cfsguy38

Hello y'all from greater Atlanta Georgia. Please allow me a little space to ***** and complain in the hopes that I can connect with someone else who shares my experiences so that we might improve both of our situations.

I'm 42 years old and had a 14 year career in the computer field traveling around the world, consulting, everything from software to hardware to networks to databases, etc. I'm not what you'd call a novice, however, like anyone who is in computers knows, that doesn't mean I'm up on the latest technology or software in a given area. But I usually catch on quick.

I'm now disabled and haven't worked in several years. This is not the problem that I'm typing to complain about.

I wish to exclaim my great distress over un-met expectations with APPLE computer !

I recently purchased an APPLE MacBook Pro for the following reasons... RELIABILITY and EASE of USE. Unfortunately, I've had neither.

I need NO PROBLEMS and NO STRESS from my home system, yet, I've gotten nothing but what APPLE support says are "very unusual problems, they've never seen before". Service from the APPLE store at which I bought my system has been cold, incomplete, and unsuccessful, as I keep having to go back there to fix problems.

First of all, has anyone had significant problems with Jacksonville's "St. John's center" apple store? or any apple store? i.e. knowledge base, politeness, communication, etc?

Secondly, has anyone had problems with OS/X suddenly not recognizing the internal hard drive? On boot up, one sees blank gray screen for several minutes, then a flashing file folder appears with a question mark inside it. This indicates that either the OS is corrupted and can't recognize the hard drive, or the hard drive has become un-readable as in hardware error. Well, I've gone through two systems and 3 harddrives in a little over 6 weeks. No-one can seem to tell me why, or assist me in solving this "unusual" problem that, apparently, has never happened to anyone else, anywhere. (sarcastic cough).

Yes, I'm looking for moral support, but I'm mainly interested in solving this problem so I can get on with the reason I bought the system in the first place.

Any helpful feedback appreciated.

ArturoYee

Well - the problem is an unusual problem - and having gone through 2 systems and 3 drives -

Are we to assume that you are running OS X?

And any "special" software that not many people would use?

Daedalus256

I actually had a similar problem on my old G3 Powerbook. One day the OS just wasn't recognized on the HDD and I had to reformat the machine. Was fine after that, just a little frustrasting.

Never heard of an MBP doing the same thing. You said you've had this issue on two macbooks? I'm going to second ArturoYee's question if you're running anything special.

sinclair_tm

what kind of environment does the computer live in? any large magnetic fields, or other kinds of electronic emissions that the computer is exposed to? being you have had 2 different computers, as well as several hard drives have problems, i feel that it may be something that the computer doesn't like. i'm less inclined to think its software, but it is a possibility. do you use bootcamp? the best way to find out if its hardware or software is can you boot from the included restore dvds after the mac loses the hard drive? and if so, does the installer see the hard drive? and if it does have you tried using the installer to set the boot volume and restating to see if it can find the set boot volume? are there any other computers in your home, and do they ever have problems at all? this is definitely a unique problem, and i'd like to know why the mac is failing, as i have yet to hear of this kind of problem with a new macbook pro.

cfsguy38

I am running OS/X 10.4.7, no bootcamp, no weird or obscure software. So far this problem has happened in TWO places, at my girlfriend's condo and (fortunately) at the apple store itself while running off battery (not even plugged in to ethernet or power).

I've run diagnostics using the enclosed CD's with apple telephone support, and following troubleshooting advice off mac.com. Two times, it appeared there was a hardware failure and two times, it appeared there was a software failure, so inconclusive.

I've considered that my high speed cable might not be grounded, so we've called the cable guy to come and check it. In the mean time, we've installed an airport express hub to go wireless. I haven't had a chance to check my MBP with this, as it is still being 'repaired' at the apple store in JAX. But, my girlfriend's MB (15", plastic case) has not had any problems and runs off the wireless hub fine, or direct connect to cable modemvia ethernet.

I've also considered there might be an electrical or voltage surge/regulation problem, so we're replacing the power strip she's been using with an APC UPS, but again, her system has had no problems whatsoever and was purchased at the same time from the same store as my MBP. there have been no other electrical problems in the condo or problems with any appliances or electronic devices in this building. We are on an island, not under any power lines, or near any huge electrical stations of any kind.

After my previous trip to apple store, where they replaced the HD and reloaded the basic OS/X, they 'forgot' to update it with the software necessary to access airport wireless hub, so I took it back to JAX (1 1/2 hour drive each way). After they installed software, it would not reboot.

This is, ideally, when one wants a problem to occur, like going to a mechanic and explaining a sound your car makes, well its always better if the car reproduces the sound while the mechanic is looking at it. So, the 'genius' said it must be a bad internal cable running from the HD to circuit board, and ordered a new cable to install. This was after the previous tech spent 20 minutes trying to convince me HD's go bad all the time, especially laptop HD's. My argument remains that the MeanTimeBetweenFailures (MTBF) of most laptop HD's in over 1 million hours.

Any thoughts on the BIOS? Could there be some incompatibility with the MBP BIOS and the 160 gig HD's they're putting into the machine?

In any case, my confidence level in this MBP is extremely LOW. I've had it 8 weeks and haven't been able to use it for anything.

sinclair_tm

well, macs don't have bioses, so its not that. they have firmware, and it doesn't care whats attached. as for laptop hard drives going bad all the time, i don't buy that one either. but the bad cable, i do buy. i had that on a mac once now that i think about it. it had stability issues, crashing and all. i thought that the drive may be going, so i got a new one, and put it on the same cable, and the problem persisted. so i replaced the mainboard, and still had problems. so i tried the old mainboard and hard drive, but with a different cable and it worked fine. so what could of happened is that the hard drive went bad the 1st time, they replaced the hard drive, and could of messed the cable up, and it has been intermitten every since. i'd wait until the cable is replaced and give it a go. if it still has issues after that, i'd be asking for a replacement mbp, a whole new one.