November 6, 2006 14:58 | MacStuff

D.O.A.

Not Dead, Defective.
So it's not the Hard Drive, but rather, it seems, the right fan is misaligned. According to the technician at the Apple Certified place I went, usually the cause of such misalignment is sudden impact; someone dropped it.

Considering I got it, opened it, started it and immediately observed the problem, without dropping it...

Upon further visual inspection, oh boy... the thin metal strip above the latch is buckled and there is a nick in the plastic boarder. Oh and of course the lid/screen doesn't close flush, what a surprise.

So I have a choice: pick a fight with Apple and get it replaced (Joel says he'd back me on that claim, but that I'd likely not see a machine for upwards of two weeks) or just get the fan replaced (get it back by wednesday).

Bleh.

On the bright side, the guy ahead of me at the shop was told "repairing this 4 year old iBook would cost you more than buying a new one and would then still be far less reliable... go buy a new one." Tough break man.

Comments
Mon, Nov 6, 2006, @ 15:26
1- Michael

That sucks man. I would hold out for a new one. "Pre-disastered" may be fine for houses in crappy John Irving books but not for laptops. You have wheels - can you hike up to the Apple Store in Laval and pre-inspect one to make sure this doesn't happen again.


Mon, Nov 6, 2006, @ 15:34
2- Boris

Hi Michael,
I'm actually more of the school of "how many times in a row can it possible come down 'tails'?" i.e.: I'm gonna get it fixed and see what comes.

Also, no one has these in stock yet. Joel sorta blinked when i told him it was the new Core 2 and that I'd just gotten it an hour earlier... "Dude, *no one* has gotten one of these yet..." hehehe

Oh well. :)


Mon, Nov 6, 2006, @ 18:45
3- gen

DO NOT REPAIR IT YOURSELF. GET APPLE TO FIX IT.

Why, why, why would you not get Apple to fix a brand new machine?

Use your old machine while it's being fixed.


Mon, Nov 6, 2006, @ 19:18
4- karl

Boris: my black macbook died after 6 months. After 5 days (have been told 3 days) at Apple, same problem. Going back to apple store, and they proposed another 3 days. I said no, find me a solution today. They replaced it with a brand new one.

Another colleague of W3C. Problems with a new macbook as well. Died after a few months. And a third one died too in W3C. Another MacBook.

Call it Murphy or there is really a problem at Apple for this series.