My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs • Hacker News Board

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

#191

Post by bobbylarrybobby » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:18 PM UTC

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…

Also have the 2015 and Big Sur was also a shitshow for me performance wise (no serious bugs otherwise though). Updated to the Monterrey beta and it’s back to silky smooth. No idea what they screwed up in Big Sur, but it seems like they fixed it.

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

#192

Post by masklinn » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:19 PM UTC

zsmi wrote: post #171

masklinn wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is basically the BMW of computers at this point. > it's a shame, it would be nice to go back to a point where there was more quality/durability inherent in the product. reply Apple has always had hardware reliability issues. The unibodies had suicidal GPUs (pretty much every dGPU model between the 2007 and 2013 had a service program at one point or another) as well as battery issues, the retinas had delaminat…

I don't know about always. Apple has been around a long time and apparently the MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2012 was a decent machine for repairability, according to asdff and ifixit anyway. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28305508

The older macbooks were definitely pretty good at repairability (though iirc you had to take the G4s apart completely to access anything, but the unibodies had easy access to most things, on the whitebooks I think the battery was even removable and that gave you access to the ram and hdd slots), but I was talking about the reliability (durability) not the repairability.

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

#193

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:19 PM UTC

m_st wrote: post #190

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.

[deleted]

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

#194

Post by spullara » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:19 PM UTC

riffic wrote: post #181

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?

To make the computer smaller and lighter.

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

#195

Post by Tarsul » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:21 PM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #155

jppope wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is the master of planned obsolescence.

I see people say this but I can’t see that it it true. This current lockdown in New Zealand has 2011 and 2013 Macbook airs in daily use and they are working perfectly. There is an iPad 2 in daily use also. Those devices have had hard lives. I haven’t got any other electronics with anything approaching this longevity (unless you count espresso hardware). Presumably others are having a very different experience.

i basically can't use my ipad mini from 2012 anymore because the apps in the app store usually need a newer OS version than possible. A laptop from 2012 with Windows (whatever version) wouldn't have these problems whatsoever. I know it's another device type but it shouldn't really matter, both are computing devices.

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

#196

Post by gambiting » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:21 PM UTC

>>Swedish customer support they informed me there was no way to get a repair outside of Sweden, since that’s where I had bought the laptop.

That's odd, I've had my UK-bought XPS repaired in Poland without any issue, just rang dell customer service and a local engineer came over the next day and replaced the motherboard on the living room table. It wasn't ever questioned that the laptop wasn't bought in Poland.

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

#197

Post by gambiting » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:23 PM UTC

GavinMcG wrote: post #168

jppope wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is the master of planned obsolescence.

They do a pretty bad job of it if it's planned. My '12 MacBook Air works great (aside from needing a new battery) and I can still boot plenty of even older Macs, going back to a Quadra.

I'll do you one better - I still have a 2008 MacBook Pro that I use daily, it works fine. Also a 7 years old iPad Mini 2 that still gets security updates. Yes, planned obsolescence indeed.

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

#198

Post by _RPL5_ » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:23 PM UTC

I am still using a MacBook Pro from 2013. The battery doesn't hold charge as well anymore (down to ~2-3 hours), and I had to replace the rubber feet at the bottom of the case, but other than that the laptop has been rock solid. I've never had any serious problems with it.

I am somewhat surprised there are so many people reporting issues with the newer models. I plan to upgrade to a new MacBook soon, and this gives me pause.

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

#199

Post by JoBrad » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:23 PM UTC

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…

My take is that the article is about this person's reliability issues with their MBP. Regardless of which party actually paid for the repairs, the fact that so many repairs/replacements were required doesn't speak well for Apple.

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

#200

Post by avidphantasm » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:24 PM UTC

Honestly, I suspect that lot of the slowdowns that people see in ~4+ year old Macs, iPads, or iPhones is in large part due to degradation in flash storage, especially in ca. 2013 MacBook Pros where the flash modules were still kind of shitty. This is all the more reason why Pro-level Macs should not have soldered on SSDs.

The original poster switched to a MacBook Pro at a bad time. The 2016/2017 machines were lousy. The 2019 models are better, but still not as good as the 2015. I think with the addition of the T1/T2 chip and BridgeOS, the machines got too complicated. Add in the poor thermals of the overly thin case, and the relatively high TDP of the discrete GPUs, and it is a recipe for un-reliability. I hope that the new AppleSilicon-based MacBook Pros will solve all of these problems. (and it will be a bonus of they back away from the USB-C only cliff.)