Faulty MacBook - Replace or Refund?

I have to say I'm really disappointed with my 2-day-old MacBook. Virtually everyone in my campus used to say how great Apple products were, how stable it was compared to Microsoft etc etc... but massive kernel panics whenever I remove the headphones? Come on Steve J.
I don't mind the heat, the inaudible whines and moos or those pesty yellow stains on white MacBooks that can't be removed. I'm not a super stingy user that wants a perfect product - however I believe I deserve a laptop that doesn't freeze for a stupid reason.
I really like my MacBook despite its shortcomings but reading all those posts complaining about the product makes me think otherwise. Should I ask for refund or a replacement? Does Apple even give back a full refund?
Btw, for all of you potential MacBook users - here are some facts (based on my 'subjective' experience).
1. MacBook is cool. Superfast, smooth and the screen looks great. Without the kernel panic it's a more pleasant experience than Windows XP... the booting time is especially impressive: less than a minute. I've only had it for 2 days so I dunno how it deals with a couple of months without rebooting, excessive bittorrent use and other heavy-duty stuff tho.
2. It is hot. CPU temp hovers around 57-65 C even without a heavy load. Surfing the net for 4 hours then touching the bottom of the laptop will give u a shock. It should not be used extensively on your lap, seriously. Mooing and whining are minor issues compared to the heat. But I read that most laptops with 'the' Intel chip become very hot as well, so I wouldn't blame this on Apple.
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1 G RAM, 80 G HD, White.

Sorry your experience hasn’t been entirely happy - all I can do is counter with my own extremely happy experience as well as that of several others I know who have bought MacBooks. Remember, as much as we’d like otherwise, it isn’t possible for a factory to have 100% perfection.
In every day use my MacBook doesn’t get hot. Today I was sitting with it on my lap connected to the charger playing a game. It got a little toasty by the charger port but never uncomfortably hot. I’ve had the fans power up but I’ve never experienced the ‘moo’ - which I have heard on the Pro model by the way.
Believe it or not, my MacBook has been on 24/7 since I got it 10 days ago and I’ve yet to see a kernel panic - knock on wood. My only complaint is that Rosetta and I aren’t best of friends but since my Rosetta needs are modest it isn’t a major issue. And to repeat, this isn’t just my experience, of 7 other people I know who have bought MacBooks, only 2 were unhappy due to the integrated graphic. One traded up to a MacBook Pro and the other is still trying to talking himself into it.
Sounds like you got one of the bad ones - but I have good reason to believe that is the exception and not the rule. Don’t forget, people come here with problems so you don’t tend to hear people gushing about how wonderful their MacBook is. Me? This black beauty is well on its way to becoming my favorite notebook yet.

Similar Messages

Faulty MBP upon purchase - Apple will not provide replacement or refund.

I've had a problem with my MBP since day one, namely that i get the gray screen of death whenver I have my wireless turned on. I logged my call with Apple within the first 2 weeks. It's been 2 months now since i bought the laptop, ( i only figured out it was the wireless card causing it to crash just recently as i generally use an ethernet cable). I sent it away to an apple repair agent who confirmed the motherboard needs replacement. I rang apple and told them i am not hppy to accept a faulty laptop and that i want a new one or my money refunded. They say all they can offer is the repair. Surely that can't be right? Anyone who has earned of similar stories or can offer so advice to me would be greatly approciated.
Thanks.

Good luck with your replacement.
I had a faulty MacBook Pro and just returned it yesterday. My chip set was failing where the blue tooth was screwed up, the screen was screwed up, and the slot loading superdrive was messed up. The geniuses were very kind and helpful to me. They just swapped my old one out for a new one. Of course, it had been less then 14 days since the purchase (had it for 12-13). They said that wasn't good for the computer to start like that and took it back as a DOA. It may be worth your time to go to a genius.

BT Proactive Faulty Batch Replacement

Just had a random phone call from BT (presumably. Always on scam alert of course) saying that they have identified we have a YouView box that is from a faulty batch and they want to proactively replace it. An engineer will come in a few days to do the swap.
He said he must point out that we will lose all our existing recordings.
We said ok as it would be foolish not to as our box might just be a disaster waiting to happen. Pity about the half full disk of course.
We have been mostly happy with box so far, apart from the occasional YVM302 and known problems like fast forward sticking etc.
Has anyone heard of such "proactive faulty batch replacement" before.

