I've been taking Oracle classes this week for work and I think the experience has woken something up in my brain that has been going steadily dormant since school. I've been back in a more computer oriented project mood all week and finally making some progress on file cleanup and server management that has been falling into disrepair. Whatever part of my brain handles book learning also seems to get me much more motivated to tinker. I recommend anyone that has the opportunity to do so take a class every once in awhile, especially if you miss aspects of school, I found I always tinkered more with stuff when I was in classes and I just thought it was because I had so much more free time between classes...clearly there is a mindset aspect to this as well.

Back on track:
SVN for version controlled management of my files
General file cleanup and management plans
Tinkering with OSX on x86

Slow but active:
Solar power project - 60 w panel now wired up for testing, to be mounted as soon as I work out the details of strapping it to my railing.

With luck, soon I'll have my replacement system. Apple is sending me a current model MacBook pro to replace my badly ailing gen 1. My final conclusion with this is as follows:

Always take your system in to an Apple retail store or apple care approved authorized repair center, don't bother with mail in support and if they try to say they are sending the system off site to the apple repair center, don't let them, they WILL screw it up.

Apple phone support and in person Genius Bar support is very friendly and usually helpful wherever they can be. At no point was anyone rude or intentionally trying to avoid helping me, though at times response times were a little slow getting through to the assigned level 2 tech.

Summary of the 5 attempts and some of my theories of what broke down:

Original problems reported: Battery charging issues, faulty L and R fans. High pitched whine in speakers. System would randomly reboot or shut down every few weeks.

#1 Apple mail in repair:
Services claimed on the repair notice were simply not performed. I believe this was due to a part shortage (the fans were in short supply at that time) and perhaps shipping jiggled the fans loose so that they spun up when the machine arrived at the repair center. A technician wanting to make their numbers look good marked the repair as done and sent it back without further testing. Battery was replaced and resolved battery issue.

Fault: Mail in repair technician lied about repairs being completed.

#2 Apple store, In store repair:
Fans actually replaced this time, fan issue resolved. When I was called in, I was told the repair was complete but I discovered that the logic board was not replaced as I was told would be done. Part was on order either way, was told that the whine was probably caused by the fans, and that they would do the logic board replacement when the part came in, if the problem persisted.

Fault: Speaker problem was in fact caused by the logic board, not a big deal since the part was on order anyway.

#3 Apple store, In store repair:
Logic board replaced. High pitched whine issues resolved, system seemed fine after basic tests. New logic board faulty in different way. System now shuts down whenever processor is under high load (video encoding, highly processor intensive tasks, etc) System crashes within 5 minutes of heavy load. Traded annoyance for critical fault.

Fault: Replacement logic board also was defective.

#4
Apple mail in repair:
This was partially my fault. I decided I was tired of driving to the apple store and made the mistake of setting up a mail in repair for this issue. System was mailed in and I gave very clear instructions for reproducing this shut down within 5 minutes of testing. I was assured that since this was a return repair that extra testing would be done. At time of shipping, system was fine apart from the high load shut downs. My hard drive was wiped and replaced (no attempt was made to recover my data) the hard drive cable, optical drive cable and optical drive were all claimed to be replaced. Apple claimed 3rd party part was causing an issue (my additional ram chip) and removed the ram. Not one of these repairs changes the crash issue and I am convinced they did not even attempt to test this. The hard drive replacement delayed my repair for a week since the drives were on backorder. Upon arrival, the system still crashes in 5 minutes under processor load.

Fault:
Repair center mis-diagnosed the problem, ignored the simple test to reproduce the error, delayed the repair for a part that was not faulty, erased customer data and tried to blame non-apple ram for part of the problem. I repeat NEVER allow mail in repairs to touch your machine. It will end in tears.

#5
After a several day delay waiting for the replacement service to get in touch with me, I am now getting set up for my replacement machine. So far the person I am working with has been responsive and helpful.

Monday: No call. Finally called my level 2 person and got voicemail, left a message.
Tuesday: No call. Called and left another message for my level 2 person. Got a call back, he said he would send an email to the replacement group but there was nothing else he could do and that they would probably get back to me within 24 business hours and that he would note the hassle I've gone through so far in his message to them. This is not the Apple I remember, I hope I'm just having very bad luck with the repair center but for whatever reason, I hope they can get their act together.

I'm hopefully moving towards the end of a very long and painful repair experience with Apple support. My last repair service was sadly not much better but 3rd time was a charm (to summarize, 12" powerbook with crappy bluetooth range. 1st mail in, bluetooth not fixed, RAM socket broken by apple techs, 2nd mail in, bluetooth fixed, RAM socket refused to be fixed, claiming I had "spilled liquid in the computer" 3rd mail back (after some argueing with apple phone support) all fixed, was given a free battery for my troubles.

