MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

typical Rev. A issues, bummer, but thanks Beta testers.

You're welcome!

I concur. Apple has agreed to take mine.

ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME!! You don't know how EMBARRASSING it is when my windows coworkers come into my IT office and wonder what that annoying sound is. "O its my super powerful MacBook Pro!!!" Sounds like a plane trying to take off! How can one preach about how wonder macs are when their hardware sounds like its trying to commit suicide! Thank you Apple for waking up and fixing this problem! I'm shipping my MBP out asap!!

Well, engineers have been working 24/h 7/d lately. This time there should be no problems and this on top of WWDC. We do not mind to do extra work: when it is definitely us to solve it we commit to deliver as soon as possible.
We do it even when it is not really us to solve but we can to help our customers have the best experience possible.

Sometimes we do it right, sometimes we do it less right but the commitment is always 100% - and more if ever possible - .

Good enough is never good enough at Apple, nor lame excuses.
It also takes time to put in place the system to arrange for wide replacement such as the one needed for the MacBook Pro.

Quito, you are right but it took just the time it had needed, no wasting time here.

Great! Now can they do something about "whiny" Mac users?

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Nope, for that you need internal resources.

When this first surfaced didn´t MDN deride all the Mac consumers for complaining?

No they did not. See the MDN take in the article below:

http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/high_pitched_whine_reported_by_some_macbook_pro_users/

There you are.

Yesterday, new chip set - one set of problems, especially overheating - solved.

Today, the previously denied whining and various other noise problems - solved.

When we stop buying Apple products not ready for market, they will stop shipping poor quality stuff. Consumers can rule the market place if we are smart instead of over anxious apologists.

I repeat. If we don't get the promised, superior Apple quality, we may as well get anything else.

Nice FUD attempt there, Neat. *rollseyes*

Uhm, Pete. Getting "anything else" means you don't get OS X. It also means you don't get the awesome OS X-only apps. So your logic really doesn't make any sense. If you can't wait for round 2 of a product, you'd rather get something that really, really sucks? Do you have a chemical imbalance or are you just bad at trolling?

If you guys were not so paranoid about those of us who will never be Steve suckups, you would get the point - it's all about the quality. What good is the OS or Apple software if the hardware is ordinary and plagued with all the problems we so quickly condemn in the PC world?

I'm not a troll. I'm a smart consumer, Mac customer since 1984, who is right about this. And, you know what, the only people who take shots at me are those who went out and bought one of the Intel MacBooks before it's time.

I've got a MacBook Pro with this problem - it's more of a high-pitched squealing/screeching sound than a whine. As soon as I can go without my MacBook Pro for a week, I'll send it in for repairs. Who knows when that will be, since I use it for my job. In the meantime I'll keep using QuietMBP, at the loss of some battery life:

http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/downloads/QuietMBP1.1.zip

One has to ask themselves "Would M$ do the say?

I think not!

lordrobbin...very nice

I called AppleCare and learned, after they verified my serial number and my description of the noise, that they would cheerfully fix my machine, but it would take ten days. Not unreasonable.

Then I asked the representative if there would be any problem if I did not have it repaired. The notice said to call AppleCare without giving further details, which makes it sound serious. He said the noise was part of the normal operation of the machine and that the repair would lessen the noise but not eliminate it entirely.

Essentially it comes down to this: the repair is not necessary and they are doing it to accommodate people who have complained.

I said that they were spoiled by silent Macs and it was nice of Apple to indulge them. I asked him if he had ever used an Alienware--those things are vacuum cleaners. He chuckled.

The noise does not bother me, it's not so bad on my machine, so I declined the repair.

The upshot is this: If you don't mind the noise and you don't want to lose your Macbook Pro for ten days, there's no harm if you skip the repair.

Pete,

I'll indulge you here. I'm not an owner of an Intel Mac. I've also been a Mac owner since 1984. What you may not realize is that the test group for hardware is typically a lot smaller than that for software. Mistakes can be made. Batteries can blow up, video boards can go out, whines can occur. I don't think it's as much about Apple not caring about quality as it is that they simply didn't experience this in testing.

Apple is doing the right thing at this point. They do care about quality. Their hardware and software are so much better than the offerings of Microsoft and Dell. All manufacturers in all areas have quality problems. It's the quantity of lack of quality that you need to look at.

Jimbo

THE PROBLEM IS Apple has been putting in some pretty cheap components into their machines lately in a overall attempt to boost profits.

Take for instance the PowerMac G5, first off is the beeping power supplies, ok fine, new product. Fix the ones who complain and next Rev. take care of the problem at the source.

But NOOOOO! Apple continues to put out beeping power supplies in all the next PowerMac's, the dual core PowerMacs and so forth until the Quad which needed a more powerful one anyway.

It's so annoying being able to show your PC buddy this new machine and it's beep beeping until the PC guy says, "nice OS, nice monitor, crappy hardware by the sounds of it."

Oh then comes the stainbooks, the egg frying 120ºF MacBooks, the "too much thermal paste" MacBook Pro's, the tweety sounding over priced iPod HiFi, the $30 for 6 iPod Nano covers and so on.

Steve Jobs better get his head outta his butt and start coming down to earth, it's like he's giving us garbage and milking us for all we are worth.

Well Apple won't last if he keeps doing this sort of thing.