Hi guys,
I can confirm we are contacting a small number of YouView customers about this and arranging for an engineer visit so that the box can be replaced.
@ joggler if you want we can double-check our records to make sure you're one of the customers affected by this, just pop your details into our "Contact Us" form which you can find by clicking on my username.
Thanks,
Stephanie
Stephanie
BTCare Community Manager
If you like a post, or want to say thanks for a helpful answer, please click on the Ratings star on the left-hand side of the post. If someone answers your question correctly please let other members know by clicking on ’Mark as Accepted Solution’.

Missing PCI serial port driver on elitebook 2560p after faulty motherboard replacement

Hi,
I have the following issue, after a faulty motherboard replacement on my elitebook 2560p with Win XP, I find a question mark in the device manager list reporting that a PCI serial port driver is missing.
Browsing device properties I can read:
PCI serial port - PCI bus 0, device 22, function 3
and
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C3D&SUBSYS_162B103C&REV_04\3&B1BFB68&0&B3
I've already tried locating driver without success in SP38312, SP45131, SP53918, unzipping the files and trying to locate manually the driver inside the folders with the windows driver update function.
can you help locating the correct driver?
thanks a lot in advance
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi:
Try this one:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=32...
Paul

Does Apple replace faulty MacBook Pro with retina in Asia?

I bought a MacBook Pro with retina display in July 2012. Recently my MBPr developed some issues. I feel like something moves (or slides to and fro) inside the Mac when I take out the computer from the bag and hold it in my hand. I don't know whether I have been able to explain the issue as I'm not a native English speaker. I contacted the retailer I bought the Mac from. They told me they can only change the faulty parts if there are any, but they cannot replace the Mac for a new one because Apple does not replace any Mac in Asia. The prerogative is only in Asia, Europe, Australia and the US. Is it really the case? If things turn out that Apple cannot make good on its warranty without replacing the Mac what shall they do in that case? Could you pls explain?

As best I know, after 14 days Apple will repair your MBP if it is within the warranty period for free. In rare instances, if they have not been able to repair it after several attempts, they may replace it. I suggest contacting Apple and ship your MBP to the for inspection/repair or bring it to an Apple store or an Apple reseller.
Ciao.

Anyone have their MacBook replaced or just refund?

I got my MacBook 3 Monthes ago and at the first day, the battery damaged. Then go to service center and get it back in few days.
Then the power adaptor "buzz" and get another week to have another. Just 2 weeks ago, my MacBook start RSD and I still can't get it back today....
Service Center told me that I have to wait at least 2 more weeks!!!
Only 3 months old!!! but half of its time gone to Service Center.... and have to wait longer... I am quite dispointed.
Just want to know if I can request for a replacement instead of WAIT, WAIT & WAIT...
or I can get refund...

Chances are that you won't get a refund, even if you ask for one.
You can ask to talk to a product specialist (or whatever the superior is to the Applecare person) and politely but firmly explain to them your situation and that you would really like a replacement machine. They may or may not go for it. They may say that if you have to send it in one more time, they'll replace it. Or they may just replace it. Either way, it doesn't hurt to ask. Sounds like you may be entitled to the replacement. But that's just my opinion.
Good luck!

Repairing/replacing faulty MacBook Pros

I've never had so much buyer's remorse after purchasing an Apple product. I can deal with the reflectiveness of the glass screen (I knew about that when I got it, afterall), but every time I see the light leaks and theater striping, or play Quake 4 and see refresh artifacts, or sit my MBP down next to my perfectly-good-but-useless-to-me 22" Viewsonic display because the Mini DisplayPort doesn't work right, I ask myself why I spent $2,500 on this machine.
Please post your repair/replacement experiences here. Is Apple actually fixing the problems, or just replacing laptops with identical machines that suffer from the same issues? If the latter is the case, what are you planning to do about it? I'm actually considering returning mine for a full refund and getting a desktop machine and an Asus-style netbook.

