- Joined
- Jun 22, 2008
- Messages
- 3,343
- Reaction score
- 213
- Points
- 63
- Location
- Forest Hills, NYC
- Your Mac's Specs
- 15-inch Early 2008; Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; Memory 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 10.7.5
Good thing I have this new Unibody MBP to use. The other one is my wife's though. Here's the story:
Let me preface this story by stating that I bought this particular (15") MacBook Pro in Late 2008 (Summer) in Manhattan, Ny. And now, I'm living in Budapest Hungary. We moved here about four months ago. The first difference I noticed about my MBP is how the aluminum body started to vibrate when I slid my fingers across it, but only when the power was plugged into the mains.
This also happens on my new Unibody. I also noticed that not every single power outlet will have this effect on my MacBooks. Also, I always use a surge protector, which I know is not a line conditioner, but it has always worked well for me like this. Relevant because this vibrating thing never happened in the States.
On to the story. Approximately three weeks ago, the Mac started displaying odd behavior, power wise. Using it on batter power only, displaying about 65% power left, the MacBook would just cut out, die. This happened a couple of times afterward , even after having been charged fully, then run a bit to the point of where it had about 60% power left, and I would do more than one thing at a time app wise, and bam... dead.
From then on, I'd resort to using the mains only, until I had the time to take it to an authorized dealer for a looksie. That looksie was about four days ago at an authorized place, and the diagnosis was that the battery was faulty.
Ok, no problem, we've got Apple care. So they replaced the battery jiffy/spiffy and we were happy as pie. The tech told me to calibrate the battery before using it like normal, and he instructed me as such:
Charge the battery for 12 hours.
After it's charged, use it on battery power until it totally drains and goes to sleep.
After it's asleep, let it rest till drained totally.
Plug in, use as normal.
So I did everything from steps 1-3. On step four however, we didn't use it. Instead, we plugged it in and just let it charge. But as soon as I plugged it in, I had a really bad feeling about what I was seeing. Normally you'd plug an uncharged battery in and you'd then see the red light. Sometimes it would be green for a second, but then turn red as it should.
This time, it simply turned green, and stayed green. I unplugged it and plugged it back in with the same results. Well, perhaps I made the biggest mistake at this point, but we had to leave, and so I just left it in thinking that it would straighten its self out.
Wrong. That was at about 11 am. Came home at about 7 pm. Was still green, but thought that perhaps it was cool. Nope. Wife says: "Oh no." Oh no what... "Oh no." What ?
You get the drift. Took the battery out, put back in, nothing. Took the battery out, plugged in the mains, still......nothing.
Dead as dead. WTHeck ? Unfortunately for us, Budapest is NOT a bustling place for business' on Sunday's *or Saturday's for that matter*, so getting it taken care of isn't an option until Monday.
Until then, I suppose I'm either looking for some consolation that this has happened to someone before and everything turned out cool, or that there's something else I can do etc.. What is great though, is that we have Apple care. Without it, we'd be as dead as the MBP is right now.
Funny thing is that I just recently installed Snow Leopard on it. So no important files are lost. Best/worst case scenario, we get a brand new MacBook Pro. Hey.. I wouldn't complain ! But still, we're a bit miffed/freaked out right now.
Doug
Let me preface this story by stating that I bought this particular (15") MacBook Pro in Late 2008 (Summer) in Manhattan, Ny. And now, I'm living in Budapest Hungary. We moved here about four months ago. The first difference I noticed about my MBP is how the aluminum body started to vibrate when I slid my fingers across it, but only when the power was plugged into the mains.
This also happens on my new Unibody. I also noticed that not every single power outlet will have this effect on my MacBooks. Also, I always use a surge protector, which I know is not a line conditioner, but it has always worked well for me like this. Relevant because this vibrating thing never happened in the States.
On to the story. Approximately three weeks ago, the Mac started displaying odd behavior, power wise. Using it on batter power only, displaying about 65% power left, the MacBook would just cut out, die. This happened a couple of times afterward , even after having been charged fully, then run a bit to the point of where it had about 60% power left, and I would do more than one thing at a time app wise, and bam... dead.
From then on, I'd resort to using the mains only, until I had the time to take it to an authorized dealer for a looksie. That looksie was about four days ago at an authorized place, and the diagnosis was that the battery was faulty.
Ok, no problem, we've got Apple care. So they replaced the battery jiffy/spiffy and we were happy as pie. The tech told me to calibrate the battery before using it like normal, and he instructed me as such:
Charge the battery for 12 hours.
After it's charged, use it on battery power until it totally drains and goes to sleep.
After it's asleep, let it rest till drained totally.
Plug in, use as normal.
So I did everything from steps 1-3. On step four however, we didn't use it. Instead, we plugged it in and just let it charge. But as soon as I plugged it in, I had a really bad feeling about what I was seeing. Normally you'd plug an uncharged battery in and you'd then see the red light. Sometimes it would be green for a second, but then turn red as it should.
This time, it simply turned green, and stayed green. I unplugged it and plugged it back in with the same results. Well, perhaps I made the biggest mistake at this point, but we had to leave, and so I just left it in thinking that it would straighten its self out.
Wrong. That was at about 11 am. Came home at about 7 pm. Was still green, but thought that perhaps it was cool. Nope. Wife says: "Oh no." Oh no what... "Oh no." What ?
You get the drift. Took the battery out, put back in, nothing. Took the battery out, plugged in the mains, still......nothing.
Dead as dead. WTHeck ? Unfortunately for us, Budapest is NOT a bustling place for business' on Sunday's *or Saturday's for that matter*, so getting it taken care of isn't an option until Monday.
Until then, I suppose I'm either looking for some consolation that this has happened to someone before and everything turned out cool, or that there's something else I can do etc.. What is great though, is that we have Apple care. Without it, we'd be as dead as the MBP is right now.
Funny thing is that I just recently installed Snow Leopard on it. So no important files are lost. Best/worst case scenario, we get a brand new MacBook Pro. Hey.. I wouldn't complain ! But still, we're a bit miffed/freaked out right now.
Doug