MacBook Pro top case replacement= more problems
Right, I bought a MacBook Pro 15" Core 2 Duo (2.16GHz) from an authorised apple retailer thinking everything was fine, and it was! It was my first time owning a Mac and it just rocked (especially when taking it into work (which is a 'Microsoft partner') and clearly presented the finger of defiance at Microsoft)
2 Weeks ago, I noticed the paint was flaking off from under the control, command and FN keys. So, on the phone to apple I was within 10 minutes of noticing it. To cut a long story short I was instructed to take it to an authorised apple repair centre. I left it with them for a week, confident in the knowledge that my MacBook Pro would be returned to me in pristine condition.
Sure enough 7 days later I picked up my 'repaired' MacBook Pro. Conveniently my battery was dead. So there was no way to test it when I received it back from them. Once home, I plugged it back in, booted it up, and was quite happily playing round with it until it began to get dark and for a bit of fun when I'm bored I put my hands over the light sensors...nothing happened. I figured the lights were turned off, so in some bizarre finger movement I knocked the brightness right the way up. Still I had a dark keyboard, as you can imagine after trying several times, including a reboot, I was adamant I had a dark keyboard. I left it, whilst making a mental note to ring about it in the morning (it was 8:30pm)
Later I had friends round so I plugged my MacBook Pro into my stereo like I always do. I left it playing music for a while. When I returned to it (still playing music) I unplugged it and it went deathly quiet. Figuring that I had muted the speakers I tried to turn the speakers up and un-mute them, once again to no avail. As usual I tried rebooting it and checked to see what was listed in the audio out section in the system preferences. The only thing listed was the optical out, and surely enough, if I moved my head to the side the bright red optical out was lit. Naturally this was driving me up the wall; these components were working when I left it with the repair centre. In the morning I rang them and they said to bring it in. I done as instructed, bearing in mind that the round trip to the place from where I live is 22 miles.
Once there they took the laptop off me, listened to what I said was wrong with it and took it into the back to have a look. I was left waiting for several minutes before finally I was shown into the repair department (I had asked to see inside my portable earlier) once I had a look I was told that it was fine and that all connectors are in. Apparently they seem to think that the MacBook Pro I had didn't have a backlit keyboard. I asked them to reseat the connectors and put it together and try again. I was asked to wait outside again. Soon, 4 of them returned with my laptop. I tried it again, with no luck. I was introduced to a guy who supposedly owned a MacBook Pro (core duo) and he said his didn't have a backlit keyboard. This instantly sent alarm bells ringing, considering I have avidly followed all of the Mactel information leading up to the release of them and up to the point I bought my own. It clearly stated that ALL (CD and C2D) MacBook Pro's come with a backlit keyboard (to avoid making a mistake and branding him a liar without evidence, I held my tongue.)
The older guy took over from this and said that every component from apple has a code; they replaced my component with another of the same part number. However according to them there are a series of optical fibres running down the side (next to the speaker grill's) which light the keyboard, mine didn't have them when it went in, or when it came out of service. My question to them was as follows...
"OK, if this isn’t a backlit keyboard, with no optical fibres to light it, in a MacBook Pro where every model has a backlit keyboard, can you please explain to me how I had a backlit keyboard before it was put into service?!"
It went quiet for a moment and then they resumed their denial of the back lighting on the keyboard.
At this stage I was becoming incredibly frustrated, I knew there wasn't such a thing as optical fibres running under the speaker grills, I knew my keyboard lit up. I wish I had of said something, although being a rather young MacBook Pro owner (I'm only 17 years old) I was feeling rather intimidated and so left it at that. It’s rather annoying, knowing you know a lot about the product, but facing up to 4 technicians certainly made me have my wits about myself. I left my laptop with them, hoping I would get it back soon.
Once I got home, in a rather foul mood, I instantly started trawling the 'net for information regarding the top section of a MacBook Pro, and all revisions of it. Having spent several hours looking, I have compiled a collection of images, showing no evidence of having had optical fibres, or any MacBook Pro with no backlit keyboard. It even states that there are backlit keyboards on apples website under the specification tab. I'll let you know how it goes.