I should have known better than to risk buying an apple 1.0 product, in this case the Mac Book Pro, but I needed a laptop badly and I figured even if there were serious problems, AppleCare would make everything right. 4 trips to either mail in or service at the Apple store and I'm still without a fully functional laptop. Here's how this product experience went:

Purchased laptop last spring, a couple months after the release of the first intel notebooks. Machine DOA, random shutdowns and blackouts, usually soon after firing up, especially noticable when playing graphics accelerated games. Took to apple store and after a trip home to get all of my original packaging, I got a direct replacement. Minor annoyances, a whine in the speakers and the laptop is even hotter than the 12" powerbook, but nothing serious enough to fight with apple support.

I installed SMC Fancontrol, which gives fan speeds and system temperature, and noticed that my right fan read 0rpm. I assumed this model only had one fan or somesuch and ignored this. Several months later I start hearing noise in the left fan, that usually stops when I pick up or move the computer, I find out at this time that my model should have 2 fans working.

Right fan starts spinning on its own but makes noise occasionally, I ignore this, not wanting to go without the machine and dealing with the noise.

Left fan fails, stops spinning, the noisy right fan cannot cool the system on its own, system overheats almost immediately and shuts down.

1st trip to the Burlington Apple Store. Machine is taken in and I am told it has to be mailed away, they send it away and the machine comes back. The repair order states that both fan modules were replaced. Within a week of getting the machine back, I get identical noise coming from both fans, and the left fan fails again. I'm convinced they opened the case, gave the fan a push and called it a day, either due to the fan shortages I heard about or some other reason. Apple repair lied about this repair and did not replace the fans. I also mentioned the speaker whine as well as battery charging issues on this repair. The battery was replaced, and the speaker whine was outright ignored.

2nd trip. I explain to the same Apple Store that the problems persisted, that the speaker whine issue was ignored and that the fans were not replaced. They offer to do the repairs in house instead of mailing the machine off. I get a call that the repairs are completed and find that the logic board was not replaced as they said they would. They tell me the part was still on order but they didnt hear the whine and thought the speakers were the cause. I get the machine home and notice the speaker whine immediately. The fans at this point work perfectly and rev nice and smooth.

3rd trip. The logic board comes in and they replace it for me, I get the machine back and all seems well. Until I go to encode some video which makes heavy use of the processors. About 5 minutes into the encode job, the screen goes black and the system shuts down. I try another app that uses the processor heavily to confirm its not just a bad app, same problem, almost exactly 5 minutes into this.


4th trip. I call in to apple support and get forwarded to level 2 after explaining that this is the 3rd failed attempt at a repair. The Apple representative tells me that he will put this in as a repeat repair, which means that extra care will be taken in testing to make sure that it is returned to me working. I carefully explain how I got the system to crash, that any program that heavily uses the processor for about 5 minutes will crash the system. I send the machine in and my repair goes on hold for about a week waiting for a part. I get annoyed at this and attempt to contact my apple rep directly, his vmail box is full and he does not reply to emails. I go through the call tree again and get ahold of "Tracy" who checks that the part on order is a hard drive...a part that worked fine the entire time and never gave me any issues. I explained that this was completely unrelated to my problem and I get met with a run around that she will check on how long the part would take to come in and call me right back. I never get a call but the next day my laptop ships out. The machine arrived today and the repair order states that they replaced the hard drive, cables, optical drive, cables and wiped my hard drive and did a restore...and "removed 3rd party part causing issue, my 1gb of corsair ram was apparently "causing an issue" I fire it up, the ram chip sitting in a little plastic bag on my desk and try a quick little processor load test....crash. Apple clearly did not make any efforts to test the machine as was stated in the trouble ticket number, and sent the machine back to me after a week waiting for a useless part.

I am currently waiting for a "New Macbook Pro" to be arranged for me on monday, I have to take a call from the replacement team and get an express replacement mailed to me.


I thought Apple was supposed to "Think Different" but this is the kind of support I wouldn't even expect from Sony, and I've sworn to never buy another of their products again. Cool product, friendly and helpful phone support, repair center staffed by some sort of lower primate.

It all looks a bit small actually up on the railing. 15w is enough to run my security camera from battery power and do the occasional top off of my 12" powerbook, I think a 60w panel would make a nice addition for now, maybe eventually get a few of those. Current plans include a 12v power line run up into the attic so I can get supply to my desk, and putting the entire security camera server on battery power with a DC-DC power supply.