It may or may not be completely fixed, though. Stay tuned.
UPDATE, 12:09 AM: The computer just spontaneously shut down, for no apparent reason, and now it won’t start back up again.
I’d been using it for a few hours, reinstalling all my third-party applications and such (because they did a clean install of the OS), and I was just drag-and-dropping some files onto an application on my Dock when — POP! — the screen went black. And I do mean “pop”: it made an audible sound, like maybe it had short-circuited or something. The battery was nowhere near dead, so that wasn’t it — and it gives you warnings before a low-battery shutdown anyway. In this case, there was no warning. (Well, no official warning. I did notice, as I was walking across the room with it a few minutes before the unexplained shutdown, that the screen flickered off for a split second. In retrospect, that was probably a warning sign.) Anyway, like I said, now it won’t start back up again. I tried unplugging everything and removing the battery, giving it a minute, and then hooking it back up, but… nope.
So, it looks like I’ll be returning my PowerBook to the Apple Store less than 24 hours after getting it back. And now I’m officially getting annoyed. They “repair” it, and within a few hours, it commits suicide? Not cool.
Oh, and they didn’t even fix one of the original problems I complained about: the loose plastic casing above the CD/DVD drive. They replaced more than $300 worth of parts (none of which I had to pay for, thanks to AppleCare), including the CD/DVD drive itself, but they left the loose plastic untouched! Well, they may have done something to it, because it’s not as loose as before, but it’s not secure either — it’s just back to where it was maybe six months ago, which suggests to me that it will sag again, and eventually start obstructing the drive again. Why didn’t they just replace that part? WTF? (This is why I originally said it “may or may not be completely fixed.”)
More urgent, though, is the computer randomly shutting itself off. Seriously, at what point do they throw in the towel and get me a new one?
UPDATE 2: The armchair diagnosis in comments is that the motherboard is toast.
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Categories: PowerBook Problems, Mobile Blog (Moblog)
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June 13th, 2007 at 9:30:48 pm
get a new one!
June 13th, 2007 at 9:48:46 pm
Ha, there’s a pay pal donation box on the left side of the site.
June 13th, 2007 at 10:40:23 pm
hey! i’ve donated before!
June 14th, 2007 at 12:14:31 am
pop == dead something on the mother board
Make sure you take it back in with the paperwork from the recent work, that moves you to the head of the line for any repairs, happened to me when i had gotten a bum optical drive, they replaced it but one of the fan sensors had wiggled itself loose during the repair so the fan kicked in far to often, nothing that woudl do damage, just kinda loud. They fixed it in under an hour. If you have problems in the store call AppleCare itself, they will make it right.
June 14th, 2007 at 12:26:09 am
your mother board is toast. Oddly this was a problem with first gen MacBooks–they would randomly turn themselves off–they were quietly replaced. Not sure why the problem is occurring now though. But yeah, as someone who has melted mother boards in laptops (there is a reason they don’t recommend editing 10 bit uncompressed video on a Powerbook with an attached break out box for IO to Pro decks, and Audio Video Reference and an external Cinema Display for 10 hours a day–something about running at max processor speed non stop–tends to exceed design specs–thought the machine did handle it for almost a year before it said uncle… the first time…) time for a new mother board–they’re good about it with AppleCare.
June 14th, 2007 at 2:36:09 am
If it makes you feel any better my laptop at work was on its 3rd motherboard before i got a new one thanks to a buyback program from the manufacturer, and Toshiba has one of the highest reliability ratings out there.
June 14th, 2007 at 4:30:46 am
I’d demand a new one from Apple.
I bought one of the gray 40 GB iPods just before they switched to the new color screen video iPods. I had the extended care plan so I was covered. It died on me less than 6 months after getting it. No problem….I have it repaired/replaced. It died again sometime after that. All toll, I think it died four times. The fourth time I set up a repair. Then I called Apple and asked for a person that I could complain to about the situation. I was pretty upset. This was going to be my fifth iPod total. I never had the same iPod for more than 6 months continuously.
