August 30th, 2006 by matt
As I had hoped in my last post, my MacBook was indeed back last Thursday. I wasn’t able to pick it up until Friday, though, because they had sent it to the wrong Apple Store and it took them a while to figure out whose MacBook just showed up at their store. Fortunately, there are 4 Apple Stores in the Dallas area, and the one they sent it to is only about 5 miles away from the one where I dropped it off (yes, that’s a fairly high Apple Store density).
It turns out that they didn’t replace the logic board, as other people have reported as the fix for their random shutdown issues. Rather, they replaced the top case (the housing for the main, bottom part of the laptop, not the screen), the trackpad and the keyboard. I thought that was strange but the Apple Genius where I picked it up said that the case can affect the temperature sensors and that may be what was causing it to just shut down.
Well, it certainly didn’t shut down anymore except when I told it to, which made me very happy. However, as I started to use it the next day, I noticed that the keyboard looked a bit strange. The left side of the keyboard - basically the keys 1, 2, 3, q, w, e, a, s, d, z, x - were bowed out so that they would actually touch the screen when I closed the lid. The right side was similarly protruding, though not quite as much.
So, on Sunday I took it back into the Apple Store and they said yes, in fact the keyboard was bowed out. Since it was Sunday and they were busy, they couldn’t do anything to it then but they said that they would try to reseat the top case, as perhaps the repair center didn’t put it on correctly.
So for the second time in six days I dropped off my MacBook to be fixed.
The next day, for the second time in now seven days, I was impressed by Apple’s customer service. Monday early afternoon I received a call that my MacBook was fixed. When I picked it up that evening, they said that they had actually replaced the keyboard.
So I now have a new top case, which is nice because my other one had started to develop discoloration from where my wrists rested on it (another issue that has been reported on some of the first MacBooks), a new trackpad (which also had been warn down noticeably in the middle of the surface), a new keyboard, a new screen cover (my first one had a small scratch - something I must have done at some point) and only shuts off when I tell it to. One more very interesting thing, though - my MacBook now runs significantly less hot than it did before. I’m not sure if they did anything else to it, but I can use it on my lap without my legs starting to sweat.
All in all, I’m pleased with my support experience with Apple. They were very responsive, easily accessible (since I had an Apple store conveniently located near me), quick in turning around my problem, and they truly addressed my issue. I’m disappointed that I had to take it in more than once, but the whole experience of two repairs took only seven days, and I actually had use of my machine for about 2 days in that period. Not bad for dealing with some first generation hardware issues.
August 24th, 2006 by matt
Well, after buckling down and preparing to be without my new favorite tool - my MacBook - for up to two weeks, I received a pleasant surprise a few minutes ago. It appears I will get my MacBook back today!
I just checked the status of my repair on Apple’s support site and it’s been received, fixed, shipped back and is on the FedEx truck for delivery to the Apple Store right now.
Wow. I took it to the Apple store Tuesday morning (8/22), it was obviously sent overnight and arrived at the Apple repair center Wednesday morning (8/23). They fixed it on Wednesday and then sent it back out FedEx that afternoon / evening and now it will be delivered today. That’s a 2 day turnaround!
Needless to say, I’m quite impressed. Of course I’ll reserve final judgement until I get it back in my hands, but this is outstanding so far. I was preared for a long wait while it was shipped out, diagnosed, probably stuck in a queue of machines to fix, then shipped back. The earliest I expected it was next Tuesday, 1 week from when I dropped it off.
I’m not sure if this turnaround time is typical, but if you’re going to only do repairs at a central location and not “in the field” at your retail stores, then a quick turnaround time is essential to keeping your customers satisfied.
More when it’s back in my own hands…
August 22nd, 2006 by matt
Have you ever thought that you had a great idea for an application, but just didn’t know enough about development to actually implement the idea? Some creative thinkers and great developers in their own right have come up with a great idea on how to bring innovative ideas to fruition based on their popularity. It’s called MyDreamApp.
The idea is that anyone can submit ideas for applications - the focus is on Mac apps - and then the idea will go through rounds of judging similar to the American Idol concept. Eventually the field is narrowed down to the top 3 ideas, from which 1 winner is ultimately identified.
The developers who are heading this up will actually bring the idea into reality and to market, and the person who submitted the winning idea will receive 15% of the royalties from the app.
Phil Ryu, the co-developer of iClip, which just won the Apple award for Best Dashboard Widget at the recent WWDC, is the driving force and creator of MyDreamApp. The developers who will make the idea into a real app and the projects they’re currently associated with are Jason Harris, Shapeshifter; Austin Sarner, AppZapper; Martin Ott, SubEthaEdit; and John Casasanta, the other half of the iClip duo with Phil.
Some “celebrity” judges along the way will include Kevin Rose of Digg, Steve Wozniak of, well, computers, and NYT columnist David Pogue.
This should be fun to watch, so check it out and keep up with it. Also check out the TechCrunch and Digg stories about it. And, if you have a great idea for a Mac app, send it in!
August 22nd, 2006 by matt
Peril of perils, sorrow of sorrows, I’ve been afflicted with one of the ailments of using Rev A hardware. As
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Above is the first sentance of what was a great post - really. I’m writing it on a PC, however, via the web interface to my blog and apparently had some problems between my completing the post and it being published.
At any rate, the point is that I’ve had to send in my MacBook because it has been just shutting down at random times since Friday. By shutting down I mean all of a sudden it powers off instantly, right in the middle of whatever I was doing. By random times I mean anywhere from 1 minute after startup to 4 hours, but it has averaged about 20 minutes over the course of the past 4 days, and probably 30 different shutdowns.
There is some discussion on the Apple discussion forums about other people having this issue, and it’s apparently some hardware / logic board / thermal sensor type of issue. Most people have reported that after having Apple replace the logic board, the problem has gone away.
So, I’m without my Mac for 5-10 business days. Ouch.
I’ll keep you all updated on the progress.
