Quantum Forest logs are written by Luis A. Apiolaza in Christchurch, New Zealand.
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It all started last week with problems coming back from sleep mode. The MBP would wake up for a few seconds and then shutdown completely. It was an annoyance, but given that I was still teaching and preparing lectures using the laptop, I just kept going. Last Monday 19th September it was happening often enough that I sent an email to the University’s IT support, for which I received an automatic reply on Tuesday saying ‘we got your message’.
Yesterday, Wednesday 21th September, the computer just ‘died’ four hours before my last lecture for STAT220. I would turn on and then shutdown almost immediately. I had prepared the last lecture at home, without a chance for the automatic network backup that I get at work. Therefore, I spent the last few hours franctically trying to recreate the lecture (in PowerPoint rather than Keynote) in a borrowed HP laptop. Not the best final lecture, but at least a decent end for my participation on the course.
Marcela dropped the laptop at MagnumMac, the authorised Mac reseller in Christchurch. We were presented with the following options: for normal guarantee work (which certainly was this case) I would need to wait until next week so the technicians had a look at the computer. That is, waiting at least from Wednesday until Monday so someone would touch the computer, not even repair it. The option: spend NZ$75 so the technicians would put my computer at the front of the queue—skipping another 14 computers—and start diagnosing the problem. Not having the computer is certainly worth much more than $75 per day for me, so I decided to pay, but the whole system sounds wrong:
Apple has not found the problem yet: I was told—after I called a couple of times—that they have reproduced the problem but that they are still trying to figure out what is its cause. Once that happens, it will take several days for me to get back my computer (tomorrow is Friday already): normally they order the parts from Australia, which may take several days, even weeks.
This is the second time that my computer goes back to Apple: the first time was a battery problem (before the big battery recall). It has been very disappointing to have these problems, particularly when they seem to be so common place.
By the way, I am still waiting to receive an email written by humans from the University’s IT support.
PS. 2006-09-27: I received my laptop back on Monday 25th. Apple’s technician explained to me that they were able to replicate the problem but not to pinpoint the cause. They replaced 512MB of third party RAM for Apple brand and that seems to have temporarily fixed the problem. Today I had a shutdown when running on battery (with supposedly 67% of charge). It may be that the battery needs calibration; however, it may also be the same problem coming back. We’ll see.
PS. 2006-09-28. Random shutdowns are back. Called tech support and they will order the next potentially problematic part.
PS. 2006-10-05. The left I/O board was replaced on Monday 2nd October, got the computer back yesterday and it failed again tonight. I am returning it tomorrow and will ask for a replacement computer. The issue is now how to get a bit over 10GB of data backed up (mostly the multimedia part, the rest—around 2GB—is already safely stored in our network), while the computer is working. If it is not possible, we will need to access the hard drive from somewhere else.
PS. 2006-10-10. I received a new Macbook Pro, which did not present any of the problems of the previous one. Annoyances aside, I received a faster computer (2GHz instead of 1.86GHz) and I used the opportunity to upgrade RAM from 1Gb to 1.5GB. All in all, I am a lot happier with the new computer. Apple was not very keen on exchanging the computer, but I refused to accept back the old one. At least some times it pays to be a real pain in the butt.
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