~ryanlowe/blog: iBook Woes

iBook Woes

So after not hearing from the store about my iBook for two weeks -- not including the call I made to them a week ago -- I went in today. They ordered the part on the 21st but didn't call me to tell me (even though they said they would -- twice!). So there was some miscommunication. Now they say that the part could be on backorder and that's why it's taking so long.

So that brings me to the part. The part is what Apple likes to call the "logic board" and what most computer people would call the motherboard. Except this motherboard comes with the CPU, video card, RAM, sound and all of the inputs (firewire, USB, modem, NIC) integrated on it and, if not under warrantee, would cost over $900 CAN. Ouch.

When I first went in, they told me that the new logic board would have a one day warrantee on it. Now they tell me that it has a 90 day warrantee on it. Sheesh, I should get this is writing. I'm probably going to get the two year extended warrantee at the education discount from the school computer store anyway.

I need that machine back. :(

Update January 29, 2004 Apple has decided to fix these defective motherboards for free.

Posted at October 27, 2003 at 02:22 PM EST
Last updated October 27, 2003 at 02:22 PM EST

Comments

What did I tell you about buying non-PC machines :) Now you have learnt your lesson.

» Posted by: Travis at October 27, 2003 02:41 PM

did you buy the iBook at the school?

» Posted by: peter at October 27, 2003 06:34 PM

No, I bought it from BMac on Merivale. Should have bought it from the school -- I didn't know about the educational discount.

» Posted by: Ryan at October 27, 2003 08:27 PM

PC notebooks aren't much better. Everything is integrated on those too. Although I suspect that 900$ is still a rather high estimate typical of Apple service...

In the end that's life when dealing with high levels of integration. One little slip brings the whole thing crashing down...

» Posted by: Jamie at October 27, 2003 10:30 PM

Who was it I was talking to about this, I can't remember. Someone had an Apple notebook with a broken NIC (which means the whole logic board had to be replaced to fix it) and they called AppleCare to get it replaced and they said "Sorry, it's not covered because we've found that that kind of damage is usually caused by kids abusing the NIC connection, such as pulling on it", etc. Couldn't believe that. On second thought I think I read about it online when I was searching for other people with iBook screen problems.

» Posted by: Ryan at October 28, 2003 12:19 AM

Yeah, down with PC notebooks :-(

Ayana's laptop screen fried after 4 month (reburbished from IBM with a 3 month warantee)...

Mr. Lowe, here's the one good thing about all these problems (although I guess it's only good for me) ... when I finally pick up my apple - i'm going with the extended care.

» Posted by: aforward at October 30, 2003 09:32 AM

Well, you can actually wait until the end of the standard warrantee to buy the extended warrantee. Depending on your situation this might be a better option.

» Posted by: Ryan at October 30, 2003 10:31 AM

I got an ibook too. It's had a logic board problem twice, the
first time it was covered by warranty the second time which
is now they want 650 euros for the repair. I'm not going to
bother and thus my ibook makes it to the dump. I hear apple is getting sued by unhappy ibook users. All the power to the unhappy users.

» Posted by: Peter at January 16, 2004 12:15 PM