I am in for any and all efforts to get this dealt with. I have had so many issues that Apple has now stopped honoring my Apple Care which is still in effect for nearly a month but my Macbook Pro has been out of usage since Aug 2013.
Inside 2 months (Sept - Nov 2013) they replaced the logic board 3 times, the left and right fans, the optical drive 2 times, ALL wiring as stated it was physically damaged and given the heat issues my guess the damage is the wiring and cables were melted due to heat, the airport has been replaced 2 times, it has 8G of RAM however it only sees 4G or less on boot up with nothing running and after it sits doing nothing after 3 days the RAM drops to 50mb and the machine shuts off. I have nothing running during that time.
I had purchased a iMac at the same time with the same specs with one exception the iMac is a i5 and the Macbook Pro is a i7 everything else is the same and they are special order, with 7200 RPM HD, 8G RAM, Extra 1G on video cards and I don't remember what else but the machines were very expensive high end machines. The iMac was running so hot I burned myself and it has sit in the corner in my music studio turned off for the last 2 1/2 years doing nothing. The Macbook Pro has been my main work station in the studio but it was broken out of the box. The day I received it I called to have it replaced and it was set to be replaced with someone supposed to be calling me however that call never came so I called back two weeks later and they said they decided to do a reinstall and perform some tasks on it to make sure it wasn't a bad install at the factory. I played their games and had figured by this time they knew there was an issue they were trying to keep quiet and since it was very early in the game it was not wide spread yet, only super power users were having issues which Apple denied, and are STILL denying.
After all the reinstalls and tech support tasks which I had done prior to calling in the first place, the machine was still not working properly. The mini display port dropped off, locked up, and required hard boots to get it back. Let me qualify, I use the machine in clamshell mode attached to a large screen monitor, a very expensive high end monitor and I originally thought it was the monitor so I began the process with calling Dell and they very happily replaced my monitor 3 times over night brand new and it became obvious it was not the monitor but I do appreciate Dell taking the initiative and sending me 3 new monitors to try to sort this out.
That was not the only issue, the firewire port did not work at all, the airport dropped off randomly and I had to click on the icon in the title bar and reconnect, the audio port when plugged into my studio equipment did not play the music being recorded in the studio it pulled in a local AM channel that ironically I was a DJ at back in the early 80's, the usb ports worked so I had to buy two usb hubs as well as a M-Audio 4 Track (to bypass the onboard sound) that HAD to be plugged directly into the machine's USB port, the USB hubs were connected one in the open USB port on machine and my monitor USB hub. The machine over heats really bad, it shuts itself off, it locks up and requires a hard boot, the screen does the blue screen, it also has pixelating so bad its difficult if not impossible to make out what is on the screen. The keyboard on the laptop itself isn't always responsive but I use a USB Apple keyboard given I use the machine in clamshell mode. I have an industrial dual fan under it and it is in a clean, open, cold area just as any music studio or any other place with a lot of electronic equipment to prevent over heating.
It has cost me a fortune just to use the machine with all the peripherals I had to purchase. Beginning in Aug 2013 the machine became unusable and still is. It has been in shop 4 times in 2 months and still does not work, it has all the same issues. The third time it went in they used what they refer to white glove and after they had it in the depot for a few days they called me from the depot to tell me they could not reproduce the issues and lucky for me that particular logic board was so defective one of the USB ports had no power. I asked him if they plugged anything in the USB port and he said no we just run stress tests (software test). He plugged a mouse into the USB port and sure enough no power so they replaced the board again. When I received it the machine was still not functioning. Upon bootup the RAM dropped to 1G or less within minutes and the machine shut off, and the optical drive creates a lot of coasters, as well as many of the same issues the machine has had since day one.
While they have been working on that machine I had to use the iMac with the same specs that I bought at the same time and it worked well until a few days ago and it is also showing the very same signs the Macbook Pro has after several months of heavy usage. I bought a Toshiba Windows 8.1 machine special order and I never thought I'd use Windows as I am a *nix/Mac person but I have to work. Lost a client which was a lot of money. It has cost me a fortune to buy software for the Windows machines but there have been some very understanding companies that switched my licenses to Windows at no extra charge mainly because so many music and photography studio's are having the same issues and making the switch to Windows.
It is time for me to buy a new cellphone and I have always gone with the iPhone well not this time, Android here I come. Apple was at one time a reputable company and geared towards music, entertainment, photography and news/magazine businesses however now they seem to be over priced paper weights aimed at the general public. Not honoring my Apple Care is the last straw. A tech, actually he is the supervisor or so he said of the white glove department calls everyone on these boards and other boards trolls that like to make trouble as there is no issues with the machines that Apple acknowledges or is aware of even after the months I had to send my machine in and the fact it is still broken as well as all the reports by others having the same problem. Many people did not buy Apple Care and are stuck with either paying a very large amount to have the logic board replaced which only is a short term fix because the logic board is defective so placing defective parts with defective parts into the machines is only a matter of time before it too is defective and becomes unusable, just as all 3 I have has done.
I am sure Apple will delete this post, it is one way they try to keep a lid on what is actually going on and how they are or as the case may be not handling the issue. I do not believe it is simply the GPU OR it begins with the GPU and over time the faulty GPU and heating issues begins to destroy the rest of the parts on the logic board or attached to it until it is rendered unusable. I have yelled this from the roof tops and have had pow wow's with my friends in the industry (music and photography) and Apple is losing customers at the business level at a high rate and it will become more apparent as some are waiting till their machines become unusable before they make the switch but nobody I know is sticking with Apple especially since they will not even honor my Apple Care without jumping through hoops that are unreasonable and time consuming taking time away from my work and clients.
A class action suit was filed in 2011 however Apple had the site disable any comments and communication of any type with the public. It has not gone to court as far as I know and Apple has not acknowledged the law suit or the issues with the machines. The only satisfaction I have is that I know I have spread the word to some major clients of Apple products that will not remain Apple customers on a global level.
I have documented everything involving my case including scanning in all the return papers claiming my machine is now in good hands, mine. Yet when I boot it up, it does not work. Please understand their software test DOES NOT show this issue up or any issues caused by the problem. They finally opened my machine which is how they found out the cables/wires were visibly defective, as well as abnormal sounds coming from the fans and intermittently the fans stopped running. Do not feel secure if it passes the hardware test because the problem can not been found that way.
