Macbook Pro Adventure 2008 – The repairs continue


Austin is a very interesting city. It’s the kind of place with great art festivals, countless high end shops and restaurants, and deadlocked traffic at 3:00 pm on a Thursday afternoon.

We left for Austin about 1:30pm and did not make it to the Barton Creek Mall Apple Store until 5:00 pm. The trip was supposed to take 1:48 minutes. We spend well over an hour in traffic just creeping along the road.

When we finally did get to the store, apparently they were running late too, because I was still on the list of upcoming customers. I met with an Apple Genius, who was baffled by the audio problem with my Macbook Pro. Two or Three of them each tried to guess what it might be. They even had me record audio in the store until I could recreate the problem.

After they were satisfied that I wasn’t making it up, they decided to try and replace the left I/O board. Nobody was sure if that would do it, but it’s the next thing on the list of parts to replace.

After we were finished at the Apple Store we stayed around the mall for a bit, and about 30 minutes later I got a call from Apple. Mark, the guy who’s been helping me since the beginning of this process assured me that “one way or another, we’ll make this right.”

I should have the Macbook Pro back early next week. Hopefully replacing this board will fix the problem, but I have to say, it’s hard to have confidence in this Macbook Pro. So far Apple has confirmed the “3rd Party Memory” was malfunctioning on it, AND the logic board was malfunctioning on it – that’s 2 of the most important parts of the computer that were bad. If the I/O board is bad too…then what on the darn thing isn’t?


Kossi Adzo

Kossi Adzo is a technology enthusiast and digital strategist with a fervent passion for Apple products and the innovative technologies that orbit them. With a background in computer science and a decade of experience in app development and digital marketing, Kossi brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the Apple Gazette team.

7 Comments

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  1. I have to admit that I am very disappointed with the MacBook pro line quality. This is really unacceptable level of quality from Apple.

    What about other international customers outside the USA? How could they get to do what you did with Apple Michael? and at what cost?

    Apple should invest more in the quality control process of these chinese machines. This is not the time for a bad reputation for Macs.

  2. @The Wizard

    I think international customers in my situation would have to keep mailing it back to Apple – although I do believe Apple would absorb the shipping cost.

    I agree, the lack of quality in these $2,500+ machines is astonishing – and very upsetting.

  3. As much as I love Jonathan Ive’s designs but I have noticed that eversince the introduction of the beautiful metal based Powerbooks (to Macbook pros) it seems that Apple’s line of portable have become quite fragile. I suspect that a lot of durability was compromised when they went for thin and beautiful.

    I have a couple of friends who had tibooks and eventually Macbook pro who seem to have some kind of issue after a year of use. Not acceptable if you are paying more then 2k bucks for a computer.

    I personally have a upgraded Pismo (and a Wallstreet Powerbook) and those things were built like tanks (or Thinkpads). I really wish that Apple would toughen up their designs a bit but with its obsession with “thiner and lighter” instead of “more durable: I think the only way you can get a tough Apple is to look at their desktop line. Sadly, those are not portable.

  4. As much as I love Jonathan Ive’s designs but I have noticed that eversince the introduction of the beautiful metal based Powerbooks (to Macbook pros) it seems that Apple’s line of portable have become quite fragile. I suspect that a lot of durability was compromised when they went for thin and beautiful.

    I have a couple of friends who had tibooks and eventually Macbook pro who seem to have some kind of issue after a year of use. Not acceptable if you are paying more then 2k bucks for a computer. .

    I personally have a upgraded Pismo (and a Wallstreet Powerbook) and those things were built like tanks (or Thinkpads). I really wish that Apple would toughen up their designs a bit but with its obsession with “thiner and lighter” instead of “more durable: I think the only way you can get a tough Apple is to look at their desktop line. Sadly, those are not portable.

  5. @micheal I remember that picture from your Apple Adventure last year hehe. Well, good luck on your Macbook. Can’t they replaced it with a new one hehehe since they might have some old stocks of your mac book stil lying around their warehouse hehe.

  6. @Sarah

    The Macbook Pro model that I have is the 2.16 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo version. I purchased it in Feb. of last year, and no – like an idiot – I didn’t get AppleCare for it.

    Since it was only 3 weeks out of warranty when I contacted them about it, they are fixing as though it was still under warranty, though – which i very much appreciate.

    I do, however, strongly recommend that anyone that purchases a Mac get AppleCare. I should have.