$30 for 6 colored rubber iPod Nano covers that were stamped out in a factory in Taiwan for under $1. Insane.

"I called AppleCare and learned, after they verified my serial number and my description of the noise, that they would cheerfully fix my machine, but it would take ten days. Not unreasonable."


Ten days- not unreasonable....

if ur playin games- sure
if ur in IT- 2 days is a stretch

Sorry Ken- Apple should allow users to drop off the MBP at the nearest Apple Retail Store and the motherboard should be swapped right there- onsite.


That's what I have arranged with the replacment of the plastic casing on my white- I mean yellow Macbook. Overall- I've had great success with Apple products: Original Bondi G3, iMac G5, InteliMac 20inch ... no issues-

the Macbook, bad battery, yellowed casing.

"Sorry Ken- Apple should allow users to drop off the MBP at the nearest Apple Retail Store and the motherboard should be swapped right there- onsite. "

With the right sevice plan ($49 extra) Dell would come to your house and replace it in an hour.

If Dell can do that on a $500 (with service plan) notebook, That should be your MINIMUM standard for service on a $2000 notebook from Apple.

With the right service plan Apple would come to your house and repair it on the spot.

Your point is?

With the right service plan Apple intervention happens within 4 hours of your call.

Your point is?

With the right service plan Apple will replace it if it cannot be repaired on site.

Your point is?

The noise is not ubiquitous. We have MacBook Pro who do not have AT ALL the noise, others at really very low levels, others will have the motherboard replaced.

Nowadays computers are made everywhere and the quality control of a factory in place X can give different percentile of the quality level attained in a factory in place Y. That's why the Apple repr checked the serial number of the machine: they must have identified the issue causing the whine with machines produced at a certain factory with a certain set of components.

Dell would come to your house and replace it in an hour

With cheap machines - any industrial sector - it is VERY EASY to have a program in place that does not even look at the problems but simply replaces the faulty items without any research on the causes of the problem.

Fact is it cost way much less to simply replace the product than have a better quality control or a better quality altogether.

The fact that Dell program simply replaces the machine (with all the hassle it derives to re-instate your environment on the new machine) is what to expect for a $500 quality. There always will be machines with the same problem all the time and leaves customer say "wow, they replaced it" while the actual situation is there is no reason to bother looking for the causes, just replace the crap.

On a $2000 machine you deserve better: R&D;so that the problem is eliminate, or at least rendered unnoticeable, with future products. Capish?

Well, well, well:

Oy. You've paid $2,000 for a machine, you *expect* better. Quit explaining away Apple Service with "wait 10 days so that R&D;can eliminate the problem". Yeah, for future generations. In the meantime, you get more and more pissed that you're being treated like dirt.

They should've had better R&D;in the FIRST place. Stop explaining it away as "Don't buy first generation Apple". Apple should stop treating their customers as beta testers, period. Except they know a lot of fans will buy their stuff when they come out, and justify any problems as "oh, it's first generation".

We want quality for what we pay for this stuff, darn it.

I had better.

You are commenting like it is a general problem that arises on all and every MacBook.

It is not, it is limited to a certain range of serial numbers, done out of a certain manufacturer, out with a certain third party component producer.

The problem appears on a very small percentage of units. You've certainly heard of Quality Control: There is NO QC that can ensure a 100% defectless product.

In my personal buyer experience I never had to send back a Mac for repair and I had a lot. Still, a colleague will have his MacBook replaced for the whine noise. Mine is totally silent.

With future generations the percentile of machines with defects gets reduced more and more but no one in this world could ensure you a perfect machine.

The "Do not get the 1st generation model" is not in the sense "because you'll get a lemon" but as "because a higher percentage of machines *could* have a problem wrt 2nd and 3rd, etc, generation" and where that percentage is usually single digit and not so far from 1%

I got a letter from Volvo: My XC 90 Volvo bi-turbo is part of a batch of cars that need a part in the direction system to be substituted. Bad R&D;from Volvo? or a continuos process of R&D;that goes beyond the very first model?

No series of stress test in the labs could substitute a couple months in the hands of consumers to find defects or areas where better solutions could find their way.

NASA has probably the most stringent R&D;and tests performed on the Space Shuttle program to dwarf any computer manufacturer QA plan in place. Is the Space Shuttle perfect and defect free?

Tragically nope

Not apologizing for Apple but also not having unrealistic expectations of perfect products. If you want to reduce at maximum the uncommon experience of an unrecoverable problem do not get 1st generation model: you *might* not have the same experience as the other 98+% of customers.

treated like dirt

So you have been told "Piss off, you are a whiner like your computer".

I thought Apple sent excuses for the problem and replacing for free and a "Sorry" the concerned machines.

PS
This is what happend in our case: not even substituting the motherboard. Apple sent the latest model in exchange. (Ok, we are a major account).
One MacBook in 20 received.

You've paid $2,000 for a machine, you *expect* better

Exactly, that's why people here has started to buy from Apple rather than other PC manufacturers. They are noticeably better. A high percentage of Dell get sent back for repair during the first month. Either Dell treat us like dirt or Apple is better.

Now that Apple does not imply a change in OS as well, even Windows users are getting a MacBook instead of a Dell.

PS
Dell lost 2% of WW market share in Q3, Apple grew over 11% in the same quarter.