MacBook Pro is dead

[chriskleeman]

Went out to the studio today to do some more guitar rehab, and lo and behold, my 2020 MBP was totally dead. Good thing I backed it up a few weeks ago after I upgraded to Big Sur. Sending it back to Apple, good thing I bought AppleCare. It’s a factory refurb bought online from Apple. 

[Xairbusdriver]

Such a sad, sad story!!!

Wait...you'll mainly be without your "life" for only a day or two... Next!

Anyone with a real problem:
Broken water line on second floor
   Lightening strike destroy's anything electric in whole house
      Finally learned why an 'ounce of prevention' auto backups is priceless
         Cat ate last charge cable
            etc.?
                                     

And what's this "went out to my studio" thing? You got some private space? Just for your own relaxation?!! And it's got a roof and everything?!!!! Next you'll be complaining about no one comes by to wash you're car!!!!!!  

[chriskleeman]

More like a warehouse for old electronics I can't use or sell any more, and guitars, guitars, guitars... oh yeah, it has a backup propane heater, a wood stove, and no plumbing...  Oh yes, a roof too... 

[Paddy]

Bummer. Well, at least you didn't spill tea all over it and kill it yourself, like I did back in mid May. 2018 MBP - completely killed. Ain't no AppleCare for utter stupidity!

And then there was the crazy replacement saga:

1. Ordered new M1 MBP from refurb store (no choice there - unless I wanted to wait 2.5 months until the end of JULY for one) and paid for the expedited delivery so I could get it all set up on the weekend.
2. It didn't arrive. Said Apple had missed the window for sending from the US.
3. Monday. No MBP. UPS tracking had no updated delivery day.
4. Tuesday. No MBP. Called UPS. They said they couldn't find it in their system. Oh...great. Call Apple they say.
5. Called Apple - got bounced around four different departments. Finally told they'd have to start an investigation - and how long would that take, I wondered? "A day or two"...
6. An hour after the phone call I got an email from Apple saying "your order has been cancelled and your payment will be refunded." WOT???
7. Called Apple again. Yup - can't locate it, no other MBPs in captivity now, period. Too bad, so sad.
8. What to do? Kinda need this thing. Start combing Kijiji and FB Marketplace - so many ads that look completely bogus. Finally find one that seems real, contact the person and voila. Month-old M1, top of the line (so more than I'd intended on getting in the first go-round, but oh well...) and the price was retail but no tax (which at 13% is no laughing matter) and it had AppleCare.
9. Arranged to meet the seller at the bank - he was even willing to go to the Apple store to assure that it wasn't stolen
10. Picked up the MBP on Thursday morning. Got back in car. Scrolled through emails. There was one from UPS...guess what? Allegedly, they were going to deliver the wayward, supposedly cancelled MBP the next day (exactly a week after  it was supposed to have arrived). Yah, right - I'll believe that when I see it.
11. Of course...it turned up exactly when they said it would.

So - now what? I am now in possession of TWO brand new M1 Macs, when they were as scarce as hen's teeth. So - hubby got an unexpected replacement for his 2016, and son's girlfriend got a 2016 MBP capable of running Windows either natively or in Parallels (which she needs for her CPA course) which replaces her ailing and on-its-last-legs 2010 13" MBP. Everyone's happy (well, it wasn't exactly a cheap exercise...)

Postscript: A couple of weeks later, I'm looking through my Visa bill - and you guessed it, Apple had refunded the payment for the MBP that we now had in our possession. Tempting as it was to have a "free" computer, I couldn't do that - so I called them up and said "um...Houston, we have a rather unusual problem..." and then went a couple of rounds while they tried to figure out how to actually bill me after the fact. LOL.

So - I certainly hope your replacement goes much more smoothly and promptly than mine did, Chris!!

[Xairbusdriver]

Paddy, With your luck, Apple will probably mess up and send you another MBP with an apology for the cancellation and loss!!

[daryl66]

 Well, father time  has been nipping at the old 2011 MBP for a while, and it finally chewed off a large enuff hunk that it required some LONG overdue action.  There have been several issues which we have managed to work around  however when our bank stop supporting Safari unless it was upgraded to  version 15 something had to be done. Upgrade to what?? I found an absolutely premo 2019 reconditioned 27 inch iMAC 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5, at an unbelievably  low price on Amazon, which will probably last longer than I will. The jump from OSX 13 to Monterey was/is a very large leap

OSX 15.2 WHAT AN EYEOPENER and shock. After about 3 days, using Migration Assistance, plus a thumb drive, etc, finally got the new guy working similar to what we were used to with the old guy, however my entire iTunes music library (geriatric era personified) is apparently gonzo. Won’t play. (Still available on the iPhone6 and iPad)Thankfully the photo library modified to play and the bank is happy. Since SWMBO is no longer traveling the computer requirement has decreased significantly. Office 2016, and Photoshop 6  are apparently  history, (no problem, alternatives will suffice if required) Time marches on. 