I went off on the customer rep. although I probably did not need to. They sent me a new, updated 30 GB iPod last October. It has worked perfectly.
I think if you seriously complain about all the bigs and mishandlings so to speak of the situation Apple will make it up to you.
June 14th, 2007 at 4:31:55 am
bugs* not “bigs”
June 14th, 2007 at 6:37:43 am
Power supply? Did it pop or shutdown through the normal procedure? Did you try a safe-boot? (hold shift key down while booting up). Just making sure it is not software. How is the electric supply? Plugged in I assume–any lights on the charger? Did the battery get reset and not touching the contacts?
Or the motherboard. That’s an option too :-)
June 14th, 2007 at 8:41:58 am
it’s def the motherboard
the macbook pros are way overpriced for what you get….get the macbook…they upgraded the processor speed and you can bump the RAM up too…plus you will save some money for a few peripherals…or a new incase bag!
June 14th, 2007 at 9:10:09 am
Just a pesky question, but if the Mavbook pro is way over priced for what you get, what does that make the Dell laptops that cost significantly more for a machine that is configured identically and only marginally less for a machine with significantly worse configurations?
June 14th, 2007 at 9:10:47 am
and yes, a mavbook is kind of like a Macbook, only with a typo.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:30:36 am
MAC: “Hi, I’m a Mac.”
PC: “And I’m a PC.”
PC :Hey Mac, I hear you’re causing Bloy a lot of problems these days, what with the cover of your CD/DVD drive being loose, making random popping noises, and completely going dead on him. What gives? I thought Macs were the perfect machine.”
MAC: “Shove it up you ass, PC. I’m still way cooler than you.”
June 14th, 2007 at 10:02:16 am
lol @ jay
I have had Dell laptops before and they are garbage! I love my macbook…it’s fast as hell and small and light
June 14th, 2007 at 11:51:59 am
What gives? I thought Macs were the perfect machine.
Not perfect, just better. See my post about the PC laptop which had TWO motherboard replacements above.
June 14th, 2007 at 12:01:34 pm
Did it pop or shutdown through the normal procedure?
The former. As I said, the screen just went black with no warning whatsoever, and it’s been totally dead since then. No image, no noise, nothing.
Did you try a safe-boot?
No, but I will - thanks for the suggestion. However, I’ll be shocked if it works… I’ve had problems with booting up before, which safe-boot solved, but I’ve never had a situation where the machine is just totally unresponsive, like it’s dead. That’s what’s happening here.
Plugged in I assume–any lights on the charger?
Yes, that was the first thing I checked. Four out of five lights when I pressed the little button. As I said, the battery was nowhere near dead.
Did the battery get reset and not touching the contacts?
I took the battery out and put it back in several times - no dice. I also tried starting it up with just battery, with battery and power supply, and with just power supply (battery removed). Nothin’.
June 14th, 2007 at 12:49:11 pm
Apple sucks!
June 14th, 2007 at 1:46:35 pm
Apple sucks!
I again point out that my Toshiba, the comapny which has the HIGHEST reliablity rating according to Consumer Reports had its motherboard replaced TWICE. A single incident of failure even catastrophic failure ala Brendans case is no example of an entire product line sucking. It happens. Machines are fallible. Whats relavent is how often it happens over all AND how its dealt with once it does happen.
June 14th, 2007 at 3:23:58 pm
David, my little parody of the Mac ads was just in jest. I hold no ill will toward Mac, and actually have been strongly considering making the move to them with my next computer purchases.
I’m a sucker for slick advertising, and a slick product, too.
June 14th, 2007 at 4:32:26 pm
My iPod died. Again. Three lasted me 18 months. I think I’ll sit back and see what else comes along.
June 14th, 2007 at 6:44:38 pm
USC1L, what went wrong with your iPod? Which version did you have? The hard drive based MP3 players (iPods, Zunes, Creative Zen, etc) are all quite a bit more touchy because of the nature of HD’s. If you plan on using it while doing any kind of physical activity like excercise more than on rare occassions i’d recommend a flash based version like the nano or the Zen Neeon