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MikeD · Mar 3, 2006, 06:28 PM

My PMac is in for repair and they're saying it's the hard drive. It's under warranty and it's been 3 WEEKS now. Is this normal? What should I do?

Thanks,

Mike

2009059 · Mar 3, 2006, 08:19 PM

I sent in my PM too, they said it would be about 5-7 days MAX with procare. But, it turned out to take about 2.5 weeks. It was also for the harddrive.

MikeD · Mar 3, 2006, 09:00 PM

I'm feeling that this a bit crazy for 3 weeks though. I don't have procare but still... I do have apple care and 3 weeks for a repair seems crazy. Did you call and complain? I called and they said they were waiting for a 'part' (being the HD I guess). What probs did you have?

Mike

2009059 · Mar 4, 2006, 08:22 AM

They said they were waiting for the parts, which was the HD. They said once they got the parts that it would take 2 days (with procare). Problems with the machine?..I was having kernal panics every day leading up to the machine dying, because of a head failure.

MikeD · Mar 4, 2006, 10:27 AM

I was having similar issues. When the machine would want to sleep/power down, the computer would crash. If I wasn't in the room to do a hard reset/restart, the fans would be blowing like crazy. I could only salvage what I had (most important stuff) by booting the powermac ON my powerbook in firewire disk mode.

2009059 · Mar 4, 2006, 07:10 PM

Hitachi 400GB in your PM by any chance?

jamil5454 · Mar 4, 2006, 09:00 PM

Sometimes it takes a while to repair a machine, but it is almost never the store's fault. Often it takes Apple a while to find and ship out a part from the warehouse. If it's taking this long, I'm guessing the warehouse went out of stock too and so it had to be reordered.

MikeD · Mar 5, 2006, 11:43 AM

It was a 400gb drive I know for sure. Don't remember the brand though. Seems to be a widespread issue huh (Yet no official recall - is there a tech note on it?)?

2009059 · Mar 6, 2006, 07:49 AM

It's a widespread issue, and Hitachi is recovering them (if they can) and replacing them for free. Unfortunately, the head on mine was completely destroyed.

MikeD · Mar 7, 2006, 10:34 PM

So do you think it's entirely an issue with the HD and not heat or anything else in the machine that is causing the HD to fail? Is your drive now working in tip top shape? Oh yeah, was yours failing right before the computer would go into sleep like mine did?

mike

2009059 · Mar 7, 2006, 10:50 PM

I didn't have a problem right before sleep, but anything drive intensive such as burning disk, expanding/decompressing files, and really random stuff would cause kernal panics 5+ times a day! I got my drive replaced and haven't had any troubles since. I don't know what is wrong with yours, but I think it is drive related. Since the computer saves everything before it goes to sleep (at least it would make sense for it to do that) it would cause the drive to be working hard. Thats just my guess on it but I'm sure the Apple repair guys will figure it out. Good luck with that.

MikeD · Mar 13, 2006, 09:35 PM

Still there.. A a couple of days over a month now!! Can I get a new computer out of this??!??!

mikochu · Mar 13, 2006, 10:11 PM

Man..that's scary. I wouldn't want to get ANY warranty work done if it takes a month. jebus!

That's actually how my sister was able to get a Power Mac G5 (DP 2ghz) for $1000 at Sam Ash. Someone bought a DigiDesign setup that included the Power Mac (or something). The videocard was bad, so Sam Ash sent it into Apple for repair. By the time they got it back (3+ months later), the Dual Cores came out. They weren't able to sell it for face value anymore, so they sold it to my sister for $999 +tax...lucky bastage..

Cadaver · Mar 19, 2006, 11:26 AM

4 weeks for a hard drive swap!?
Something's not right. It takes about 3 minutes to complete once the replacement comes. At this point, I'd cough up the $200 and buy a new drive and put it in myself.
I'd make a big, big stink if I were you.

mountainash · Mar 24, 2006, 10:44 AM

It probably depends on their back log of repairs. Apple pay pretty bad rates for warranty repairs, so service centres tend to keep a back log. If it is a warranty job, then they need to diagnose, order the part from Apple, fit the part, then test to make sure, then get it back to you. If apple are being slow on parts (maybe they ran out of 160Gb SATA drives or whatever), then you suffer.

But, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Its painful but it works. Also, if it is a warranty job, annoy apple, because it is apple's fault.