November 26th, 2008

Seagate offers fix for problematic Barracuda drives on Mac/Linux systems

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 4:19 pm

Categories: Hard drive, Repair

Tags: Firmware, Seagate Technology LLC, David Morgenstern

Earlier this month, a warning went out about problems with Seagate’s Barracuda 8200.11 hard drives with a capacity of 1.5 terabytes. While the initial warning was sounded for all operating systems, it may be that the issue was more for Mac and Linux users. Seagate this week told storage vendors that a firmware fix is available.

My colleague Adrian Kingsley-Hughes sounded the alarm in a post. It appeared that the drives would hang for a few seconds, which is an eternity in terms of your data or for a video stream.

I’ve been hearing sporadic reports of this problem since the drive was released and attempts to get Seagate to comment in the past have been unsuccessful. It’s a good sign that the company finally acknowledges that there’s a problem with these drives.

On a list for storage pros, I noticed that a Seagate representative had posted news of a fix. However, you will have to go through Seagate tech support to receive the firmware update.

For those of you who are not aware, Seagate has put a fix in place for the Barracuda 1.5TB issue reported in the blogosphere and several shopping forums. Please feel free to share the following information with your readers:

Some Seagate Barracuda 8200.11 1.5TB hard drives may show uncharacteristic operation when used with Mac and Linux operating systems in multi-drive configurations. Users may experiences pauses in video streaming applications or a dropped drive from RAID arrays. Customers seeing these symptoms should contact Seagate Technical Support for a firmware upgrade.

In order to assure the proper application of the new firmware, please email a description of the issues you’re seeing to Seagate(discsupport@seagate.com). Please include the following disk drive information: model number, serial number and current firmware revision.

Also, please describe your system, operating system and the application in use when the issue arose, and you will receive a prompt response with appropriate instructions.

January 30th, 2008

Is Apple under attack from a whisper campaign?

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 6:00 pm

Categories: MacBook Air, Repair, Retail, Windows

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Apple Inc., Attack, Desktops, Hardware, David Morgenstern

With the political super-season gearing up, come accusations of “whisper campaigns,” or the spreading of false, damaging rumors from unknown sources. Based on a casual comment from an acquaintance, Apple might be under the same type of attack.

Here’s the background: Believe it or not, I associate with people who don’t use Macs and have never used Macs. And I don’t hold this against them. (For the record, my first PC at work was the DOS-based IBM XT and I’ve worked my way though Windows 95 and XP on PCs that I’ve owned. Now, I can run Parallels on my Intel-based Mac, so the world is much brighter place than before.)

The other day, I happened to be talking to an executive at a technology company who fits this profile. He’s never owned a Mac and for all that I know, never even used one. He may not use an iPod! His company doesn’t support Apple hardware and never will. He bleeds Windows.

He knows about my Mac connection and in the course of our conversation, I mentioned that I had seen the new MacBook Air and how impressed I was with it.

He then asked me about something he had heard about Apple. The gist was that while Apple products had great design, they were of poor quality. In other words, Apple makes products that look good, but break easily or don’t hold their value.

This was a very strange comment, so odd that it took me aback for a moment. Mac owners know, as well as those who have considered purchasing a Mac, that Apple has a topnotch reputation for industrial design and reliability. Consumer Reports and other media outlets mention this fact on a yearly basis.

Read the rest of this entry »

December 24th, 2007

The day my iPhone touch screen died (updated)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:45 am

Categories: Multi-Touch, Repair, Retail, Touchscreen, iPhone

Tags: Touch Screen, Apple iPhone, Keyboards, Monitors & Displays, Telecom & Utilities, Hardware, Peripherals, Components, Jason D. O'Grady

I woke up on Friday and grabbed my iPhone from its dock, like I usually do, and headed out the door in a rush. When I received my first phone call I couldn’t slide the “Slide to Answer” slider. Hmmm. Later, when I wanted to read some email, same deal. The touchscreen wasn’t accepting any input.

I tried to shut the phone off by holding the power key at the top, but this requires sliding the slider at the top of the screen. Again, no dice. I tried power cycling it by holding the power button and the home button. Nothing.

My iPhone had suffered no recent trama, no drops, dunks or even splashes. I always keep it in a case and generally baby it. It has been dropped in the past, however. Who among us can claim that they’ve never dropped their phone? Mine had a couple of minor “character” marks on the corner of the aluminum case.

What to do?

Since it is my phone and I live by it, I had to have it fixed immediately. Not to mention the fact that text messages and voice mails were starting to back up. Because I was traveling, I stopped into the closest Apple store, in Ardmore, PA. Have you been in an Apple store in the week before Christmas? It’s madness.

I bellied up to the Genius bar sans appointment and waited patiently. While sitting there I noticed the the loop cycling on monitors above me were stacked with people waiting for appointments. The screen of “Mac” appointments was full, as was the screen of “iPod” appointments. In fact, the scrolling screens also said something to the effect of “no more appointments were available today.” Not good.

