"JGrabowMSt" (jgrabowmst)
05/08/2015 at 22:37 • Filed to: warranty
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"JGrabowMSt" (jgrabowmst)
05/08/2015 at 22:37 • Filed to: warranty | 5
| 13 |
My early 2011 MacBook Pro 15” with hi-res matte finish screen is eligible for a free replacement Logic Board!
I have said many times I wont fix it if it broke, well, I am not! Apple is. 3 years out of warranty, because it failed a graphics test in store, its automatically covered. I was told it was a replacement program that may be ending soon, theres no way to know for sure. Luckily however, mine is totally covered. I can be convinced to replace the battery at this point, but Im not paying Apple to do that.
Also, because I refuse to be a statistic, I removed my hard drive, and have it on my desk. I needed my Virtual Machine for work and I dont want some random person going through, or potentially deleting any of my work data, passwords, or anything else. I know how to break into an Apple in under 5 minutes with only a mouse and keyboard, so I certainly dont trust random people with it.
Color me very pleased. I expected to hear I was out of luck and it was going to cost me hundreds to fix. Now I can dedicate that $500 odd to the Magnum.
Expect a HEMIWagon Project Log update very soon!
dr861
> JGrabowMSt
05/08/2015 at 22:44 |
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This is actually true about earlier Macbook Pros. I have a 2006 and it was failing around 2010. I took it in to see if I can do anything about it, and eureka! Even though I was WELL beyond warranty, they said the Nvidia components were recalled and they would replace them for free!! It’s now 2015 and guess what I’m typing this comment on.
Patrick Nichols
> JGrabowMSt
05/08/2015 at 22:47 |
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I know how to break into an Apple in under 5 minutes with only a mouse and keyboard
Huh, I always thought a keyboard or mouse would break before the metal case on my mbp. /s
In all seriousness though I had my whole mbp replaced a week after i got it in 2011 because I had left it on my bed when I went on vacation and the skylight above decided to leak like a sieve. Apple saw the water damage and told me I had a $1300 paper weight. Thank god for the 30 day insurance anything bought over a grand with an Amex card gets.
ttyymmnn
> JGrabowMSt
05/08/2015 at 22:48 |
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Are you getting a brand new one in a box, or a refurb? I had a similar issue with an OOW iPod Touch. When I showed them what it was doing, they simply replaced it. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t cost the company much, and it’s just good customer service.
deekster_caddy
> JGrabowMSt
05/08/2015 at 22:53 |
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I’m the only person I know with an ‘11 MBP that hasn’t had a single hardware problem. I did have the battery replaced (work pays for it) but it’s been solid as a rock and still games well too. I did a few upgrades last year, 16GB RAM and an SSD, totally worth it. I can play payday2 in Steam (bootcamp, windows) at full resolution without a problem...
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JGrabowMSt
> deekster_caddy
05/08/2015 at 23:14 |
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This is the very first time Ive had any trouble with my machine. Ill cut it some slack though, it was used for 3 years of college audio and video editing, TONS of photo editing, video recording (I have video capture gear as well as audio equipment), and the thing hasnt skipped a beat yet.
I was at work running a virtual machine for our inventory software and it just crashed in the middle of doing some management and never booted back up. The battery has a ton of cycles on it, Im not shy about running it way down, Ive dont plenty of rendering on battery, so its seen lots of serious usage.
Luckily, it will get a new logic board and it will go back to being my workhorse. The combination of having Firewire and Thunderbolt along with USB ports, audio line in and SD slot on the same side is an unbeatable combo. I would never be able to replace the functionality of this computer, and that makes me glad I can get it fixed. It isnt that its an Apple, its that its an incredible combination of IO that you simply cant get anymore. Literally only the 2011 models had all these ports, but no other year. Wouldnt give it up. I nearly got a System76, but they dont have Thunderbolt still.
Also with the new logic board, Im more tempted to put a bluray drive into it. I already have 16gb of RAM and have for quite some time. I still rock the 750gb drive, but may put in a 240gb SSD soon. Just hard with a 50gb virtual machine, I dont like stuffing that on an SSD. I moved it to my temporary work laptop and am already having trouble with it. File sizes that large are tough to manage on an SSD, and I need an optical drive too often to replace it with a hard drive.
Just how life is. I may just get a thunderbolt enclosure for the VM, but being that thunderbolt isnt very wildly used, its hard to dedicate that money to something that may not get used much.
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JGrabowMSt
> ttyymmnn
05/08/2015 at 23:19 |
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Brandy spankin new logic board. Im not getting a new laptop because a new laptop would be useless to me. Between being 15” amd having the matte finish display along with a dedicated Firewire port, a new MacBook Pro would be completely useless to me. I dont want a million adapters or docks in order to use my current peripherals.
But it gets another year of Apple Care just for this, so it will work out quite well for me.
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JGrabowMSt
> Patrick Nichols
05/08/2015 at 23:24 |
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We’ll just say mine was a lot more than $1300, getting it fixed for free was literally best case scenario for me. Coilovers, suspension bushings and new pads/rotors are not cheap. Especially knowing that a full custom exhaust is very close in my future.
TheHondaBro
> dr861
05/08/2015 at 23:25 |
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An Alienware?
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Patrick Nichols
> JGrabowMSt
05/08/2015 at 23:31 |
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Fair enough, my mom gets some sort of stipend/discount for being a teacher for a new computer every few years that she used for both me and my brother when we went to college. I’m hoping to put a few more years on mine.
Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy
> JGrabowMSt
05/08/2015 at 23:49 |
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My brother had the same issue with his ‘11 MBP, the Radeon chip failed, and needed a new board. The tech who fixed the computer replaced the (perfectly fine) hard drive, who knows what they did with the existing one.
Clown Shoe Pilot
> deekster_caddy
05/08/2015 at 23:55 |
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I haven’t had any problems w/ mine, except for the glass in front of the screen getting broken. That was my fault. I found an indy shop here in Austin that fixed it good as new. That machine is in service as my field laptop at work now.
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JGrabowMSt
> Patrick Nichols
05/09/2015 at 00:32 |
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If you have a 13” model, then it probably doesn’t have graphics switching. The problem I have is unique to the laptops with graphics switching, and the problem I specifically have is unique to Apple. I’ve never seen similar issues on any other manufacturer.
If you just have Intel graphics and nothing else, it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever have a problem like mine.
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JGrabowMSt
> Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy
05/09/2015 at 00:38 |
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The “Genius” that checked my laptop in listed my drive as 500gb. No idea why, but if I get the computer back with a 500gb drive, I certainly wont be complaining.
I had no idea about the warranty coverage, if I had, I wouldn’t have played stupid. I worked in a computer shop for 5 years, I was taking a really big swing in the dark by going to the Apple store and I got lucky. Had I heard some obscenely high number, I would be between fixing this and buying a new laptop (not all that much difference in cost) but with repairs being free, I’ll take it. It’ll have 1 year of Apple Care after this, and will hopefully last me another 3-4 years before I get something else.
A 15” laptop with an i7, 16gb of RAM, thunderbolt, firewire and an optical drive while not being super chunky or unnecessarily heavy is a rare thing. I’ll keep the laptop until it’s no longer covered, and then I’ll think about what’s next.