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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > "Repaired" SuperDrive Broke Again - Covered Outside MacBook's Warranty?

"Repaired" SuperDrive Broke Again - Covered Outside MacBook's Warranty?
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Koralatov
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Jan 30, 2009, 09:04 AM
 
My little brother's MacBook drive has stopped working again. It originally died about six months ago, and Apple repaired it for him as his MacBook was still in warranty then. Now, it's died again, but the MacBook is no longer under warranty.

Will they repair it again, since it was less than a year since they 'repaired' it the first time, or is he looking at a big fat charge for fixing it?
     
MacNNUK
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Jan 30, 2009, 09:47 AM
 
Originally Posted by Koralatov View Post
My little brother's MacBook drive has stopped working again. It originally died about six months ago, and Apple repaired it for him as his MacBook was still in warranty then. Now, it's died again, but the MacBook is no longer under warranty.

Will they repair it again, since it was less than a year since they 'repaired' it the first time, or is he looking at a big fat charge for fixing it?
I think you have to ask them nicely, does it not mention warranty term on repair docket ?

How old is you little brother, what is he doing to the drive ?
( Last edited by MacNNUK; Jan 30, 2009 at 11:33 AM. )

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OreoCookie
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Jan 30, 2009, 11:05 AM
 
In Europe, you have a six-month warranty on repairs.
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Koralatov  (op)
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Jan 30, 2009, 07:04 PM
 
Originally Posted by MacNNUK View Post
I think you have to ask them nicely, does it not mention warranty term on repair docket ?
He doesn’t have the repair docket to hand; he thinks it’s back in our parent’s house. I’ll get him to look it out as soon as he gets the chance to go back there.

How old is you little brother, what is he doing to the drive ?
He’s eighteen, and 99% of his use of the drive is to watch DVDs; the other 1% is burning mix CDs. Now he can still read CDs, but it refuses to accept DVDs at all — it doesn’t recognise them as proper discs and spits them back out.

I doubt he’s abused it. He treats his MB very delicately, and never handles it even remotely roughly; he barely moves it around at all. Personally, I think it’s a bad batch of SuperDrives. My MacBook Pro has exactly the same problem, and I can can guarantee my MBP has never even had harsh language directed at it, let alone been abused.

Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
In Europe, you have a six-month warranty on repairs.
I hope they make an exception in this case. He’s a student and can’t afford to go splashing out on exorbitant repair costs.
     
jay3ld
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Jan 30, 2009, 11:12 PM
 
As a FYI,
I have been told by a Apple Tech who repaired my macbook pro, that Apple sends them "refurbished" superdrives for replacements. The drive they had received to replace mine, failed to burn cds as well. The Tech took the superdrive out of his mbp and put it in mine and it worked. He said he just send off for another and repair his later
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AKcrab
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Jan 31, 2009, 12:00 AM
 
If they won't cover it, he could pick up a fairly inexpensive external drive that probably has a more 'robust' drive in it.
     
RMXO
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Jan 31, 2009, 12:41 AM
 
Couldn't he just open up his MBP and swap out the bad one for another drive?
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OreoCookie
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Jan 31, 2009, 05:02 AM
 
Exception? You wrote `about six months ago', so it could be a little less or a little more. If it's less, he's covered.
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Koralatov  (op)
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Feb 2, 2009, 02:38 AM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
Exception? You wrote `about six months ago', so it could be a little less or a little more. If it's less, he's covered.
I wasn’t entirely clear in my original post. The repair took place some time around six months ago (I can’t remember exactly when), but it took place in Edinburgh, which was the closest Apple Authorised Service Provider. As such, getting the damned thing repaired again — even if the original repair is still under warranty — is not going to be totally straightforward. He’s going to have to travel for three hours on a train to even put the thing in for repair, then wait God knows how long to get it back. He’ll have to fit that in around his studies and their availability. Because of that, I decided to err on the side of caution and assume by the time it does get down there, it will be out of warranty.

Either way, I’m pretty unimpressed, especially if Apple are supplying ‘refurbished’ drives for their repairs. Between the two roughly-contemporaneous MacBooks that we have, we’ll have had three drive failures in just over a year. It’s not conclusive by any means, but it does make me think it’s a bad batch.

Originally Posted by AKcrab View Post
If they won't cover it, he could pick up a fairly inexpensive external drive that probably has a more 'robust' drive in it.
Depending how it goes with the repair, it’s very likely he’ll end up doing that.
     
   
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