I ordered my MBP on November 5th, with all the upgrades and options. i struggled with lockups and black screen freezes for a couple of weeks or something before deciding it was a hardware issue and calling AppleCare. They took a week or so to decide what was going on, and when apparently no engineers could explain the problem they just replaced my machine. The second machine arrived the first week of December. It was cured of the lockups and graphics freezes (black screen of death) but the fabric inside the optical drive was not attached properly and the drive itself did not spin up to speed. They replaced it. I just received my 2nd replacement, making it my third since November 5th, and this one appears functional and great in every area except the screen. The screen has the light leaking, which is so bad that it distorts colors on the left side of the screen. This really stands out because the previous two units, for their other flaws, had beautiful screens that were lighted evenly and there was just nothing to complain about in that department.
Apple doesn't appear to be able to ship me a quality computer. I have been an Apple customer since the late 70's. Their computers were always perfect, never had any notable flaws in craftsmanship or function, and while they did break down like any machine or electronics it wasn't for a good many years. What's going on now I don't understand. I don't understand why I gave them all the money they asked for and while they do keep replacing, they can't seem to ship me one that doesn't have a deal-killing flaw.
I'm generally not really picky. Each one of these MBPs has had what I might call minor imperfections that I would never return the computer over, or file a report about. I have not made issue of any of these smaller things. But a non-useable optical drive, a freezing system with non-functional 9600GT chip, those are not something you can live with. That's the functionality being paid top dollar for and it needs to work. And now, to get a screen that is this junky looking.. Leaking light is one thing, but this leaks so bad that black pixels are changed to white or purple along the left side, and the so-dubbed "stage lights" bleeding through create a lot of color distortion on the bottom of the screen. It was the first thing I noticed when I turn the computer on because it is so pronounced.
The crashing of the first computer from the lockups that required forced power downs and boot ups destroyed a year's worth of photos and videos. I even had duplicate copies of each photo/video from my camera and the system managed to corrupt all of them irreparably.
I can't believe I have been saving and waiting years for this, and this is the experience I get.

2 x Faulty Macbooks!

I am just about to send my second macbook back and got a full refund from my supplier..
The first one I took delivery off two weeks ago, after about 30mins it became unbarebly hot, the trackpad kept freezing and it kept lokcing up and was generally clunky, I installed core duo temp, and saw that it was running at 69 degrees celcius and between 1 and 1.5Ghz, so my old G4 1.5ghz was faster...
I sent it back and got a replacement last Thur, and guess what... exactly the same thing has happend, it even marked my table at home I had it sat on it got so hot... anyway this one is boxed and I'm waiting for it to be collected, and I'm getting a full refund from my supplier.
I think I'll wait for a nice proved mac laptop before I upgrade... thank god I didnt sell my trusty Powerbook G4 straight away!!

69 degrees seems to be on the high end of normal. And it runs at lowered speeds to save energy and ramps up when needed. In this way, it's actually more intelligent that previous Macs. It should not be slower than your PBG4 unless you have less ram or you'ew running Rosetta-required programs such as MS Office or Adobe programs. If it's really clunky, bring it in to an Apple Store. Have then replicate the issue and they'll take care of you.

TO ALL 7690m XT LAPTOP USERS - PLEASE POST TO SHOW HP WE WANT A REPLACEMENT OR REFUND

Hello, I am starting this thread to show HP that we HP customers did not spend $1000+ for a giant paper weight. I purchased my HP Dv7t on Feb 6, contacted HP by Feb 9 to complain of graphics issues. I was told that there is nothing HP can do till a newer graphics driver came out (which never came as we were promised). I purchased this computer for one reason; to play games. In the past 3 months it has been collecting dust, while I use my older laptop to play games on the lowest possible setting waiting impatiently for the new updates.
The issue is HP's most recent Dv7t Quad laptops were being sold with a 7690mXT graphics card which is known as a gaming card. HP also markets it as a gaming PC. Yet I am unable to play Star wars the old republic, Mass Effect 3, and Battlefield 3. The games just crash. HP told us back in Feb that in a month a newer driver would come out, never did. Other issues are over heating, GPU throttling down fps on movies and games, and random crashes.
I read on formus today that HP achnowledges this issue and is now only replacing your Dv7t with their brand new option with the Nvidia GPU if you purchased your laptop within 21 days. I feel as a loyal HP customer, with a faulty $1300 laptop withing its warranty, only purchased less then 3 months ago, reporting issues 3 days after receiving it, the fact HP cant solve their issues, deceived in purchasing a faulty laptop design, advertised as a gaming laptop, the fact I have helped more HP Customers on their forums then their own tech support, that we and I deserve a refund, or a replacement, so we may finally utilize our computers. I have owned 5 computers in my life, never had an issue like this before, so [legal discussion:removed] they better do the RIGHT THING and give us our replacements.
Please post your issues so HP can see we were tricked into purchasing a faulty computer.
Thanks.

