[P1] bad AppleCare experience on video repair

[Mark Kippert]

Tom R. no spam on 10/1/03 11:03 AM wrote:

> I've just had an unpleasant experience with AppleCare.
> My 12" 16VRAM iceBook has been left with a deranged
> display for about a second at the end of OSX (10.2.6)
> startup, at the end of the gray screen, _before_ the
> quick flashes and change to the blue background.  It's
> different every time and seems to happen every time.
> It started when they replaced the main logic board
> to fix a totally deranged video,

Since I never shutdown, and rarely restart my iBook, I was having a problem
just recalling how it looked when transitioning from the Apple logo/grey
screen, to the blue welcome screen. So I restarted and had no problem.
However I'm on an original 500MHz with 8MB VRAM.

While I'm not saying that anybody should accept poor service from Apple, is
it really that significant an issue? I mean one second of scrambled video
during startup isn't what I would categorize as an unpleasant experience.
Since I only restart when absolutely necessary (ie. after certain OS
updates) I've probably only witnessed the startup on my iBook a few dozen
times in two years of ownership.

However shoddy reassembly certainly is unacceptable.

My iBook has been to Apple twice. Once to replace a spastic trackpad. The
second was when it came back from this same repair. For whatever reason
there was a significant enough bulge in the underside of the case that the
two rear feet would not make contact with the surface of my desk. I called
Apple back within minutes of unpacking the iBook to complain. Of course they
fixed it right up without any problem.

If I had to venture a guess though, I would suspect the VRAM is defective on
your iBook. However if they replaced the logic board and you still get the
problem, it makes me wonder if it's an issue with your system. Have you
tried booting from a CD to see if you get the same problem? That would at
least confirm that it's a hardware issue.

Also, isn't there a video test that you can perform with the diagnostic CD
that shipped with your iBook? Or does that come with an AppleCare extended
warranty? Maybe you can run your own test to see if it detects a problem.

I know there is a test on the TechTool Pro 3 CD if you have that available.

You know, another reason I probably avoid restarts is because I miss Happy
Mac. Now there's a certainly a reason to be upset with Apple...

-Mark