Oh if anyone was wondering the service centre I went to was NCS Group Plc. in Ponteland.
2 Weeks ago, I noticed the paint was flaking off from under the control, command and FN keys. So, on the phone to apple I was within 10 minutes of noticing it. To cut a long story short I was instructed to take it to an authorised apple repair centre. I left it with them for a week, confident in the knowledge that my MacBook Pro would be returned to me in pristine condition.
Sure enough 7 days later I picked up my 'repaired' MacBook Pro. Conveniently my battery was dead. So there was no way to test it when I received it back from them. Once home, I plugged it back in, booted it up, and was quite happily playing round with it until it began to get dark and for a bit of fun when I'm bored I put my hands over the light sensors...nothing happened. I figured the lights were turned off, so in some bizarre finger movement I knocked the brightness right the way up. Still I had a dark keyboard, as you can imagine after trying several times, including a reboot, I was adamant I had a dark keyboard. I left it, whilst making a mental note to ring about it in the morning (it was 8:30pm)
Later I had friends round so I plugged my MacBook Pro into my stereo like I always do. I left it playing music for a while. When I returned to it (still playing music) I unplugged it and it went deathly quiet. Figuring that I had muted the speakers I tried to turn the speakers up and un-mute them, once again to no avail. As usual I tried rebooting it and checked to see what was listed in the audio out section in the system preferences. The only thing listed was the optical out, and surely enough, if I moved my head to the side the bright red optical out was lit. Naturally this was driving me up the wall; these components were working when I left it with the repair centre. In the morning I rang them and they said to bring it in. I done as instructed, bearing in mind that the round trip to the place from where I live is 22 miles.
Once there they took the laptop off me, listened to what I said was wrong with it and took it into the back to have a look. I was left waiting for several minutes before finally I was shown into the repair department (I had asked to see inside my portable earlier) once I had a look I was told that it was fine and that all connectors are in. Apparently they seem to think that the MacBook Pro I had didn't have a backlit keyboard. I asked them to reseat the connectors and put it together and try again. I was asked to wait outside again. Soon, 4 of them returned with my laptop. I tried it again, with no luck. I was introduced to a guy who supposedly owned a MacBook Pro (core duo) and he said his didn't have a backlit keyboard. This instantly sent alarm bells ringing, considering I have avidly followed all of the Mactel information leading up to the release of them and up to the point I bought my own. It clearly stated that ALL (CD and C2D) MacBook Pro's come with a backlit keyboard (to avoid making a mistake and branding him a liar without evidence, I held my tongue.)
The older guy took over from this and said that every component from apple has a code; they replaced my component with another of the same part number. However according to them there are a series of optical fibres running down the side (next to the speaker grill's) which light the keyboard, mine didn't have them when it went in, or when it came out of service. My question to them was as follows...
"OK, if this isn’t a backlit keyboard, with no optical fibres to light it, in a MacBook Pro where every model has a backlit keyboard, can you please explain to me how I had a backlit keyboard before it was put into service?!"
It went quiet for a moment and then they resumed their denial of the back lighting on the keyboard.
At this stage I was becoming incredibly frustrated, I knew there wasn't such a thing as optical fibres running under the speaker grills, I knew my keyboard lit up. I wish I had of said something, although being a rather young MacBook Pro owner (I'm only 17 years old) I was feeling rather intimidated and so left it at that. It’s rather annoying, knowing you know a lot about the product, but facing up to 4 technicians certainly made me have my wits about myself. I left my laptop with them, hoping I would get it back soon.
Once I got home, in a rather foul mood, I instantly started trawling the 'net for information regarding the top section of a MacBook Pro, and all revisions of it. Having spent several hours looking, I have compiled a collection of images, showing no evidence of having had optical fibres, or any MacBook Pro with no backlit keyboard. It even states that there are backlit keyboards on apples website under the specification tab. I'll let you know how it goes.
Oh if anyone was wondering the service centre I went to was NCS Group Plc. in Ponteland.
C2D MacBook Pro 15", Mac OS X (10.4.8), A Prime example of what is not a good apple repair centre.