Kudos to all the gamers and other notebook savvy users for their posts about the 7690M and 7690M XT. In February, I purchased a dvt6 i7 quad core with 2 gb of Radeon 7690 m XT. I chose this notebook after reading about it on various forums where gamers mostly post. Not knowing much about computers it seemed the gamers knew a lot. I wanted a really nice laptop. with good graphics. I love visual arts and product design. I was thrilled to order this notebook and was assured by the HP sales staff that I was making a wonderful choice with the dvt6.. I got the 7200 hybrid drive and the 1080p display and looked forward to fast performance and visual wow. Because of the cost, over $1000, it was important to me the notebook stay in stride with future technical advancements for the next two to three years., at least.
I felt aggrieved when HP walked away leaving me alone with the 7690M XT. During the 21day return policy I hammered at testing the components. Lacking many computer skills,little did I know I had been I thrown into a radeon/ intel marriage, dysfunctional. at its quad core. Intuitively something about how the graphics worked seemed off. Calling tech support confused me more. Tech after tech told me I did not have an intel display adapter. I did not have switchable graphics. "Your order form only lists the Radeon card.!." I went back and forth with different techs with different takes. I imagined the techs were right , despite tne fact the device manager had two adapters, the order form trumped all.. One night I had this dream.
Intel: " Honey, call the driver we need to take Crysis to school."
Radeon: "Yes dear, but the AMD agency fails to update his license.".
Intel: "That's it, I will take Crysis since all you do is look good and make promises you pretend to keep." "Why didnt you call for a new driver?"
Radeon: "Call? When? All you do is takeover and run everything?" (Radeon huffs,turns red,and leaves.)
Inel: " Oh,not another black out, I am leaving you for Nvidia !"
I know very little about how a computer works I made repeated calls to tech support and was led down one dark alley after another. I have spent twenty+ collective hours with support. Reputably, I was told that I did not have an intel display adapter or switchable graphics: only the AMD 7690M XT. Last week my HP case manager mailed me an email with downloads to fix my graphics with updates from July 2011. Strange. I will have to investigate these updates as it seems I already have more current updates. The case manger insisted I do the downloads to see if my games play. The only other alternative he offered was to send my laptop in for repairs. I emphatically told him there were no repairs for the graphic problems because HP does not have a proper driver for the 7690M XT.
[Legal Discussion Removed per Community Guidelines]

MacBook replaced: does AppleCare agreement transfer?

Hi,
I had a number of problems with my first revision MacBook (3 replacement batteries, replacement power pack, faulty logic board, faulty bluetooth, cracked case, discolouration, broken bezel, stuck pixel, mushy trackpad, etc, etc). When the logic board and bluetooth module failed again, Apple agreed to replace the machine with the latest MacBook (released a couple of days ago).
I have just under two years to run on the AppleCare associated with the first MacBook - does this AppleCare agreement automatically transfer to the new machine? or will I need to contact Apple again to arrange? I'm hoping that I do not need to purchase AppleCare again but forgot to ask this question when I picked up my new MacBook.
Similarly, I recently purchased ProCare (as I needed the logic board replaced quickly!) - will my old MacBook be removed automatically from the list of machines registered to me? I think the ProCare covers 3 machines so obviously do not want my old MacBook to be included on this list!
Any info from anyone with experience in these matters would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks.

Many thanks for the info.
I spoke to customer relations today:
1) AppleCare
Two choices - transfer the plan to new machine and use the remainder up with this machine or receive a pro-rata rebate on AppleCare and buy new AppleCare (I chose the latter)
2) ProCare
Visit the store I purchased this from and they will be able to de-register my old MacBook and update my agreement to include my new MacBook
Relatively pain-free resolution but would have been useful if this process was automated.
Hopefully this will help anyone with a similar query in the future.
Thanks again for your help.

Macbook replacement looks used

Hi,
So I replaced my macbook AIR cause it had horrible AUO screen. My eyes were hurting and on 10th day I decided to exchange and try my luck with samsung. I got lucky! New screen is SM and it is way better.
But I've a suspision apple guyz gave me a previously returned item! What makes me believe this? Aluminum body has few barely noticable scratches. It's not worth headache and I'm not going to exchange anything. But is there any way to check this?
Box was sealed anyhow, but I doubt it's hard to seal it.
I bought it at Milan official apple store. But I still doubt them, plus they were not very kind with me, few of them quite arrogant and full of themselves. While I'm new to MAC, I'm a linux admin and I understand quite a bit about machines and OS, despite this I was treated like a dumb customer
p.s. I had to explain to them how to set monitor color profiles, and than explain that this wasn't a problem. 4 of them at my back shouting different ideas, but once they saw me traficing with terminal instead of GUI all of them disappeared

As with most hardware warranties, it may be repaired/refurbished.
See item (ii) from the warranty statement (http://images.apple.com/legal/warranty/docs/cpuwarranty.pdf)
WHAT WILL APPLE DO IN THE EVENT THE WARRANTY IS BREACHED?
If during the Warranty Period you submit a valid claim to Apple or an AASP, Apple will, at its option, (i ) repair the Apple Product using new or previously used parts that are equivalent to new in performance and reliability, (ii) replace the Apple Product with a product that is at least functionally equivalent to the Apple Product and is formed from new and/or previously used parts that are equivalent to new in performance and reliability, or (iii) exchange the Apple Product for a refund of your purchase price.

