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Well, I got the shaft.

xanis

xanis

Lifer
Well, I got screwed... big time.

I checked my repair status online tonight and there was a flag telling me to contact Apple. I called them up and talked a rep who broke me the bad news. Because there's physical damage to the exterior of my laptop, AppleCare is essentially void, and that the repair would have to come out of my pocket. I asked them how much it would cost and they told me it would be roughly $1,000. Why? When physical damage causes AppleCare to become void Apple will only repair the entire laptop and will not repair individual components. I told them that I just wanted my laptop shipped back to me, which luckily will occur free of charge.

Now I'm at a loss for what to do. Apple suggested that I take my laptop to an independent repair facility because they'd most likely be willing to repair individual parts, which I'm doing tomorrow. Other than that... I don't know what to do. I really don't have the money right now to buy another laptop (used or new) and I certainly don't have the money to get a new laptop. What would you all suggest?
 
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I'm pretty sure that even though you put it a new hard drive and more RAM you didn't violate your AppleCare.

If you hold down T while it's booting it will boot into Target Disk Mode. If that doesn't work you can always pull the drive and put it in another computer.
 
ChAoTiCpInOy said:
I'm pretty sure that even though you put it a new hard drive and more RAM you didn't violate your AppleCare.

If you hold down T while it's booting it will boot into Target Disk Mode. If that doesn't work you can always pull the drive and put it in another computer.
Click to expand...

Hmm... I'll have to try that when I get home. As for pulling the disk... I hope I don't have to do that because I don't have another computer to put it into.
 
a quick update:

I got in touch with Apple Support today and told them about the problem. They're sending me a box that I'm going to ship them my laptop in. It should be in tomorrow, and my laptop should be back by the end of the week.

In the meantime I got a loaner laptop through my school and I was able to recover all of my important school files by connecting my laptop to a Mac Pro at school and transferring the files via Target Disk mode.

All-in-all, I guess this could have been A LOT worse. The loaner laptop I got is a 2007-ish Macbook with a bum battery and 1GB of RAM... not the best little machine, but hey, it works.

What I'm NOT looking forward to now is the repair cost... I have a feeling it's going to be VERY steep. :\
 
Xanis said:
a quick update:

I got in touch with Apple Support today and told them about the problem. They're sending me a box that I'm going to ship them my laptop in. It should be in tomorrow, and my laptop should be back by the end of the week.

In the meantime I got a loaner laptop through my school and I was able to recover all of my important school files by connecting my laptop to a Mac Pro at school and transferring the files via Target Disk mode.

All-in-all, I guess this could have been A LOT worse. The loaner laptop I got is a 2007-ish Macbook with a bum battery and 1GB of RAM... not the best little machine, but hey, it works.

What I'm NOT looking forward to now is the repair cost... I have a feeling it's going to be VERY steep. :\
Click to expand...

If its under Applecare, wouldn't it all be covered?
 
aphex said:
If its under Applecare, wouldn't it all be covered?
Click to expand...

I've installed some 3rd-party stuff (HD and RAM), and there's some dings and scratches and whatnot on the outside. Like I said, AppleCare seems to not take too kindly to stuff that's a little beat up.
 
Xanis said:
I've installed some 3rd-party stuff (HD and RAM), and there's some dings and scratches and whatnot on the outside. Like I said, AppleCare seems to not take too kindly to stuff that's a little beat up.
Click to expand...

HD and Ram are user upgradable parts on a macbook, so there shouldn't be any issues there.
 
Well, he is referring to the Pro, and if it is pre-Unibody (which a 2007 era one would be), then we are talking about the full she-bang 27 screw removal to get at the hard drive. Lots of opportunities to mess things up there.

RAM is almost always user-replaceable in Apple's eyes, especially in the case of the Pre-Unibodies, where there was a separate RAM compartment that you could access.

I have not seen conclusively anywhere that clarifies if the Hard Drive in the Pre-Unibody Pros was user-replaceable or not, and if it would void the warranty either way.

I am 99% confident (make that 100%) that the 8600m problem (which this sounds like) is a recognized problem and Apple extended the warranty out at least by a year, regardless of your Pro's warranty status. This is similar to what they have done with the MagSafe Power Adapters (if yours is fraying, then you can take it to any Apple Certified Repair Center and they will replace it, free of charge, regardless of the warranty status) or the cracking top cases on teh MacBooks (again, regardless of warranty status, they will replace this, though this an undocumented issue, you have nothing on their website that you can point to).

In the case of the replaced hard drive, if Apple determines that it is unrelated to the problems you are currently experiencing, they probably won't care.

As for the cost, if they determine that it is caused by the 8600, then they should replace it for free, but the invoice will tell you how much it would have cost had you replaced it out of pocket.
 
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Thanks for the replies. I got my box today and I'm shipping it out tomorrow. It's an overnight, so according to the Apple rep it'll get there tomorrow and be back to me by the end of the week.

Also, the problem is definitely the video. My computer boots and I can run it in target disk mode, it's just the video that seems to be causing the visual artifacts and the kernel panic on boot.
 
Did it have the 8600GTM in it? If so, that'll be covered under AppleCare regardless as it was a defect.

Also, I replaced the drive in my Aluminum MacbookPro and never had a problem taking it into AppleCare, so I don't think you'll have any issues with that.

Good luck.
 
Kmax82 said:
Did it have the 8600GTM in it? If so, that'll be covered under AppleCare regardless as it was a defect.

Also, I replaced the drive in my Aluminum MacbookPro and never had a problem taking it into AppleCare, so I don't think you'll have any issues with that.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yeah, it was the 8600m. A bunch of people from my school had theirs crap out last year around the same time... I don't know why mine decided to do it now. 🙄
 
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