Hi everybody
Sorry upfront for the long story, but I’m really done at this point and felt the need to write a all this down as some sort of therapy to help me overcome this situation and obviously also to hopefully help others in my same situation.
I’m Spanish, so please forgive any possible errors or funny expressions. I tried my best here.
The background
I bought my Mac Pro 6.1 (late 2013) on May 28th 2015, basically because of my great experience with both, my first MacPro 1.1 (which I bought back in 2007) and my mid 2011 MacBook Pro. I work with PC’s and Mac’s since the early 90’s and got deeper in to Apple’s eco system from 2006 on. Always preaching and spreading the word of how better Apples system are compared to other systems out there, so you could say I’m basically an “Apple Evangelist” who convinced many people to jump over to Mac whenever I was asked about what to go for in technology. I didn’t doubt to point out Apple because of it’s ease of use and reliability.
The problem
My MacPro started to suffer this freezing problems more frequently during March 2016. Basically the machine would freeze without being exposed to any processor intensive tasks and the only way to get it again up and running was pressing the power button for a couple of seconds. If I was listening to music using iTunes during a freezing, sound would still come out of the speakers, but the machine would just show the color beach ball cursos and wouldn’t respond at all to any action.
Seeking for a solution
I googled and found many other users pointing out the same kind of issue. I also searched Apple user forums and found a few very long threads on which other Mac Pro 6.1 (late 2013) owners seemed to suffer the same kind of freezings I was experiencing. I tried a couple of things mentioned in the threads in the hope of getting rid of the problem and to avoid the hassle and time spending task of taking my machine to an Apple store, unfortunately with no luck.
First repair
On March 31st 2016, I finally decided to take my Mac Pro to the nearest Apple Store (1 hour driving). I moved my working files and some software I use like “Billings” and other stuff to my older MBP to keep on working and made up a shared Evernote file with all the videos, screen-shots, log files and detailed info about when and on which circumstances this was happening in order to help them find the problem sooner. Many of us posted log files showing the exact same GPU errors after freezings, so I thought this would be enough to help them out.
When I exposed my problem to the Genius, they told me that they had no information about any problems at all with any GPU’s like mine or any others and that it was the first time that any one brought in a MacPro 6.1 for repairing. I showed him some posts on my phone talking about a replacement program Apple started a few months ago, due some AMD500 and AMD700 fails. After a deeper look in to his iPad, he finally found some references to this problem and told me that there was nothing regarding my model of GPU’s AMD300, but decided to run through some hardware tests right in front of me connecting my Mac to a thunderbolt monitor and an external drive to access some special tools they use for this purpose. After some tests showing no problem at all, they registered my machine and gave me an authorization paper to replace both AMD300 GPU’s.
It wasn’t until April 12th 2016 that someone rang me to tell me that both AMD300 card’s would be replaced due to the fact that they experienced problems after replacing one of the cards and therefore they decided to replace both cards to ensure the best solution to the problem.
Second repair
During the following weeks after picking up my MacPro with both AMD300 GPU’s replaced, I suffered new freezings under different circumstances, some times just using Safari and Numbers and one time using Illustrator. Not intensive processor task at all as you can see. I made a screen video with my phone and updated my Evernote folder and shared it again with the Apple Store.
It wasn’t until May 17th 2016, that I could manage to move again over to my older MBP to prepare myself to get rid of my MacPro for a second time and take it back to the Apple Store. This time the Authorization document they gave me showed two AMD700 cards to replace. I have no idea why.
After a couple of weeks without any news from the Apple Store at all, again, it was me who had to take action and wrote an e-mail and left a message on the phone. A few hours later a genius rang me back to tell me that they were not able to reproduce the problem and that I could pick up my Mac Pro. This was on Saturday the 28th of May and my first year warranty was over.
I asked a friend to come with me as I was not happy at all with the outcome and the fact that no one contacted me since the 17th of May. I wasn’t happy at all with the situation and thought it would be wise to go to the Apple Store accompanied by another person.
When we arrived I told them that I was refusing to pick up my Mac Pro because of two reasons, one, the machine would still freeze and second, during this second checking period I was out of the one year warranty and without Apple Care so I wasn’t happy going back home with a defect Mac Pro out of warranty. I learned by then that I wasn’t able to purchase Apple Care as the first year purchase period was over. To be honest I never felt the need to purchase Apple Care.
