There’s nothing wrong with my MacBook Pro and that’s bad
That’s the good news since I brought it back into the Apple Store on Saturday; this is the second time my new notebook is in for service. The bad news is: there’s nothing wrong with it because it’s working fine for the techs at the Apple store. They’ve looped through the hardware tests numerous times and I’m going back to pick it up tonight having had nothing actually replaced. I’ll let folks skip past the next part to write their "it must be user error" comments now; go ahead, I’ll wait. ;)
OK, now that you’re back, let’s put some logic into this. I spoke with the store rep at length and he thinks it could be something in my computing environment since the issue isn’t happening at the store. That’s fair and reasonable. I’ve occasionally connected a Plantronics USB headset to the computer and I vary between wired and wireless Ethernet access on my Linksys router. That’s about it in terms of non-native Mac touchpoints. At this point, I’ll be scratching my head over this and waiting for the issue to resurface. I was told to call Apple Care as soon as it happens (assuming it does, which I assume it will) so it can be troubleshooted within the environment. Again, no qualms with my service from the Apple folks, but I’m truly frustrated with the hardware that works for a while and then decides to quit on me.
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Did the techs test the Macbook while it was connected to a wireless network?
I’ve heard that the airport on some of the early generation MB Pros caused random crashing while it was on.
User Error, pfft! I wonder if they know about Microsoft MVPs?
Chrisboff, I assume they did, but I’ll ask. When I brought the machine in it appeared they had an open WiFi network in the store.
Matt, that’s a kind thought but you’re living in a ‘Parallel’ environment where MVPs hang out in Apple stores. ;)
The only time in my life I’ve gotten the ‘Gray Screen of Death’ on my Mac is using Firefox to load a website one time. I don’t remember what site it was, but it was consistent. Scared me to death – I had never seen it do that before!
If you do use Firefox regularly, I might suggest try using Safari for a while instead just to see if that changes your luck.
Or you could search the Firefox bug track system to see if there are any reports for your situation. That’s the nice part about open source!
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/
Thanks for the thought; I’ve alternated between Safari, Camino and Firefox to no avail. I suspect it’s hardware related since many apps (even the Crash Reporter) have crashed.
Kevin I think the point here is more of an issue that you’ve got the technical know how to know when to take it into the “House of Apple” and when you can fix it yourself. It’s not an ID-10-T error here ;-)
Parallel universe or not.
Hmmm. User error causing Grey Veil of Death? Doesn’t seem possible with the Fisher-Price, er, Apple, interface. Rule number one of being a consumer, Kevin, it’s not your fault. If they didn’t want you using it in a non pure Apple environment, they should have made it with nothing but proprietary ports!
When you take it back for a third time. Ask them if they can change the Grey Veil of Death to a BSOD. When you’re feeling pain, it helps to have a comfortable and familiar environment.
Mark
Man, I will NEVER NEVER NEVER buy Apple refurb! NEVER EVER!!!
Kevin, can’t you just return it and buy a new one ? If they will allow you to do that it might save you a lot of grief. The problem is not going to magically disappear and if I were you I would have lost any confidence about long term reliability of that particular machine. A new one would relieve you of any doubts and bring a lot of peace of mind.
If it “isn’t hardware” as they are so saying, could it be to do with Parallels? I mean, it does some funny emulation stuff does it not?
Only a guess though, it’s probably some other software or they’re wrong and it’s hardware.