End of story

The journey of my MacBook Pro has come to an end.

• CPU suddenly jammed to 1596 MHz regardless of the temperature

• screen back-light wobbles

• DVD-burner stopped working (that's Superdrive in Apple language)

• and charging the battery from empty to full takes over 15 hours

Apparently computer got kind of shock from the power outlet. First I thought that only the charger was fried but I have spare 85W Apple charger and everything stayed the same so it had to be the motherboard that got fried (that's Logic Board in Apple language)

Insurance company reclaimed whole computer.

Apple's opinion is that my computer is fully functional

I sent a screenshot to Apple where my CPU, GPU and Chipset is near and above 100°C (according to HWMonitor)
I was in a belief that all this "your computer is ok" crap is only because they do not believe that my computer really overheats. So I decided to try once more and show them yet another screenshot.

This is direct translation from email I got from Apple technical customer service.

"I apologize that you feel that there is a lack of faith. I'm am sorry to infortm that screenshots will not change Apple's opinion in this case. Apple's opinion is that your computer is fully functional. We have inspected your computer as much as possible and all possibly faulty parts have been replaced at least once and the situation have not changed. Unfortunately I must inform that from the technical point of view this case is finished.

I hope that the answer is clear enough. I'm sorry that we can't proceed any more."

How should I understand the "from the technical point of view" So there is still hope i.e. from legal view?

Someone from (non technical) customer service should have called me last friday. Still waiting that call. Good thing that I'm used to this waiting. Every time someone from Apple tells me that they will call me back tomorrow it means at least 5 days. Next week means 2-3 weeks.

Next Tuesday I have a meeting with a lawyer. He or she can clarify which laws Apple is now breaking.

It's is within specs

So there you have it. Computer that shuts down every time if you try to play 3D games with it is "within specs". Off course not in real world... only in Appleworld.

Yesterday I talked 52 minutes with Apple customer service and I was told that because Service points could not reproduce this "flaw" and Apple cannot fix my computer by swapping parts then my computer is within the specs.

I off course wanted my money back then if they can't give me fully functional computer. I've started to think that I might have to hire a lawyer to write well formatted letter to Apple telling why they are obliged to give me my money back.

I'm now waiting call from Apple telling me if I can get my money back or do I have to seek justice some other way.

One week without any message from Apple

I just wanted to tell that I'm REALLY disappointed of Apple and how they do their customer "service"

I've had broken computer for 18 months! That's right! one and a half year! And still Apple refuses to fix it or give me my money back.

They're still waiting answer from the engineers

I got a short mail from my customer service person. He told that he is still waiting answer from the engineers and he have sent a query to ask what is taking so long?

My laptop battery died few months a go. Apparently due to the extreme heat it have been exposed. Lets see what breaks next or will apple take this machine back before it will stop working completely?

New motherboard and new heatsink... no help.

Sorry for not writing for a while. I was on a vacation and meanwhile my computer was on a repair.

Before I left on a tour around Europe I dropped my computer to a service and this time Apple told that they will change motherboard and heat sink no matter what the service point will find.

When I came back I picked up my computer only to notice that my externally flawless computer have gotten a nasty bump and few scratches. Off course they denied all at the service point and I had to take my bruised computer to home.

I did not expect anything else than massive overheating and thermal shutdown when I started 3D games. My expectations were fully satisfied. 25minutes of gaming (of which 20 minutes CPU was underclocked to 1596 MHz) and then computer went to suspend.

I sent mail to Apple and asked "Now what?"

One week later I send another mail "Did you get my last mail? Now what?"

Then yesterday I called them and left a voice mail "Will you call me back?"

Today I got call from my second Apple representative. He was as abashed as the engineers. He asked if it is ok to me if he sends me weekly update by mail to tell me if there has been any progress in my case.

No I'm waiting first mail to arrive somewhere around next Wednesday .

I will not be satisfied anything else than money back. New MBP would be ok too as I can always sell it and then buy a decent real computer.

Not broken?!

Today I was told by Apple's help desk that my computer is not broken.

They do know that my computer overheats and the they even agree that there is design flaw because it gets too hot. But because it can not be fixed by replacing hardware parts therefore it is not broken.
Apple computers are not broken if there is design flaw. It's just the customer who is not pleased with the computer.

I don't anymore know what is the current situation. My computer is now at the service. I don't know whether I should get it back because Apple may ask me to bring it back to service some time soon.

I told the Apple help desk that this is really bad customer service if I as a customer have to do all the work. I've spent about 10-15 hours on phone and at least 10 hours running pointless tests which Apple asked me to do.

Almost forgot the sad part. Service did not find anything wrong with my computer. They are not allowed to use any other method than the test programs provided by Apple.