They told me that there was nothing else they could do and that there was no fix to apply to a non existing problem. If this was the case, I said I would like to have a renewed warranty. All I got was i peace of paper stating that the machine was fine and showed no problems on any of the processor intensive stress test they exposed the machine to during the whole repairing period which took them from May 17th until May 31st 2016 to come to this conclusion. I honestly don’t think this much time is needed to come to the conclusion and forgive me, but I don’t believe or even want to believe that they have been putting my MacPro during all this days under stress tests. I haven’t used that much my processors for my own work.
At this point I explained that this solution was not satisfactory to me at all and asked them to provide me to with a customer complaint form. The manager came out and asked me why I was asking for the complaint form. He said he wouldn’t refuse to provide me with the form, but he would like to hear the background of the story to see if there was something else he could make, so I did. I explained the whole story and pointed out that I didn’t want to go back home with a machine out of warranty which was going to still cause me problems and that no one was offering me any other solution, so all I had left was the possibility of putting all this on writing as an official proof of the whole situation. At this point I was prepared to call others in my same situation to start a class action if needed. The genius who was dealing with my checking out process, proposed then a whole new solution, which was to send my Mac Pro to California to get it test by experts who may find the problem and a possible solution. It wasn’t the manager by the way. The manager just said that he couldn’t provide any solution to a non existing problem. They warned me although that this could well take over a month or even more, due to the fact that they had to send it tu US. I said fine, anything but taking it back home in this situation and already out of warranty. For me it was the less worse solution and worth the time. I also said that if they would find the problem, many other users would benefit from it, as I wasn’t the only one affected by this issue. I decide not to fill out the complaint form, which I now deeply regret.
To my surprise I had to find out later at home that despite not going through the checking out process and not signing any document, internally they closed the current repair process and opened a new one dated on May 31st instead of leaving the date of May 17th. Didn’t feel confortable at all with this.
After a few days I rang to give them what I thought could be some important information about a possible reason for the freezings just to help out. I told the that it seemed for what i could read in new posts, that other users using a Logitech mouse like me, think this could be the problem. Thankfully the same genius who took part of my talks with the manager, was the one who took my call and told me that she was taking already care of the processes to send my machine to California.
Again, after 30 days without any news from the Apple store I wrote an e-mail asking for an update about the my MacPro. I asked in my mail if the machine was still in California. To my surprise “again”, they rang me immediately and told me that I must have misunderstood their proposal as the machine hadn’t been send to California at all, but instead they were testings my Mac with supervision of technicians from Apple in California (When I told my friend who came with me that day, what they told me about having misunderstood their proposal, he couldn’t believe it). They also told me that they were not able to reproduce the error and that it might be caused by the use of non original Adobe Software and that I should open threads with third part companies to find a possible solution. At this point I had enough. I'm an Adobe Creative Cloud Member user and don't use illegal software I had to point out. I also told the genius that the machine freezes just using iTunes or even just Safari and they seem to put my machine under a lot of stress tests which I guess made my whole hardware 3 years old in just one month without any need. I also don’t understand why they don’t check my machine under some different circumstances, like using HDMI monitor different to Apple Thunderbolt Monitor or a different mouse. They asked if I was using a Thunderbolt monitor, which i’m not, and that maybe the fact that I was using a none official Apple hdmi to dvi cable and a Belkin Thunderbold to female hdmi adaptor, could be causing the freezes. Might be, but i’m using the exact same cable and Belkin adaptor on my 2011 MBP since I took my Mac Pro back to the Apple Store over a month ago and had not even one problem with this machine.
Current situation
Almost over a week since my last conversation on the phone with Apple Store “La Condomina” in Murcia, Spain and no news. My next action is to send a certified letter with this exact text to Apple Madrid Headquarters to inform them about the whole case. By the way, I couldn’t find any contact info of this headquarters office in Madrid in any of the official Apple web pages or googling the web. I got the info from a friend who worked in Madrid for a big company and got this info to solve a problem he had in the past. I hope this next step will give me better results than all the previos actions. In the event of a unsatisfactory outcome I would be happy to join a class action against Apple.
At this point it’s worth pointing out that all the conversations held, both by phone or personally with any Apple staff member at the Apple store, developed in the most cordially way on both sides. Always offering their service and help on any further assistance I may require in the future, which I have to be thankfull for, but obviously not a solution to my problem.
Solution
In light of the foregoing, all I’m asking for at this stage is for a new Mac Pro, fully functional and without any problems, as I was used to by my previous purchased Mac’s, or a refund.
Thank you for reading me.
Alberto