When one of the Genius’ (Andy) had a moment to breathe he politely asked me what my deal was. Explaining that I had no appointment and a funky iPhone he told me that they were swamped and that he’d try to slip me in if someone didn’t show or was late. Lucky for me he called my name within 10 minutes.

After running through the usual tests (power off, restart) it was pretty obvious that the multi-touch screen was hosed. He carefully scrutinized the dings in the top corners of the case and asked me if I dropped it. I told that I had but that it was months ago and that the touchscreen just died that day. Honest! He must have believed me because a few minutes and a signature later I was on my way with a new iPhone.

I noticed was that the new iPhone has deeper engraving on the rear than the original model. Also the serial number format is different. My June 29 iPhone’s serial number was 7R725KDLLL6 (last four changed), My December 21 iPhone’s serial number is 83750FLLLL6 (last four changed).

I used Field Test Mode (*3001#12345#*) to check which LCD panel it had and I’m slightly disappointed that is has the dimmer “7-series” panel. The new iPhone also ships with firmware 1.1.2 pre-installed so you can’t jailbreak it without reverting to firmware 1.1.1. Not that I would do that anyway :)

Otherwise it’s got that new iPhone smell and I’m elated at the excellent service considering that I didn’t have an appointment and it was Christmas week in the second busiest Apple store in PA.

Have you had to swap out your iPhone?

March 23rd, 2007

Hairline MacBook cracks appearing

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 6:05 am

Categories: Hardware, MacBook, Repair

Tags:

I received this photo from a reader concerned about the appearance of hairline cracks around the edge of the case near the hinge.

How many of us honestly look at the back of our laptops? Well I did tonight and what do I see- stress cracks around the hinges, around the vents, and all along the back edge! Just look at the pictures! I'm never rough with my MacBook. It lives inside a messenger bag with a suede interior, and if it's not there, it's on my desk.

Apple is going to cover it, since the machine is only 7 months old. I'm getting a new bottom casing and LCD bezel. I'm interested to hear if anyone else has experienced this problem, and if Apple did in fact repair it.

Hopefully I'll get it back soon. I've been blogging on a PowerBook 3400 and it's slower than molasses! 

Have you seen anything like this on yours?

Photo Gallery: Closer look at CrackBook

March 13th, 2007

Another swollen MacBook Pro battery

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:51 am

Categories: AppleCare, Battery, Hardware, MacBook Pro, Repair, Service

Tags:

A reader sent me this picture of his swollen MacBook Pro (17-inch) battery:

As of 10 days ago my MBP started acting up when running on battery power, would randomly shut down when fully charged etc. I called AppleCare on Thursday, requested a replacement after convincing them that I had done enough testing to ensure it was a battery issue.

I received a replacement when I got home tonight and just in time because when I got to work this morning and set the book on my desk I noticed it was wobbly. I lifted it up to find the battery burst. (MacBook Pro 17" CD 2.16GHz)

August 29th, 2006

Test for MacBook Random Shutdown Syndrome (RSS)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:25 am

Categories: Hardware, MacBook, Repair

Tags:

This is only a test. MacBook Random Shutdown Syndrome seems to becoming more common with MacBook owners. Luckily there’s a simple test to diagnose if your MacBook is afflicted.

Ash from Techpaedia.com was annoyed by his new MacBook shutting down randomly so he developed a simple test to see if a MacBook suffers from Random Shutdown Syndrome (RSS). To see if your MacBook has RSS:

1. Open Terminal
2. Type the following command and hit return: yes >/dev/null &
3. Repeat step #2 again in Terminal: yes >/dev/null &

The command yes is a seemingly useless command which sends an endless stream of y’s to standard output. For more information on the innocuous "yes" command check out Matt Welsh’s Web site.

The above commands will now be making use of both processor cores and shortly you’ll hear the fans kick in pretty loudly. Keep Terminal open and running for at least 15 minutes.

Read the rest of this entry »

July 31st, 2006

Apple recalls early MacBook Pro 15-inch batteries

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:00 am

Categories: Apple, Battery, Repair

Tags:

Readers of this blog will remember that I posted a note about a silent recall of MacBook Pro batteries back on May 3, 2006. After several reports of MacBook Pros suddenly shutting down - like mine did - Apple has finally come clean and admitted that there is a problem with their first batch of batteries.

According to the Apple 15-inch MacBook Pro Battery Exchange Program (they don’t call it a "recall") the only people that need to be worried about the bad batteries are those that purchased 15-inch MacBook Pros between February and May 2006. The affected batteries are model number A1175.

One interesting aspect of the recall is how to tell if your battery is covered. Instead of looking at the first few digits of the 12-digit serial number, you instead are looking for a number that ends with U7SA, U7SB or U7SC.

Up to three battery exchanges can be done via the form on Apple Web site or by calling Apple.