1 month old macbook air - No Refunds or anything in Thailand !!

I bought a 13th inch brand new Macbook Air 1 month ago here in Thailand and just found out a few days that a new model was lunched. I hoped to get it changed for free and went back to one of the I studios here in Bangkok and saw right away that the same book as mine (the new one it didn't yet arrive in thailand) was price reduced of about 8000 THB (261 US - 196 EU) !!!! But they have no kind of refund service or anything !!!!!
Not even Apple online shop in Thailand ! All they told me was i should try contact the online shop in Malaysia - but whatfore??
Isn't that a poor service here in Thailand? Iknow same case in the US Apple would refund at least the amount of the 8000 THB or change it to a new Model-or i am wrong? At least Apple did so with a Iphone when the new came out - In the US...
I am a bit dissapointed at these point and wish Apple should push such Countries to deliver better Customer service to their great products

If it makes you feel better, the same thing would have happened in any other country.

Customer has not registered their extended Applecare protection and now have a faulty macbook pro, any ideas

Customer purchased a MacBook Pro last January with 1 year warranty attached. They also purchased an extended 3 year warranty, which they did not register. This unit is now faulty, any ideas?

First enter the serial number here to check if it was registered.
https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
Next contact Apple at 1-800-MY-APPLE

Faulty Macbook with symptom: Two screens in single screen

I just got a defect macbook pro 15" from aprox 2007-2008. It is not possible to get repairs on warrenty, so I want to try and fix it myself as cheap as possible (as it is an upgrade from my macbook).
The current OS installation on the machine is Windows 7 (not with Bootcamp). Starting the machine goes fine(the sound and the gray screen), but when it starts loading drivers and checking hardware and such (not quite sure what it actually does) the display is split horizontally and not pretty. It is almost like a vertical interlacing gone bad, where half of the "laces" are scaled down, and put on the top part of the screen, and the other half of the "laces" are put on the lowerpart. So the display is split in half and are showed on one screen. Both of the displays are striped with blank pixel stripes from top of the display to the bottom of the display. The computer still runs fine (it has not crashed for the few times I've started it and tried some fidgeting) only that there are these twin screens in the single display.
What I'm wodering is if anyone else have encountered this kind of problem, and if there is a fix to it? Can this be an artifact caused by bad soldering or overheating of the graphics card ? Is it something that might be fixed with baking, or some other simple or cheap solution ?
The macbook has been evaluated by a store, and it said that a logic board switch was needed (kernelpanics and such). I don't see the reason why a faulty logic board would cause this screen artifact. So I thought that the store just found that a switch would be the simplest solution, and not thought it was worth the trouble to try to repair or resolder or something.
-Snuku

I did a "f* it, I'll just try" thing, and baked the logic board.
This solved the screen issue, screen is back to normal without any artifacts.
Have not checked if it solved the kernelpanics and crashes. Going to reinstall some mac os and hope for the best.
Hoping someone might have future use of this, to save a broken macbook.
-SnuKu

Anyone else waiting for a Macbook replacement battery?

My battery packed up on the 6th August and I rang Apple Care on the 7th August. They said that they would send out a new battery. After waiting a week I rang them again and the person I spoke to couldn't understand why it hadn't been shipped to me as it was in stock. He said that he would re-submit the replacement battery order for me. A week latter it still hadn't arrived so I rang again and this time I was told that it was out of stock and wouldn't get supplies until latter this week (24th or 25th of August). However, I just looked in the online Apple store and it says that it they available for 24 hour shipping. Is anyone else waiting for a replacement battery in the UK?
iMac G4 15" flat screen : MacBook 1.83 (Tiger) Mac OS X (10.3.9)

It took me about 2-3 weeks for a replacement to be available from the apple reseller. from where i am the apple distributor is from singapore and apparently there have been a lot of warranty exchanges. initially they said 1 week but it eventually got mine in about 21/2 weeks. well i just got it lets see if it works and lasts!

Faulty MacBook - Replace or Refund?

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