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

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

#211

Post by whoisburbansky » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:30 PM UTC

everyone wrote: post #210

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…

It seems like they intentionally throttle older models as a feature of the update.. They do it on their phones at least. https://www.phonearena.com/news/how-to-make-iphone-faster_id...

Your linked article is entirely about the phone. Do you have any sources about them intentionally throttling older computer models?

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

#212

Post by DanTheManPR » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:30 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #142

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…

Put Linux on it.

A fresh install of Catalina was unusably slow on my 2010 Macbook pro (to say nothing of even trying Big Sur!). I had gone back and forth between MacOS and Linux on this machine over the years, and the Linux experience has been improving in comparison. Especially now that some apps are falling out of compatibility with High Sierra (the last version that ran acceptably on this hardware). And it's not as though you need to use a lightweight distro; regular Ubuntu works fine on old hardware. The focus on keeping everything lean and performant, while maintaining compatibility with older hardware, is a great advantage of modern linux distos.

Linux hasn't replaced my desktop workstation OS quite yet, but the last few years have definitely been "Year of the Linux Laptop" for me.

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

#213

Post by driverdan » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:31 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…

I downvoted you because it was clearly not a single lemon. There were two entire computer replacements, both of which also had issues.

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

#214

Post by snow_mac » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:31 PM UTC

I started on Mac in 2007, in 3 years I had 4 logic boards and hard drive failures. It was a White Macbook plastic edition. I was so impressed with the warranty in spite of the crappy heating issues, I later bought a Macbook Pro all metal edition. I got the 3 year warranty then and used it once when my logic board overheated. After that I held it for nearly 10 years until I replaced it last year.

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

#215

Post by slantyyz » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:31 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…

> so the story here is (a) he got a lemon

Well isn't that misleading too?

The OP's experience includes two replacement computers, and the original "lemon" was replaced a little after two months after purchase.

Depending on how you want to look at the replacements, OP got a total of two, or maybe even three lemons, since the second replacement computer appears to have had its share of issues too.

Looking at the OP's issue history in the post, that seems to be a LOT of issues to have in that time span, no matter how good the AppleCare service is.

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

#216

Post by dudul » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:32 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…

That's funny I recently upgraded a 2013 mbp and it's a bit faster now.

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

#217

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:32 PM UTC

Spivak wrote: post #167

tehjoker wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats why apple would eat most or all of the cost without passing it on to consumers or would make more reliable laptops. The laptops are already priced at what the market would bear and apple makes huge profits.

Nah. You're forgetting that that this is Apple. There would be an announcement that for new Macs you will be required to purchase 3 years of AppleCare+ to have the best possible experience. People will bitch for a few months but eventually it'll die down and Apple will get to market the current price as the base price while charing 30% more.

[deleted]

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

#218

Post by rip_netrunner » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:33 PM UTC

Mikeb85 wrote: post #205

I'm curious why anyone would buy an Apple laptop with all the stories about unreliability in this thread... I've had 2 laptops in the last ~11 or so years. A ThinkPad (trucked along worry-free for years) and a relatively cheap Acer Swift 3 (AMD Ryzen APU) which I still use to this day, worry-free. I don't think I've ever actually taken any device in for repair, ever, yet somehow in this thread there's a ton of anecdo…

shhh... this is a thread for b*tching about problems, not actually doing anything about them ;)

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

#219

Post by t0mas88 » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:34 PM UTC

brianwawok wrote: post #116

asdff wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My macbook air died one month out of the yearlong warranty. In their troubleshooting at the apple store they managed to wipe the device and still couldn't breath life into it or figure out what happened. >$400 flat rate repair and they didn't even offer me a loaner in the mean time while the computer was mailed off. I would think apple could compete on customer service with the shade tree mechanic and their loaner ca…

They have a 14 day return on all laptops, you can pick your own loaner off the shelf.

And if 14 days isn't enough, it's 30 days when ordered online depending on the country.

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

#220

Post by Bud » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 7:35 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #207

spullara wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make the computer smaller and lighter.

I refuse to accept that as an answer as to why the battery is glued in. It's just laziness by apple, there's is literally zero reason to use glue to hold the battery, and it means that if you want to ever replace it yourself you end up looking at a 50-steps long guide on ifixit where one of them is pouring solvent behind the battery - it's insane. Just have a system of tabs holding the battery packs in place, glue is…

No, it's not laziness. Nothing about the internal design of the Mac is due to "laziness". Apple has clearly decided that the battery is better held in place by adhesive than by a "system of tabs". This could easily be for durability or safety reasons. It's a big, big problem if a battery gets damaged.

If your argument is that the replacement process has too many steps, this argument fails: you'd save at most one step (out of your claimed 50) if the adhesive were not there. Because the battery is not terribly accessible.