Macbook Pro NVidia 8600 Defect [Fixed, shipped back to store]

Over the past week I've been obsessively checking my Macbook Pro's repair status. This morning it finally changed from "On hold" to "Repair Completed". Woohoo!

It's on it's way via Fedex from the repair center in Houston, TX to the Apple Store in Topanga where I dropped it off. Should arrive tomorrow.

Macbook Pro NVidia 8600 Defect

I thought I'd escaped this, but it finally caught up with me. My Macbook Pro has an NVidia 8600GT and as we found out last year, most if not all of these chips have a defect that can cause it to no longer be functional.

The good news is that Apple's policy is to fix the problem for free even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty.

I took it to my local Apple Store. They ran a test on it in the back to confirm it was indeed the NVidia problem. I signed some paperwork and off it went.

I'm number two in the queue.

That was Sunday August 30. It's now September 8th and still no word other than "On hold - Part on order" when I check my repair status. I've read accounts claiming repairs taking from just several hours to a few days. One said two weeks.

Broken iPhone replaced at Apple Store

Last week the ringer switch on my iPhone 3G came off. I checked online to make sure it was still under warranty. It was, so I dropped by the Apple Store my next time at Topanga Mall.

They were swamped, so I had to make an appointment to come in later. If you have an issue like this I highly recommend doing this instead of walking in.

The Genius Bar was busy when I got in, but it worked to my favor as they helped me get through quickly so they could get back to other more needy customers. I walked out with a new iPhone in about 30 minutes.