problem becomes problems with the entire line and accusations that a product is fundamentally flawed. Yes Apple are a premium retailer, yes they court publicity by the way they announce things and are secretive, yes due to their usual high standards we expect them to always match out expectations no matter how high we end up building them up to be.
Everybody has to get a little perspective, this wasn’t a massive problem, sure it would have been nice to have been able to announce a fix straight off but that’s not always possible. Apple have now done so and announced it accordingly. It’s not a big deal, they’re not being incredibly good or bad, they’re just doing a job.
maczealot
“In other news, Microsoft announces that errors, inconsistencies, bugs, and flaws in Vista will now be renamed “features”.”
Hey, maczealot, why the hell whenever there is a not-positive story about Apple you bring up Microsoft? What does Microsoft have to do with the engineering and design of Apple hardware.
Stop the B.S. FUD.
Apple screwed up again.
————
brian mc
“at least apple is willing to come forth and admit that there is a problem with a simple resoultion, unlike many other maunfacturers.”
Brian – check to see how long this has been a problem and how long it has taken Apple to make a move.
And could you please list the “many other maunfacturers” that don´t offer a “simple resolution”?
Witht the premium people pay for a Mac and that Apple constantly tells the world how it makes things better (they control the entire process) it should not have happened.
Too much Apple-bashing on this thread. Yes, there seems to be a problem with SOME MacBooks, a completely new product. On the other hand, my wife’s 3-month old MacBook has been trouble-free. Moving away from anecdotes, independent surveys find that Apple computers have the fewest problems of all major manufacturers AND that Apple is best at dealing with whatever problems there are.
BTW, it’s an exaggeration to state that Apple controls the whole process–Apple clearly controls more of the process than others, but these are not Apple factories. And the Apple price “premium” is basically non-existent if you look at comparably-equipped computers, as plenty of MDN stories have pointed out. When you add in the cost of much higher Apple R&D, it is clear that Apple is beating other manufacturers despite substantially LOWER expenditure.
PRETTY INCREDIBLE!
It’s OK to criticize when Apple screws up, but let’s keep it in perspective.
My black MacBook has shut down unexpectedly a few times, even while it’s been busy carrying out tasks.
It just does it out of the blue. No warning. No pattern. No nothing. One moment it’s on. The next it’s off.
I was about to contact Apple about it when I saw the TIL statement (they seem to be at a loss for words on this one).
Jake – “…independent surveys find that Apple computers have the fewest problems of all major manufacturers AND that Apple is best at dealing with whatever problems there are.”
Jake, to keep it all on the up and up so we can all cite them to friends, maybe you could list links to these surveys.
really – “And could you please list the “many other manufacturers” that don´t offer a “simple resolution”?”
i don’t think we need, nor is it appropriate to list names. the community of apple supporters here know themselves who the others are.
one “other” company for instance, my coworkers laptop had a severe overheating problem that was not identified until the third repair attempt. after numerous other models were identified to have the same problem, they simply posted a reply to a faq/commonly asked questions section deep within there support website. once we called and initiated the forth repair, the company finally identified a thermal pad upgrade issue and stated that there was a large ,cross model recall in effect. how large is large? especially when the only way to know about the recall was buried deep in there support website (for only one model by the way). this laptop was also registered and contact info was provided for future info/updates. i have found similar experiences to be common place with “other” manufacturers. i am not saying apple will be exempt from this in the future, but as for now, i believe they have a very good reputation for identifying problems and INFORMING people of those problems and providing them with a resolution. i am sure, that the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” rule applies here, but at least they make an effort to inform people and help them. maybe not all of the time, but certainly more than “others”
really – “Brian – check to see how long this has been a problem and how long it has taken Apple to make a move. “
ok, come on, how long has the macbook even been being manufactured? it obviously couldnt have been going on for too long. could it? the instances i am refering to are over a much longer period of time. should a manufacturer retool a factory and manufacture a new component just because a few people, within a few months of production are having a problem? no, but apple has. i.e. “Apple mandates that affected MacBooks be repaired with a matching logic board and heatsink set. This new logic board and heatsink combo part should be available to service providers by the end of this week.”
case closed.
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/macbook-joins-the-club-of-igniting-laptops-199368.php
I am a new Mac convert. My very first Mac: a black MacBook, and I can’t even type on it for but a few minutes without it turning off.
Needless to say, I am typing this post from my old Windows machine…
I wish they could fix my mental random shutdowns. What were we discussing again? Al Gore, gun control, or Greenpeace?