July 6th, 2006

New MacBook Pro logic board

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:13 am

Categories: AppleCare, MacBook Pro, Repair

Tags:

Over at MacInTouch, reader Rickard Almqvist reports that Apple has updated the MacBook Pro logic board and that it "got rid of all whine."

Last week I received a new revision of the logic board that actually got rid of all whine! According to my service provider that did the repair this revision was brand new, only a few days old.

With the new logic board Apple also sent new installation DVDs needed to make a new install with the new logic board. They contained 10.4.6 instead of 10.4.5 that the computer was delivered with.

Rickard even posted a picture of the letter Apple included with the replacement Main Logic Board (MLB) which states:

While repairing your MacBook Pro, Apple installed a different version of the Main Logic Board (MLB). The new MLB provide equal functionality to the one it replaces. It does not add any additional functionality. 

 Has anyone else received one of the "10.4.6" MBP logic boards?

June 1st, 2006

MBP 33 percent battery bug

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:59 am

Categories: Accessory, Battery, MacBook Pro, Repair

Tags:

Something weird has been happening with the battery in my MacBook Pro 2.0 GHz for the past two or three weeks. Several times after carrying my MBP in a bag to or from work it would arrive completely shut down - which is weird because I never shut my machine down, I just put it to sleep. Then that problem morphed into something a little more serious.

Three or four times my MBP has completely shut down (without warning) once the battery got depleted to between 28 and 33 percent of its capacity. Last night I was recording the next PowerPage podcast when my MBP ungracefully shut down the moment the battery got to 33 percent. When I flipped it over and pressed the small button to check the battery capacity zero LEDs lit up, not even a single blinking LED. After connecting the AC adapter and rebooting the battery icon in the menu bar showed 28 percent remaining. Ample capacity to keep it running for 20-30 more minutes under normal circumstances.

On 3 May 2006 I wrote about a silent recall of some early MacBook Pro batteries after Christopher Price from PCSIntel.com had uncovered a potential issue with the first batch of MacBook Pro batteries in his blog entry "Now The MacBook Pro Batteries…"

I’m not ready to call this a pandemic and I’m not sure if it’s part of any sort of a recall but my MBP is from the first batch (Week 7, SN W8607…) and the battery (SN 6N606…) is the original that it came with so the possibility exists that there is a problem with some of the early batteries.

The support representative that I spoke to was very helpful and was prompt in offering to send me a new battery via an advance exchange. When I asked if this was a known issue, he politely said only he hadn’t heard anything about this particular problem, but checked to make sure that the battery he was sending was from a new build that might have fixed some of the minor flaws with initial units.

Have you experienced that 33 percent battery bug in a MBP? Sound off in the TalkBack.

April 13th, 2006

Anatomy of a MacBook Pro repair

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:00 am

Categories: AppleCare, Hardware, MacBook Pro, Repair

Tags:

Last week I wrote about Apple addressing problems with some early MacBook Pro models suffering from inverter whine, CPU whine and high temps with updated logic boards. Serial numbers starting with W8611 and later are reportedly "Revision D" boards, while earlier numbers are Revision C. (There’s more on decoding your MBP serial number here.)

After being plagued by inverter whine on my MacBook Pro 2.0GHz (serial W8607) and extremely high temperatures I finally called it in. First tier Apple support was mildly sympathetic after I complained about the high temps above the F2 to F4 keys after the MBP was running for 1-3 hours, but the second tier rep that I spoke to flat out denied knowledge of any problems with the MacBook Pro’s and told me that he’d call me back after sending it to engineering.

When no phone call came I called back (referencing my case number) and discovered that the engineers still hadn’t responded. The rep told me that he could "send me a box" to have it returned to Apple for a review of the symptoms - so I did. I was a little dismayed when the box arrived and the support ticket listed "HD noise" as the sole symptom, as it’s completely unrelated to my case. Nevertheless I dutifully packed it up and sent it in.

Yesterday I got my MacBook Pro back and discovered that Apple didn’t swap the logic board but instead replaced the thermal module and the display inverter. The included paperwork listed the following replacement parts:

    605-0861 THERMAL MODULE W/TEMP SENSOR
    612-0020 ASSY,INVERTER,NCC,MBPRO15"

Users that get a motherboard replacement usually see this item on their repair ticket:

    630-7570 PCBA,2.0GHZ,256VRAM(M1)MBPRO 15"

In my first hour or so of actual use I haven’t heard the inverter whine (which is more of a high pitch hum, actually) and I’ve tested this by turning down the display brightness to zero. The jury’s still out though because the inverter hum usually takes a few hours to manifest itself. The heat generated from the bottom left rear seems about as hot as with my previous thermal module and inverter but the area above the left F-keys is not nearly as hot (so far).

Have you sent your MacBook Pro in for repair? If so, what parts did they replace and did it cure your symptoms?