[daryl66]

Correction:   Make that OSX 10.13 to Monterey

[chriskleeman]

Wow, that's quite a saga Paddy! Unbelievable!

I'm happy to report that it was ridiculously fast and easy. I sent the MBP out this past Thursday in a return box that they had delivered to me on Wednesday. I had the computer back by Saturday around noon. New logic board and touch ID sensor board, new OS (Monterey).

Thank God I had a viable backup. So far the PCI Express enclosure and drive have been really fast and performed well. Also great that SuperDuper and CCC have solved the backup issues and we can now continue to clone drives. Migration Asst. went super fast with that drive and Thunderbolt connection.

Don't feel bad, I kayoed my 2016 MBP in similar fashion, knocking over a glass of seltzer water on it. Killed the keyboard and damaged the display.

CK

Bummer. Well, at least you didn't spill tea all over it and kill it yourself, like I did back in mid May. 2018 MBP - completely killed. Ain't no AppleCare for utter stupidity!

And then there was the crazy replacement saga:

1. Ordered new M1 MBP from refurb store (no choice there - unless I wanted to wait 2.5 months until the end of JULY for one) and paid for the expedited delivery so I could get it all set up on the weekend.
2. It didn't arrive. Said Apple had missed the window for sending from the US.
3. Monday. No MBP. UPS tracking had no updated delivery day.
4. Tuesday. No MBP. Called UPS. They said they couldn't find it in their system. Oh...great. Call Apple they say.
5. Called Apple - got bounced around four different departments. Finally told they'd have to start an investigation - and how long would that take, I wondered? "A day or two"...
6. An hour after the phone call I got an email from Apple saying "your order has been cancelled and your payment will be refunded." WOT???
7. Called Apple again. Yup - can't locate it, no other MBPs in captivity now, period. Too bad, so sad.
8. What to do? Kinda need this thing. Start combing Kijiji and FB Marketplace - so many ads that look completely bogus. Finally find one that seems real, contact the person and voila. Month-old M1, top of the line (so more than I'd intended on getting in the first go-round, but oh well...) and the price was retail but no tax (which at 13% is no laughing matter) and it had AppleCare.
9. Arranged to meet the seller at the bank - he was even willing to go to the Apple store to assure that it wasn't stolen
10. Picked up the MBP on Thursday morning. Got back in car. Scrolled through emails. There was one from UPS...guess what? Allegedly, they were going to deliver the wayward, supposedly cancelled MBP the next day (exactly a week after  it was supposed to have arrived). Yah, right - I'll believe that when I see it.
11. Of course...it turned up exactly when they said it would.

So - now what? I am now in possession of TWO brand new M1 Macs, when they were as scarce as hen's teeth. So - hubby got an unexpected replacement for his 2016, and son's girlfriend got a 2016 MBP capable of running Windows either natively or in Parallels (which she needs for her CPA course) which replaces her ailing and on-its-last-legs 2010 13" MBP. Everyone's happy (well, it wasn't exactly a cheap exercise...)

Postscript: A couple of weeks later, I'm looking through my Visa bill - and you guessed it, Apple had refunded the payment for the MBP that we now had in our possession. Tempting as it was to have a "free" computer, I couldn't do that - so I called them up and said "um...Houston, we have a rather unusual problem..." and then went a couple of rounds while they tried to figure out how to actually bill me after the fact. LOL.

So - I certainly hope your replacement goes much more smoothly and promptly than mine did, Chris!!

[Paddy]

Wow - that's an amazingly fast repair, especially given the parts shortages on what seems like almost everything these days!

And don't I wish that Apple would send me something for my time and trouble. Haha. Nope. All I got was the requested refund on the "express" shipping - which could/should have been called the "turtle" option.

Darryl - if you're looking for a good Photoshop replacement, check out Affinity Photo. Or ON1 Photo Raw. Both are excellent, and very reasonable. Capture One is terrific as well, but not as cheap. (Yes, I have them all - have never quite been able to break up with Lightroom/Photoshop, but that hasn't stopped me from trying various other options over the years)

As for the MS suite - LibreOffice is good (and free), Pages is definitely an option and if you do want to stick with MS, then get Microsoft 365 - it comes with 1TB/user of online storage. Family plan is great if you need more than one user, single user account is $70/yr.

[chriskleeman]

Paddy, I'm beginning to wonder that it might be a "Known" issue, at least by Apple. Pretty much everything is on the logic board with these later models, the CPU, RAM and HDD. So basically, it's a brand new computer. And they had the parts on hand. So, yeah, it was a ridiculously fast repair.