Bluetooth Connectivity + Lemon Law Question

Question

Level 1

5 points

Bluetooth Connectivity + Lemon Law Question

I have an Early 2013 15" MacBook Pro with Retina and while using it, it unexpectedly drops all bluetooth connections and dispalys this symbol:

It seems to be an intermittent issue and I've been to the Apple store twice for it; The first time they ran a hardware diagnostics and it passed everything there. They reset the PRAM and did a software diagnostics and rebuilt the operating system to repair a few missing things. They then advised me to upgrade to Mavericks because I had downgraded to Mountain Lion due to issues with SMB and my heavy reliance on access to my NAS.

Fast forward a little and I've upgraded to Mavericks same issue. I'm using the computer and my first thought is the mouse is out of batteries. Turn it over and it's still green so I look up in the menu bar same icon. It's worth noting when this happens the computer completely locks up and you have to reboot it to get it back. Take it back to the Apple store, they do their diagnostics and reset the PRAM, etc. They tell me my Mavericks installation is corrupt so they rebuild it. They tell me if it happens again to try doing a complete wipe and recovery via internet for Mavericks. It happened again. Did the wipe and internet recovery and everything was fine until this morning when it happened again.

I have AppleCare on this computer and ironically Apple has been very hands off on this issue. It's barely a year old and has been in service 4-5 times for various issues. I'm curious if anyone else is having this issue and/or if anyone has had experience with having a computer replaced under either a lemon law or policy at Apple? My real concern here is that they are going to bandaid and string this issue along like they've done so far and then when the warranty drops out I'm going to be stuck with a huge bill as it snowballs and plumes into a major issue.

The Apple Store advised me that I could send it out and they could do a hardware diagnostic on it, but they said the chances of finding anything were slim as there's no issues showing up in any of their hardware or software tests and I really can't afford to be without my machine as I use it for work.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Feb 17, 2014 11:51 AM

Reply

Answer 1

mytw0b1ts Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 18, 2014 12:49 PM in response to mytw0b1ts

Another update (more symptoms):

Today the computer, while in use, has began to randomly turn off (as if it's going to sleep) when connected to my Cinema display. When I unhook everything, pull it out from the desk and open it the screen comes on and everything else is locked up. The only way to make the computer functional again is to reboot it at which time you receive a message that the computer was shutdown because of a problem. The bluetooth issue described above has happened twice today already and this current issue has now happened four times.

Called AppleCare again and spoke to a senior advisor and first she tried to attribute it to a hardware issue and setup an repair. During the process of setting up the repair, she said it is now a software issue and had me verify the hard disk and repair it. She then asked me to create a new partition and reload Mavericks onto it to see if I could reproduce the issue but this was going to take upwards of three hours.

Anyone else experiencing anything in this ballpark?

Reply

Answer 2

BobRz

Level 5

6,138 points

Feb 18, 2014 1:39 PM in response to mytw0b1ts

If I were you I'd call customer relations and go through your story with them. You have to start with regular support and specifically ask for customer relations, and you may have to be a little persistent. You may have to still send it in for service, but when they get involved things seem to get resolved faster.

Reply