Is the Late 2008 MacBook Pro, and models beyond that, less faulty than the Early 2008 MacBook Pro?
Asked by
nashish (
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)
January 9th, 2010
My early 2008 MacBook Pro broke and there is nothing that Apple will do for me unless I drop some money on them. The easiest thing for me to do is to gut my computer, try to salvage the data on the hard drive, and buy a whole new Mac (with an extended warranty this time). I thought at first it was my graphics card that had died, but I now think the whole motherboard perished. Whatever the case, I would like a new MacBook Pro, but I don’t want to buy one if it’s just going to die on me like this first one.
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The cost of a MBP logic board is probably $500 or more. Given that yours is less than two years old, I’d fix it.
Apple’s defect rate is among the lowest in the industry. Their hardware typically outlasts their competitors, which accounts for lower cost of ownership over the life of the product. Even so, drives fail and logic boards short out, so AppleCare and regular backups are essential for any MacBook owner. Many of our faculty in my department have taken advantage of their AppleCare support for one thing or another.
I’ve never had a mac laptop die on me. I think it would be the exception far more than the rule.
My wife’s 2006 MacBook became nothing but trouble about 1 year into the ownership. The logic board died (about $1100 to fix), then the keyboard needed to be replaced, the DVD drive was next, followed by the screen. When the hard drive when out, Apple agreed to completely swap the computers. Luckily for us, we purchased AppleCare, so the only thing we paid for was gas to go to the Genius Bar. It also pays to backup the HD.
Right now I have a mid 2009 MacBook Pro. LOVE IT! But I still have the AppleCare and a fresh backup, just in case!
@simpleD Thanks for the input; assuming I did buy a new logic board, how much would it cost to get someone to install it? Also, I saw logic boards on iFix It for 700 dollars or more; where did you see them for 500?
@gtreyger Thanks for the input; the moral of this story is always buy AppleCare or you’re screwed.
@nashish Well, I wouldn’t say screwed. I’d say that having AppleCare is a small price to pay for knowing that for the next three years your computer will either work, be fixed or replaced.
The longest we went without a computer was 4 days. We had to ship it for depot level repairs. It broke on Sunday afternoon, we called AppleCare, they send us the box (arrived on Monday morning), we shipped it on Monday afternoon, and received it back on Wednesday afternoon.
Also, having the phone support for three years is awesome!
By the way I do not work for Apple :)
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