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Level 1

2 points

How long will laptop be in the shop?

Hello,

I have a mid-2010 15 inch macbook pro. For a long time now I have been having this issue with the laptop, whereby it will freeze if the video card or graphics card or whatever is taxed too hard. The display goes black immediately after some action (attempting to crop a large image in photoshop, scrolling quickly through images, doing something on an external monitor) and this action is usually something that would make the computer work harder than what a normal person would be doing on a day-to-day basis. If sound is playing while the computer freezes, then the last half-second or so of the sound track repeats ad infinitum, and there is nothing that can be done to bring the computer out of this state except for a hard restart of the system. Over the past year I have tried many things...closing the lid and opening it, waiting for a long time, pressing any number of button combinations from online suggestion forums, resetting the ram or whatever else you reset on the system, trust me...there is no way to make this issue stop happening.

The problem started perhaps one year ago, but was very seldom and did not occur with any alarming frequency. I would estimate that the computer froze maybe once or twice in a month - it was seldom enough that it took me a few months to begin noticing any correlation in what was causing the issue. Over the past year, the problem has grown, very slowly, and as more time passes the number of actions that cause the problem multiply. Six months ago I would maybe see it happen once a week. Three months ago perhaps twice a week. Now, it happens every day and I can reliably force the issue to occur if I just open a large image in photoshop and attempt to quickly do many things to it in a row until the computer blacks out.

I have not sent the laptop in to be fixed because I NEED this laptop. I am a self-employed residential designer and my work hinges on having access to Photoshop, AutoCAD, SketchUp, and many other graphics programs. However, the issue has now grown so that I am unable to work on this laptop...the amount of time I spend resetting the machine every time I overtax the graphics just makes it impossible to get anything done, so I now must send the machine in to be fixed.

I just would like some reliable estimates from people here who may have some idea of how long I will be without my machine. I do not trust the people in the store because they obviously have a bias and ulterior motives to get my business, they will most likely not give me an accurate answer. Every day without my laptop is a day without income. I apologize if this post is longer than necessary, my thought was that in order to give me an accurate time frame for repair, you would need a thorough description of the problem. Thank you in advance.

15" Macbook Pro

Posted on Mar 13, 2012 10:36 AM

25 replies

Mar 13, 2012 11:10 AM in response to Dane Earl

Since you have AppleCare, call the AppleCare number (800-275-2273) and talk to them. The call is free under your AppleCare agreement, and they can arrange to get your machine picked up and shipped to an Apple repair/service center, get it fixed, and return ship it to you.

I've done this before - the first time was some years ago for a faulty video power invertor. Machine went from VA to the Apple repair center in TX and back again to me in less than one calendar week. Of course, it depends on parts availability, but usually turnaround is pretty swift.

Don't just take it anywhere unless you are absolutely sure the place is an official authorized Apple service center or you may void your warranty.

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Mar 13, 2012 11:11 AM in response to Dane Earl

On the contrary, they have every reason to be overly conservative rather than overly optimistic when quoting estimated repair times. They don't want you calling up on day 3 and going ballistic at them because they told you it would be ready on day 2. They'd much rather tell you it will take four days, leaving themselves a little leeway in case there's some kind of glitch, and delight you by calling on day 3 to tell you it's ready ahead of schedule.

But they aren't likely to tell you *anything* until they have a chance to check the machine over.

vea1083

Level 3

714 points

Mar 13, 2012 11:14 AM in response to Dane Earl

I did a search for you using zip code 02532 and these are the results. Hope it helps!

Source: Apple Store & Service Provider Locator

Dane Earl Author

Level 1

2 points

Mar 13, 2012 11:19 AM in response to vea1083

Once again thanks to everyone for your answers. It seems like most of you are saying it should take a week or less to get this issue fixed, is there anything that I could run into that would delay the repair time to over a week into two weeks? Some of you have mentioned part availability, so if this is truly a Logic Board issue, how often is there a problem with availability of new logic boards?

vea1083

Level 3

714 points

Mar 13, 2012 11:23 AM in response to Dane Earl

Dane Earl wrote:

Once again thanks to everyone for your answers. It seems like most of you are saying it should take a week or less to get this issue fixed, is there anything that I could run into that would delay the repair time to over a week into two weeks? Some of you have mentioned part availability, so if this is truly a Logic Board issue, how often is there a problem with availability of new logic boards?

