September 20th, 2006
Bad Apples
Well, my less-than three month old Apple MacBook is playing up – black screen, flickering screen – not happy. And I’m not the only one who is not happy. I took into the Apple store, and after one week, they informed me that the problem was related to the dreaded Random Shut Down. This problem is affecting loads of other people to the point where there is a web site dedicated to afflicted, disgruntled users.
Apple has acknowledged that there is a problem, and the Apple store told me that the logic board would need replacing…. but that there is a 4 week backlog in getting the (now updated) part! more »
Well, my macbook is running pretty good at the moment. How did we ever live without dual core? Yes it did moo (http://www.moobook.com/) but the firmware update fixed that. Only problem I have had with my previous powerbook was a faulty hard drive after 2 years, which was fixed without problem under warranty (and not really an apple hardware problem). I did take it to the apple store and they said it would take 4 weeks (this was over Christmas), so instead I went to a small reseller and they ordered the part in and called me when it was ready to be installed (the drive wasn’t totally dead so I did keep using the machine for a while). Same day drop off and pickup.
My iPod’s centre button stopped clicking properly (still worked but the tactile response wasn’t there) so I dropped into the Apple Store in Ginza (http://www.apple.com/retail/jp/ginza/) and they replaced it on the spot. You can’t beat international warranties.
I’d rather have beautifully designed machines from a company trying to do something interesting in industrial design than a knobbly, bulky dell laptop any day (though my work Inspiron 9200 is the best I’ve seen yet from Dell).
Anyway, I appreciate that your experience has been less than fantastic but hang in there!
I also use a macbook myself and I can assure the fact that these are not really important problems.Those will be solved by apple technical team within days.