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My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

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Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#181

Post by riffic »

robertlf wrote: post #127

As long as we're having a big bitch-fest here, I'll throw in my $.02. Other than expanding batteries, my laptops have generally been trouble-free. But the problem I do have is that the older my MBP, the slower it becomes when I upgrade the OS. When I upgraded my 2015 to Big Sur last year, it essentially became unusable because it ran so slowly. It now sits in my closet. Apple should stop nagging you to upgrade the OS…

you know, if expanding batteries were so problematic, why the heck does Apple glue them into the topcase?

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#182

Post by ubermonkey »

VERY misleading headline. The article makes clear all the costs were covered by AppleCare, so the story here is (a) he got a lemon, which happens in literally every product category and (b) the vendor stood behind the product and took care of him.

So I'm honestly not sure what the point of this post is. The only laptops I've had that have handled the high-travel workload I traditionally subjected mine to remotely as well as Apple were pre-Lenovo ThinkPads. The keyboard thing was distressing, but it happened entirely between purchases for me so I didn't directly experience it; however, a good chunk of the outrage over it was precisely because of how rock-solid the products had traditionally been.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#183

Post by GordonS »

lostlogin wrote: post #166
vondur wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt everyone would want to pay the extra 20-30% more that Apple would charge to cover this.

This is done for all items sold to consumers in New Zealand. A base MacBook is US $999 in the US and NZ $1749 in New Zealand, which is approximately US $1200. Your maths checks out. The tiny market, currency fluctuations and long shipping route probably factor in the price too, but our legislation is surely the prime reason for the cost. I absolutely love the consumer guarantees act we have here, and the protection i…

I think you're forgetting VAT, which in NZ, I think, is 13%. Not sure if there are import tariffs/duties to account for too.

Considering all these other costs, I reckon a 20% markup is great value for a 3-year warranty.

Like others though, I really all Apple products globally should come with a 3-year warranty - you pay over the odds for Apple hardware, and should get high-quality, reliable kit in return.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#184

Post by asdff »

TomVDB wrote: post #108
asdff wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just replaced the battery myself in my 2012 macbook pro and I'm so happy with my battery life now, the replacement had a higher capacity than even the OEM (that apple no longer sells). A full charge with a top off during lunch lasts me a full day now. I've never seen this computer run for longer than three and a half hours, now it goes for double that.

2012 MacBook Pro with retina screen here too. I've replaced the battery twice, and I've had 2 SSDs going dead, but other than that it's still going strong. I love the screen, I love the keyboard, I just wish I didn't cheap out on 8MB of RAM when I bought it.

Ahh I had the nonretina screen, which is even more repairable and I was able to upgrade the 4gb of RAM it came with to 16gb down the road.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#185

Post by asdff »

zsmi wrote: post #157
asdff wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine is the 2012 model before the retina display. Phillips head screws everywhere instead of the pentalobe. Open the case and you have access to everything. Battery can be replaced in 2 minutes. Hard drive in 1 minute. RAM in 30 seconds. Trackpad another 2 minutes after pulling battery. I even took out my optical drive and installed another hard drive in the bay since its SATAIII on that model. Then they came out wit…

Gotcha. That one did do significantly better. It's interesting to compare that machine to today's. 5.6lbs vs today's 16" at 4.3lbs. 2012 is 0.93" thick and today's is 0.64". I suppose, based on this datapoint, we can say there is something like a ~25% mechanical overhead for "repairability" then. "MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2012 Repairability Score: 7 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)." https://www.ifixit.com/Tear…

The old macbook airs of that era were still light and just as repairable too.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#186

Post by ubermonkey »

zzt123 wrote: post #42

I have a gripe with every Macbook Pro I've owned, and I've owned 4 of them over the last 10 years. They all lag when I type. I hit a key, and it takes a while before it shows up on screen. The effect is at its worst in Safari, but it shows up most everywhere else as well. Sometimes, I'll type a few letters or even words before they start showing up. Doesn't matter if I wipe the machine and reinstall, and Apple has ne…

Wow. Full time Mac user with a very, very high typing speed (consistently tested at 90+ WPM), and I have never had a keyboard lag issue with a Mac. Sure, I've had piggy apps -- usually web apps -- create lags, but that's happened on lots of systems, not just Macs.

If my Macs couldn't keep up with my typing, I'd have kicked them to the curb a LONG LONG LONG time ago.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#187

Post by asdff »

el_benhameen wrote: post #136
asdff wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switch to firefox, there are extensions to put tabs in the background so it feels lightweight whether you have 1 tab or 1001. All of apples reported efficiencies with safari just wash away when you compare it to the performance of firefox with tab suspension and ublock origin considering the modern web.

I just wish there was some interoperability with the tab syncing and password management features in Safari. I know that isn’t on Mozilla, but having to migrate the massive iCloud database of all my passwords and give up tab syncing to my phone makes switching to Firefox a hard sell.

What I did was switch to firefox on my phone as well. No issues with passwords in my experiences really.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#188

Post by Johnny555 »

ubermonkey wrote: post #182

VERY misleading headline. The article makes clear all the costs were covered by AppleCare, so the story here is (a) he got a lemon, which happens in literally every product category and (b) the vendor stood behind the product and took care of him. So I'm honestly not sure what the point of this post is. The only laptops I've had that have handled the high-travel workload I traditionally subjected mine to remotely as…

I wasn't mislead, his story is pretty much what I thought it would be -- I didn't think that someone would pay out of his own pocket repair costs that are 3X what the laptop cost to buy new.

I'm kind of surprised at the number of problems he's had, my 2018 MPB has has zero issues, despite a lot of travel in addition to bouncing around my bike's pannier on the way to work. The battery life is getting pretty short, but since I've been WFH for the past 18 months, staying close to a charger isn't an issue, no need to go to crowded meeting rooms where I can't plug in.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#189

Post by zsmi »

Diederich wrote: post #149
amelius wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put Linux on it.

Yup. I've had a lot of luck putting Ubuntu on older Macbooks for quite a few years now. Works quite well.

In my experience all software seems to slow down over time. Firstly, my expectations of "fast" change, but also all the various data structures a system needs to run grow and complicate. In addition we ask more of our software over time and run more of it.

For many, not even Ubuntu is immune. Hence articles like this:

https://www.techradar.com/how-to/how-to-speed-up-ubuntu-1804

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#190

Post by m_st »

robertlf wrote: post #127

As long as we're having a big bitch-fest here, I'll throw in my $.02. Other than expanding batteries, my laptops have generally been trouble-free. But the problem I do have is that the older my MBP, the slower it becomes when I upgrade the OS. When I upgraded my 2015 to Big Sur last year, it essentially became unusable because it ran so slowly. It now sits in my closet. Apple should stop nagging you to upgrade the OS…

I agree, same with my MBP at home. And I have the same issue with my 2015 XPS 15 at work which first was really fast, especially with Windows 10 and now feels slow for everything. Even though it is still running "Windows 10" (with Windows Update). Changed for the new XPS 15 with the new i7-11800H and couldn't be happier though.
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