In my honest opinion, I don't know whether someone can tell. I think it all boils down to the way the business operates. For example, there have been cases where computers in the Apple Store are taken and have their logic boards repaired the next day as they have that part available, others just place an order and tell you to come back at a later date.

I think is just in a case by case (or store to store) basis

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Mar 13, 2012 11:27 AM in response to Dane Earl

The older the logic board, the more likely it is that a replacement won't be on hand or immediately available. But any part can be in short supply at any time in any location. Very few if any repair centers can afford to keep every part on hand. This is one of several reasons why you need to be talking to the repair center you plan to use, rather than to us.

Dane Earl Author

Level 1

2 points

Mar 13, 2012 11:27 AM in response to vea1083

Ok. One last thing, if you can excuse me for not knowing anything about computer hardware, I don't actually know what a logic board is. Will this definitely erase everything on my laptop? I obviously will save everything on my machine to an external drive even if the repair will not erase what's on the laptop, but am just curious before I go to the shop if I will definitely have to restore all of my data afterwards or if everything should make it intact.

Dane Earl Author

Level 1

2 points

Mar 13, 2012 11:30 AM in response to eww

Thank you Eww for your concerns, but I would prefer to talk to both the shop and the people here. I understand you don't believe I will get any valid answers from this web site and thank you for letting me know. I will gather what information I can here and then proceed to the store and ask more questions there. I simply want to be prepared before I go.

Mar 13, 2012 11:45 AM in response to Dane Earl

Dane Earl wrote:

Ok. One last thing, if you can excuse me for not knowing anything about computer hardware, I don't actually know what a logic board is. Will this definitely erase everything on my laptop? I obviously will save everything on my machine to an external drive even if the repair will not erase what's on the laptop, but am just curious before I go to the shop if I will definitely have to restore all of my data afterwards or if everything should make it intact.

Logic board = motherboard - ie it is the primary printed circuit board that binds a system together and through whcih everything communicates to one another (cpu, memory bus, I/O bus, ...)

DO back up your hard drive. Whether or not your repair will involve reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling the OS is something only the repair folks can assess. But standard Apple practice is they don't call you up and ask before doing it - if they deem it necessary, they just do it and it is/was up to you to have a proper backup.

BEST practice IMO is to make a full bootable clone of your current system (you can use the free Carbon Copy Cloner app or the shareware app SuperDuper to do this). That way, if they did reinstall the OS, all you need do is plug in the bootable clone, boot from it, reverse clone everything back, and you have your system back exactly as it was before you took it in.

vea1083

Level 3

714 points

Mar 13, 2012 11:56 AM in response to Dane Earl

Dane Earl wrote:

Ok. One last thing, if you can excuse me for not knowing anything about computer hardware, I don't actually know what a logic board is. Will this definitely erase everything on my laptop? I obviously will save everything on my machine to an external drive even if the repair will not erase what's on the laptop, but am just curious before I go to the shop if I will definitely have to restore all of my data afterwards or if everything should make it intact.

I try my best... the Logic Board (called LB for short, and mother board) is where all the electronic computer componets such as the GPU (Graphics Processor), CPU (Central Processor, think Intel Core i5 or i7), memory is connected (RAM), ports, and transistors are housed. It's actually a very interesting piece of engineering when you think about it; what you see in the screen, is rendered on a piece no larger than a letter sized paper sheet (in the MacBook Pro case). In other words the logic board is the computer (minus the monitor, battery, DVD drive).

Here's an image of the mid 2010 MacBook Pro logic board...

Hope this helps and thanks for the star!

How long will laptop be in the shop?