Ben Bleikamp's blog about technology and college

AppleCare saves the day

My MacBook recently started showing the early symptoms of “Random Shutdown Syndrome.” It turned off on it’s own on Saturday, September 30th. It took three tries to turn it back on. After Derek’s and Paul’s stories I knew that I likely had RSS.

I have talked to Derek about his problem and his MacBook has been away being fixed for a month (I think it might be longer, actually). He bought a Mac Mini to use while his MacBook is in the shop. Paul bought a 24″ iMac to use rather than fix the MacBook. I figured I would be in the same boat.

I called the local Apple Store and asked them how long it would take to fix my MacBook. They said it was an in-store fix! I was surprised. I quickly scheduled a meeting with one of the Genius Bar reps and took the MacBook in.

The quickly diagnosed the problem - meaning they say “You’re right, you have RSS.” Then they said “We’ll have it fixed for you by noon tomorrow.” I was a little annoyed that they would be keeping it overnight, but I decided it was a small price to pay since other were without their notebooks for much longer. They called me at 10:00 this morning to let me know it was done. I picked it up around 2:00pm.

Hopefully this is the last issue that the revision A MacBooks will have. I guess it’s just a lesson - don’t buy a first revision of Apple products - the great designs sometimes mean technical mistakes with things that actually make computers work.