[galaga]

I got my 1.25 rev a 15" albook on 17 March after months of watching and waiting until all of the issues it had seemed to have subsided. I have been extremely impressed with this machine... until recently.

I don't mean to bore you, but, you guessed it- for the last 6 weeks I have watched the right side of my screen get intermittently dark on a regular basis. So it's come time to send it back. Then, as if in reply to my sentiments, the keyboard's backlight just stopped working one day (night actually) about a week ago. Although it mysteriously started working again, it was off for about ten days. So as you can imagine, I wasn't feeling too comfortable. Added to this, I'm sure it's not my imagination, but I reckon when I first got my 'book, a little over 12 weeks ago, the battery life was around 3 hours. At the moment it's almost bang on 1 hour.

So why am I telling you all of my woes? Well, dear friends, in my hour of need I am seeking a little bit of advice and support.

I don't have applecare (graaagh), but it was bought through the university my mum works at and I was assured was garunteed for repair for 1 year. As far as I can tell from the forums here, the 15" rev b albook seems to be fairly issue free while I seem to have one of the last of the lemons.

If I send it back, do I have any sort of rights to say 'Thanks Apple but this one's knackered, I want a new one instead', and pay for an upgrade to a rev b? If not, how many times does it have to go in for repair before I can say 'enough is enough' and just ask for a new one? I don't mean to be pessimistic but it seems that many rev a albooks that went in for repair ended up being sent back a number of times.

Any help or advice, maybe from someone who has been in a similar situation would be very greatly appreciated. I'm worried that I'm watching my beloved powerbook die a slow (and very premature) death.

It cost a lot of £, I ignored (and named) the dead pixel and now this. Woe is me

[SplijinX]

Not sure if the warranty business is the same in the UK as it is in the US, but all the computers Apple sells over here has a one year warranty. Buying Applecare only extends that by an additional two years. So if you purchased it back in March, you should still have plenty of time left provided you guys have some sort of warranty policy.

I am almost certain they will not let you replace your powerbook without them trying to repair it. I think the norm over here is if you send in your computer for the same issue five times, then they replace it a model with the same or better specs.

Read up on your warranty info and any lemon laws you might have in your area and give tech support a call. Send it in for repairs and see how that goes. Just make sure you document and check everything over everything before and afterwards. Also if the problems aren't reproducible (ie your backlight works fine now), then they probably won’t do anything with the issue.

Good luck with getting it back up to tip top condition.

[urrl78]

I sent mine in for the same problem three times; after the third time I was written up for a new one. Took about a week or two to get it. I had a LCD display problem with my 1 Ghz 17" and they replaced it with a 1.5 Ghz 17" brand spanking new. It is flawless. Have patience and go thru the repair process. Remember; for the same exact problem the third time (back unrepaired) is the charm.

[galaga]

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it. (The backlight stopped working again today btw). Just one more daft question-

When it goes in for repair I should just back up my hard drive and send it, right? The repair guys will have no reason to go looking through my stuff. Or am I being too trusting?

[Grayson]

In my opinion, if you have anything at all you consider sensitive on your HD then you should back it up and zero it out and format it before sending it to anyone. No one can be trusted completely...

[galaga]

Hmm... I suppose that's the most effective way but it would be a lot of hassle. Maybe I could set it up so that it automatically logs into a guest account with no access to my main account. Wouldn't this work?

There aren't any goverment secrets on my hard drive btw, just the usual sort of stuff- a website, some passwords, some personal stuff etc. but like anybody else, I wouldn't want anyone else to go snooping around.

[kafoochy]

Originally posted by galaga:
Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it. (The backlight stopped working again today btw). Just one more daft question-

When it goes in for repair I should just back up my hard drive and send it, right? The repair guys will have no reason to go looking through my stuff. Or am I being too trusting?

I wouldn't say you're being too trusting, just too suspicious. Maybe because I know people at the Apple Store and went in enough times to have my PB repaired to know everybody else. Even if I didn't, as long as I didn't have bank numbers saved, I never worried. I have some passwords for websites stored (and my email), only a very few, and I can't envision a tech searching for the few websites where I have passwords saved and trying to exploit my saved password. Could it happen? Most definitely! But I really don't care. If they are really that interested, let them do whatever they want. I love using other people's computers to see how them have them setup. I'd love to see a tech read the emails I have from family and friends; they're quite a quirky bunch!

On the note of repairs, everything that others have said is true. Your computer is covered for one year unless you get AppleCare and then it is covered for two. I highly suggest getting AppleCare, BTW. If your mom works at a university she can probably also get an educational discount, (assuming they have this in Scotland like they do in the US). They will not replace the computer the first time you bring it in for repair and you cannot ask them to replace it with a newer model and have you pay a fee. I had my 1.25Ghz AluBook that I bought in the fall repaired five times before it was replaced (main logic board replaced once, screen once, latch once, battery three times, top cover twice and keyboard four times) Don't ask for a new computer on the first time. Get it repaired and see how it works. As long as they have the parts, it shouldn't take long and the service is fairly good. Not to say that it's normal to have problems, but they happen, moreso with laptops. And if it makes you feel any better, the keyboard on my new 1.5Ghz PB still has a slight buckle, so it still isn't perfect. I'm trying to decide if I want to get it repaired. Goodluck with everything. Your computer needs to be repaired, so go in and get it repaired. If you're concerned about data/scurity, back it up and give them a different user account.

[headgeek]

I just wanted to chime in on the hard drive information.

I just had my TiBook in for repair & was concerned about the information that is on my hard drive, it is both confidential & contains some trade secret information that I could be terminated & sued if anyone outside of the Non Disclosure Agreement saw it...

The guy at the Apple Store told me that I could send it in with out a hard drive...

So if you have a problem that is not hard drive related... get out a torx #8 screw driver & take it out.