Don't waste your money on Apple.
If there is even slightest need of service... Then you're screwed.

Thermal paste flood

Little amount of thermal paste is better than none.
But too much is definitely worse than little.

The Thermal Paste Reapplication Endeavor

Everybody remember when first Intel CoreDuo MacBook Pro's came out? There were way too much thermal paste and temperatures were "quite high"

Apple should have learn their lesson.

I'm tempted to open my MacBook Pro to check if there is similar problem with excessive thermal paste. But Apple have promised to check whats wrong with my computer so I don't peel this apple... yet.

Apple! Where's your spine?

I was told to take my laptop to a service.
Apple now suspects that the motherboard might be faulty. I gave them the error code I received some time a go when i ran the hardware test. "4SNS/1/40000000: TNOP-76.375"
The "TNOP" part here means that it has something to do with the temperature sensor.

Too bad that it has nothing to do with the ineffective cooling. Seems more like a excuse rather than a solution.

1. If it would be faulty temperature sensor why the computer would shut down due to overheating even the fans spinning full speed? (ok... this one is possible with wild imagination)
   
2. Why would the computer run constantly at lower clock speed if it would not be too hot?
3. Why would my computers broken temperature sensor affect EVERY UNIBODY LAPTOP IN THE WORLD!?

I understand if this would be an single case and only my computer acting this weird. Then it would make sense that faulty temperature sensor would make the fans spin 2000 rpm even at full load. But this is not a single case! This is a fault that every Apple laptop released since late 2008 is affected. I just tested my fiancees 13" MBP and hardware test did not show anything wrong and yet her computer acts exactly the same. When under excessive load fan (only one fan in 13" model) does not speed up not until it is too late.

Pay attention to number 3. Maybe somewhere next Wednesday magically every Apple laptop might start working when they fix my possibly faulty temperature sensor.

Sleep Notification occurred.

I was told to run "Capture Data.app" when I have reproduced the shutdown due to overheating -issue. I've been told to run this app once before and then I did not pay any attention what data the program collected.

Today I've finally found time to play along with Apple and it did not took long for the machine to overheat and suspend. Then I run the Capture Data application and this time I checked every little file the application collected and was suggesting me to send to Apple.
Here are just few things I've found:

• All users passwords hash, account creation dates, user images. Also the deleted accounts were included.

• All files I've opened since last week. (file names and full file path) Including every movie I've watched, work files written and school projects opened.

• Nearly all programs I've started during last 5 days

• Every file which I've downloaded since last week. (With Firefox, transmission, wget... you name it)

I've now spend about one hour on these files and there is still much to discover. Some of the files are so messy that I have to write little program to parse those files for me.

This is only what Apple would have needed:
2010-05-05 11:54:43 EEST - T[0x00007FFF70C30BE0] - Sleep Notification occurred.

Too bad I was again too hasty and send the whole thing to Apple before thinking. During last hour I have also changed all my passwords.

Atleast I'm not alone

PC Authority's article have began to get attention. I found from Gizmodo's comments many other struggling with overheating problem. Core i7 MacBook Pro Could Make Water Boil

"I'm really not surprised as of just yesterday I got my 2.53GHz Core2Duo MBP up to 205°F or around 96°C while touring around lower manhattan in Google Earth with 3D buildings and all." -RubberShoes

"my spring 2008 15" mbp on a bad day will run up to nearly 110C on the processor." -Mike Karthäuser

"I just ran Cinebench on my two week old i7 MacBook Pro 15" with fairly similar results to the PCAuthority test. On the OpenGL test, the CPU hit 80 degrees C with fans running at minimum (~2000rpm). The CPU test had the CPU temp peaking at 100 degrees C before the fans kicked in to ~4000rpm and brought the temp down to about 95 degrees C." -StoopaTroopa

"My 17" mbp (1st gen with the internal battery) regularly gets to 101-104 degrees Celsius, especially when running flash videos.

Talked to apple store, they said its all cool because the "computer will just shut off if its actually too hot" :-|" -Mat Dwyer

I sure hope that this will collect so much publicity that Apple is forced to act and admit their mistake.

Apple accidentally all MacBookPro's

PC Authority tested new i7 MacBook pro.
Macbook Pro helps Core i7 hit 100 Degrees <- Link!

Still no answer from the engineers

Today I got mail from Apple and they were sorry that I have not yet received answer from them as they have not heard anything from the engineering department.

Why do I have a feeling that there are few sweating fellas in the engineering department thinking "how could we have missed this?!"

Even the full fan speed is not enough

Good thing I did not attend that LAN event I mentioned earlier.
I've tried to play Just Cause 2 demo but my MacBook Pro sets itself to suspend after I've played about 20 minutes. HWMonitor told me that CPU was 111°C and NVIDIA 9600M GT 103°C just before screen went black.

