[Macmusician]

Hi! I'm new to the forums and I hope this isn't a double-post, but a search didn't turn anything quite like this up.

My bride-to-be has a Core Duo 15" Macbook Pro that she got in July of 2006 that's covered by the 3 year AppleCare protection plan. She fell in love with the machine, but a few weeks after she got it, the darn thing started rebooting spontaneously. I advised her to follow Apple's user flowchart (resetting the Pram, PMU, etc) and then had her take it in to the Apple Store near her place to see if the Logic Board was faulty.

The technician working said that he couldn't find anything wrong, but would be happy to replace the machine for her if the problem persisted for more than a few weeks. We installed SMC Fan Control which seemed to stem the problem. For a while. A few months later it started acting up again and we took it back to the Apple Store.

A different technician helped us and said there wasn't a thing wrong with the logic board, battery, or any other components, and thus we had no grounds for asking for a replacement. At this point, the Core2Duo model had been released, so we're wondering if that had something to do with it.

Then her hard drive died. Apple did replace it for free, thank goodness, but they didn't offer to restore any of her data and would not return the original drive to us.

My fiancee's been content to deal with the occaisional restarts, but the thing is out of control now. Its battery has had only 180 complete cycles and yet retains a charge for a little under 4 minutes, and the computer shuts down without warning at least three times an hour. All this happens regardless of whether or not SMC fan control is running.

The people at the Apple store still maintain that the computer does NOT have a problem, despite having seen it randomly restart in their presence. What the heck is going on? We paid nearly 3k for the computer in her configuration plus the AppleCare 3 year warranty. Isn't she entitled to a replacement? She's a phD candidate and NEEDS to have a functional laptop when she's out in the field doing research.

I'm catching cain for even having recommended the MBP to her in the first place. Her five year old 600 dollar HP laptop hasn't ever spontaneously restarted...

[Simon]

Have you tried seeing if the problems go away with another battery? It sounds like your reboots are being caused by the battery. What is your full charge capacity (Sys Profiler > Hardware > Power > Battery Information)?

Have you tried running Apple Hardware Test (boot from the install DVD and hold 'd')? It would report if there are any problem with your MLB.

The store you went to doesn't seem very helpful. Have you tried going to another store or calling AppleCare?

[Fusion]

That asinine that they'd treat you that way. Call AppleCare instead of going into the store and tell them everything that has happened so far. Don't be afraid to get demanding.

[Macmusician]

The AppleCare 1-800 number employee wasn't able to help her. Apparently she'd forgotten to "enroll online," and he required a proof of purchase to be faxed to him. She's a student living almost 800 miles from her parents' home, and her parents are on an extended vacation.

So it's off to the Apple Store tomorrow. They said they'd be able to get a copy from the Apple Store where she bought her machine. Here's hoping!

[Felix]

Note to myself: see whether you have to register/confirm your applecare-plan online.

Regards,

Felix

[Macmusician]

Well, we've had at least a partial breakthrough. The business with the Applecare plan is resolved, and her battery's been replaced. Unfortunately, the Genius wasn't able to glean any signs of a problem from the computer's crash logs since they'd been set to clear once a week. Oh, well. The machine hasn't randomly restarted since the battery replacement so it may be a moot point.

[Simon]

The logs aren't usually deleted once a week but rotated. The old logfiles are still there. Just check for *.n.gz where n=0...9.