15" MacBook Pro (Late 2008) Hard Freezing & Apple Refusing Support

Question

Hi all,
I have tried installing Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Vista SP1 32-bit and 64-bit on my 15" Unibody MacBook Pro, and in all instances the machine has hard locked up / froze randomly, which can only be rectified by a hard reboot. Sometimes the machine locks up within 5 minutes of turning it on, other times it may be after an hour when browsing the Internet. Most times it will lock up when actually installing Windows - usually during the 'Expanding files..' stage.
The lockups happen even when simply running the basic Vista install with no other software, not even the BootCamp drivers. Installing the BootCamp drivers has no effect as the machine also freezes after I have installed them also.
Bizarrely, OSX works fine on the same machine. I am suspecting a hardware issue with the hard disk (bad sectors?) or SATA controller given the point that it locks up most frequently at.
I have reformatted the BootCamp partition on the machine a number of times now, and installed a fresh copy of Vista every time to no avail.
Frustrated at getting nowhere, I took my MacBook Pro into an Apple store to the Genius Bar on two occasions.
On the first occasion, the staff member dealing with me went into defensive mode as soon as I mentioned running Windows via Boot Camp. He stated that Apple do not support Windows issues and that I had to contact Microsoft. At no point did they attempt to diagnose if it was a hardware issue, despite it locking up during the Windows installation, which to me certainly points to a hardware issue.
I then called up AppleCare, spoke with level 1 and 2 technicians, but they basically told me the same thing - sorry, we don't support Windows, go and talk to Microsoft.
The second time at the Genuis Bar was a little more succesful, as I demonstrated the laptop locking up. The genius then repartitioned and reinstalled Vista on the laptop only to see it lock up 13% into expanding files. He told me that if I hadn't got a customised machine that he would swap it out straight away, however because I ordered online and specified the 2.8GHz CPU and SSD disk, I had to call AppleCare. He made a note on the incident report recommending a hardware replacement.
Today I called up AppleCare again and although the support technician was very sympathetic and helpful, after speaking to a number of departments he was unable to resolve my problem satisfactorily (i.e. repair, replacement or refund) and suggested that I write a letter of complaint to Apple Operations Europe.
He also said that my problem was down to a security update issued as a patch by Microsoft, which I can't say I agreed 100% with, but went with it. He said that Apple only support Vista in a configuration that was valid at the time of relase of the MacBook Pro's, and that they don't support Vista with any future updates! Curious about this, I installed Vista (non-SP1) and the same issue occurred.
Finally, I borrowed a friend's MacBook Pro and have been testing it side by side with mine. My friend's laptop works perfectly whereas mine locks up frequently.
Given all of the troubleshooting I have performed, including trying the same thing on an identical laptop with no adverse effects, I have come to the conclusion that this is a hardware issue, not a software incompatibility.
Despite all the above, Apple refuses to acknowledge that this might be a hardware problem. I don't care what the resolution is - repair or replacement - I just want a working laptop!
I have been an Apple convert since 2 years ago, recommending their products to friends, family and colleagues. I've never had a bad experience up until now, however this incident has certainly made me reconsider my view of the company.
Whilst browsing the Apple support forums, I came across a number of people with identical issues to those that I am experiencing, all without a solution or acknowledgement from Apple. I have included links to these discussions below in the hope that Apple might take a look and comment on them.
Topic : Possible total fix to late macbook pro 2008 random freeze ON VISTA
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8871096&#8871096
'To the person who still has these problems, replace your motherboard, by then I don't think it's driver issues for you anymore. I believe it might be logic board. My OLD macbook pro had a freezing problem, and i tried every possible driver, and then when I got them to fix it, they replaced the logic board and voila everything fixed. Have you gotten Apple to try and fix it?'
Late 08 Macbook Pro freezing in Vista 32
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8835411&#8835411
Unibody MacBook Pro 17 Freezes
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9355178&#9355178
Windows Vista freezes ramdomly since 1st day of use
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1963316&tstart=105
Help- Windows Vista Crashing and now not starting!
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1942596&tstart=195
MacBook Pro Freezing Up
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9226253&#9226253
There are many more discussions pertaining to the same issue on the support forum.
On the Apple website (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bootcamp.html) it states:
'Boot Camp supports the most popular 32-bit releases of Windows XP and Windows Vista. When you use either operating system on your Mac, your Windows applications will run at native speed. Windows applications have full access to multiple processors and multiple cores, accelerated 3D graphics, and high-speed connections like USB, FireWire, Wi-Fi, and Gigabit Ethernet.'
Boot Camp 2.0: Which versions of Microsoft Windows are supported?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1888
You can install the following Microsoft operating systems via Boot Camp 2.0 or later.
Microsoft Windows Vista (64 bit) (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate) on certain Mac Pro and MacBook Pro computers
Boot Camp: Macs that work with 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows Vista
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit editions are supported on certain Intel-based Macs via Boot Camp, which is included with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
These Macs support 64-bit editions of Windows Vista:
• Mac Pro (Early 2008)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2008)
• MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2008)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2008)
• Mac Pro (Early 2009)
• MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2009)
Clearly my 15" MacBook Pro supports Windows Vista 64-bit, and my understanding is that Apple should have tested this configuration thoroughly as part of the hardware development QA process. In order to sell a product advertised as supporting a particular feature, surely you must support customers who run into problems using the machine for the advertised purpose?
Does anyone know the configuration of Windows Vista 64-bit running on the 15" MacBook Pro that Apple supports?
Has anyone else had luck getting support for these hard lock ups?
Sorry for the rant - I'm just not feeling the Apple love right now

Answer 1

hi, good to know that other people also having problems with the late 2008 MacBook Pro.
I have the following problem which is definately related to the chipset. i recently bought the P256 CMFSSD-256GBG2D and the performance on mac os x was really poor. installation took 20 minutes from an usb stick. i thought the ssd was broken, but its definately not. i removed a 2 gb ram module out of my mbp and tada the ssd runs at full speed. i also put the ssd in a friends macbook pro 4,1 with 4gb ram and "INTEL" chipset and everything worked. after testing the ssd in nearly 8 different systems, desktop computers notebooks netbooks, i definately can say, my ssd works, but not in my nice macbook pro. after opening a thread in the corsair forum, which also got me no positive feedback, i called the hotline here in germany. the guy on the phone said "i will take care of the problem", after 40 minutes on line, getting no answer, i hung up.
and to make things clear, my macbook runs fine with 4gb ram and a normal hdd on mac os x 10.5.7 and windows xp sp3.
here is the link to the corsair forum:
http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=78579
i think the nvidia chipset was not a good option for apple.
a frustrated apple user