Only way to prevent this happening is to raise the computer few centimeters from the table and add external fan to blow cool air towards the enclosure. Sounds really pro solution for a Pro laptop?

CPU throttling sure is annoying but computer constantly shutting down due to overheating is more frustrating than lowered CPU frequency.

I've called Apple to inform this new symptom. Let's see if this is a feature too?

Fans follow only the enclosure temperature?

I installed Snow Leopard only to notice that nothing changed.
Could it be possible that fans try to keep only the enclosure cool? No matter how hot the CPU is fans will will not speed up until the enclosure gets too hot?
See for yourself.

In the first picture I have run Seti@Home with CPU and Einstein@Home with GPU (NVIDIA 9600M GT) about one hour and temperatures have settled down.

Before taking second picture I let the computer sleep overnight to make sure it was completely at room temperature and the I launched the same applications (as in the 1st picture) and waited until CPU reaches ~110°C .

As you can see most temperatures are higher in the second picture even though computer have been under stress less than 3 minutes. Only enclosure temperatures are higher.

This is so frustrating. I'd better call consumer dispute board to ask if they have moved forward with my case.

Macbook Pro fans dont follow cpu temperature

I've now come to a conclusion that CPU temperature has nothing to do with the fan speed in Unibody MacBook.

Right now I'm just transferring some data over LAN to my external FireWire hard drive and fans keep spinning constant 6200 rpm even when CPU is only 60°C (according to iStat)

Lan event ahead

There is a small lan event upcoming and I would like to be able to play whole weekend without worrying that my computer melts, crashes or lowers it CPU frequency during intensive gaming.

Here are few programs I was planning to give a try.

Mac/SMC Fan Control for Windows
Input Remapper 1.0.04

If you have any experience either one of these programs or if you know if I'm going to face any problems setting fans to spin at full speed all time, you could give me a hint by commenting this post or sending me a mail at macbookprostory at sci.fi
Thank you.

60 minutes of free music from Apple

Today I called the consumer disputer board to check what's the situation with my case.
I was quickly forwarded to a guy who apologized for this has took so long. He said that he have had problems contacting Apple. We discussed a while and he said that they have several other cases with faulty Apple products and Apple refusing to do anything.
He gave me a number where I could call to contact Apple and he also promised to do his best to conclude this case as soon as possible.

I called the number I was given and was soon answered only to be put on hold for 10 minutes (to check things and ask more info - they said). Then I was forwarded to another department. I had to wait another 10 or 15 minutes before "another department" answered. I was told that they stand behind their previous judgment from last December where this overheating is not a fault at all.

"It is a feature"
Now I have to admit that I lost my temper for a second and quickly replied "How not-working could be a feature?" The help desk stood in his script and said only that my computer is not broken. He reminded me of Apple engineers statement how this type of behavior is normal and within the specs. "Computer is not overheating unless it crashes or shuts itself down"

I demanded money back from my computer and I was told to wait "few minutes" so he checks Apple Store department what they have to say. 20 minutes later I heard briefly that I should have returned my machine within 2 weeks from purchase, money back is no option any more unless I want to wait little more so he calls the legal department. 10 minutes of waiting music did not help the situation and I was given only one option. To take my computer to a service point and if they finds a clear fault in this I am justified to a repair. BUT! if they don't find anything I'm obligated to pay for the service visit as the warranty had ended 2 weeks a go.

Customer service - a big joke!

4SNS/1/40000000: TNOP-76.375

I tried Apple Hardware Test to see what kind of test program it is. I was told by the service point that it is the only program to determine hardware faults undoubtedly. No other ways are supported by Apple

First thing I noticed was that the fans run ~3000 rpm at minimum during the testing. So it is impossible to notice any fan speed related issues with Apple Hardware Test.

Second thing that I noticed was the error code "4SNS/1/40000000: TNOP-76.375"
I have no idea what it means and by Googling it or parts of it does not give any more info.

I tried running the hardware test again and it passed successfully. Well who would have guessed that the program itself is a bit sloppy. And we're talking about the program which Apple uses to determine if computer is fully functional.

I'll call tomorrow the service point if they have more info what this error code could mean.

Know your consumer rights

I've now contacted the consumer dispute board which took my case into their consideration.
Actually the board received my letter January 27th and I hope to get some answers soon.

I hope that they understand that this computer is truly a faulty and advise Apple to either give me my money back or to swap it to a new one. I'd prefer the money back as I've found that nearly every one of MacBook Pro's are affected of this lazy fan issue.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10767250&#10767250

If you search hard enough you might find few other threads describing this same overheating which Apple have missed and threads did not get deleted. (yes, I believe that they delete threads mocking Apple)