Q: Curious on how many Mac Pro (Late 2013) are defective?

I have a 2013 MacPro (bought in 2014) and am very, very happy with it. It is the most trouble-free, stable machine I have ever owned. Mine has the 4-core D300 spec. I upgraded to 32GB ram from a 3rd party. The machine has never crashed once or acted strangely for any reason. It is also nearly silent. What a marvel it is! And, let's be honest. Isn't it kinda beautiful too? I have had some software issues, mainly involving multiple monitors and 4K. All stuff that can be lived with that obviously have nothing to do with the hardware.

That said, we are on what is commonly called "the bleeding edge." Buying the first generation of any new product line can make you a bit of a guinea pig!

Sorry to hear about the issues and I hope Apple makes it right.

When you use scam software like CleanMyMac, you will never be happy.

How true, Lex.   Macpaw runs a bunch of these so called cleaning apps and they have all been subject bad comment in the past.

SYNGATESFAN; please get rid of this as soon as you can.   Then run your machine for a day or so.   If there is no real improvement, download and run an etrecheck program and publish the results here.   We can then see if you have removed everything of Macpaw (sometimes it is difficult to do) and if there are any other funnies.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

It feels like experience the same problem. "Brand new" Mac pro (early 2013), working in Premiere Pro CC in a quite large project. Could't quit the program properly or unmount the thunderbolt disc. Than when I forced to unmount the thunderbolt ext drive I hade problem shutting down or putting the mac pro to rest. After force quitting and mounting the thunderbolt drive again I launched premiere and it couldn't find the GPU ( I think) (software only). Rebooting again and everything worked fine for a couple of hours, editing. Then when I wanted to do an export from my timeline, everything happened again.

Tried a lot of things. Also a fresh new install of Yosemite. And with premiere pro as the only new software. Same problem, and it comes and goes.

The external drive is  a akitio thunderbolt 4-bay. And I haven't experienced anything strange when I connected this one to another computer.

this is what I have.

Apple Mac PRO X6C 3.5 16GB/256GB SSD FIREPRO D500

The forums in particular and similar Internet sites in general are a lightning rod for people with problems. For every such problem you read about here, there mat be hundreds to thousands of folks who are happy with these macs, but do not start a new topic to report that.

When there have been problems, such as the 2010 MacBook Pro where some samples had a latent defect, those topics were swamped with users piling on with "me, too!" and the threads grew to hundreds of participants. Apple later issued a recall for some of them.

The graphics chips on these cards get really hot, as do the RAM chips. That is why they are all touching the central heatsink. That alone would contribute to a higher-than-negligible failure rate. I think your fears about paying a lot for a dud of a system are completely unfounded. And your own experience -- that Apple is taking it in and finding the problems and fixing it are a GOOD sign, not an indication of systemic problems.

I am having Freezes every week. sometimes more & sometimes less. These are really random GPU freezes

Have replaced both GPU's but the problem remains. I think it's more of a DESIGN FLAW, rather than defective GPU.

that's just bummer .

Have replaced both GPU's but the problem remains.

Then maybe they need to be replaced again.

We are seeing more and more stories transition about from misery to "it's working great now" after graphics replacements. I expect Apple is learning more about exactly what the problems are every day.

Why should they be replaced again?

If apple knows about this issue, why does it take more than 1,2 and sometimes 3 repairs before it is resolved ???

That's why I'm saying that this is a design flaw. some machines work, and some don't. no one knows why.

I have talked to engineers in an apple authorized service center and they said that even if I would have them fix my computer without using "apple care", they still can't guarantee to resolve this issue without having a few attempts. all parts work great separately. but something in the way it's designed together makes the GPU performance unpredicted.

Sad but True.

Systems as complex as the Mac Pro are difficult to get into the field without a few bumps in the road.

Apple previously relied on Graphics card vendors to provide them with fully tested subsystems. It is possible that Apple underestimated the complexity of building their own design graphics cards of this complexity from just a "reference design" rather than an existing, shipping set of cards.

In any Field Service system, a few spares that are troublesome have a way of sneaking back into inventory and causing trouble. As time goes on, the number of cards tagged defective, swapped out, and set aside for further testing helps home in on what the issues are.

Very often, the design is not the problem, but out-of-spec components and things that fail in unpredicted or undetectable ways end up being the issue.

Sometimes folks like you sit on the sidelines and suffer in silence, saying "I'll just wait for a fix."  Then your bad cards never get into the hands of Engineers, the pile of defective cards stays small, and Apple looks at the small pile and says "not an emergency."

If you have a problem that can be duplicated, Apple can fix it. I urge you to get your problems fixed, for the good of yourself and everyone else.

if you bought a system brand new to the marketplace, and did not also buy the AppleCare package, that may not have been the best decision ever. But by making decision, you also decided you would be paying for any repairs out-of-pocket.

The time for any large group of these Macs to be recalled has come and gone. Sure enough, there is now a recall in place, but it does not cover your model Mac Pro. The likelihood of another recall on top of the one that is in place is extremely slim.

I did buy Apple Care.

And this current recall does apply on my system. this last repair that was made was covered by apple.

then contact Applecare, let them know your problems are not over, and ask them to repair it again.

You purchased AppleCare, and you have an existing history of problems. That counts for something. It will not be a cakewalk, but ask them for relief. If they tell you they are not authorized to get you those repairs, politely ask for the person who CAN authorize the repairs to contact you.

They want you to be a happy customer, if possible. Apple is nothing like your local car dealer.

Be professional, and do not threaten to sue everybody. The "sue everybody" guys will NEVER be a happy customer.

I have already repaired it once.

I am losing a lot of time dealing with this at work, each repair means losing money.

I would expect apple to treat their pro costumers just the same they do with iPhone and iPad.

The machine is DEFECTIVE, it has been bought like that, I did nothing wrong to be treated like this, so give me a new one, and if the new one would have the same problem, then give me another one. i don't have to suffer for their mistakes. don't pull me around and discourage me until i give up and just "live with it" like many users do.

That is not how it works for any item you buy anywhere. "getting a new one" is covered by local "Lemon Laws", originally aimed at defective cars.

You always have to submit it for repair, and let them give it their best shot at trying to repair it several times. (How many depends on local law where you live).