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Once upon a time… perhaps I should restart.. this is certainly *not* a fairy tale. You see.. there was a time when I thought Apple was the B O M B. Their laptops were sexy, their sales associates were friendly, and the geniuses were.. well.. geniuses. My first mac was a 15″ powerbook. It was just amazing. I still have it and it still runs flawlessly. After I got that powerbook 4 yrs ago, I went to the Apple store here in Columbus to ask about upgrading my ram. One of the geniuses took his time and explained everything to me. He was awesome. He gave me his card and said if I every had any trouble, just give him a call.. Fabulousness. About 7 months later, while traveling through Minnesota, the piece on my powerbook that the power charger plugs into died. Understand that I am a freelancer, and even one day without my computer is not a good scene. I called the Apple store in the Mall of America and made an appt with a genius. They were fab.. took my computer and said it would be ready when I was passing back through 4 days later. So I went on to enjoy my brother’s wedding and 4 days later I called the guys at the Apple store and let them know I was an hour or so out. Unfortunately, my powerbook was not yet fixed. I understood as it was 4th of July weekend, but as I was only passing through, I was going to have to pick up the laptop and get it fixed when I returned home. Not even 2 minutes passed by and an Genius called me back and said he will have my laptop fixed by the time I arrive. What more could a girl ask for? A+ top notch customer service. After dealing with Dell for so many years, I was AMAZED and completely satisfied. Blown away even. So much so that I would rave about Apple and how they ‘got it right’ in the customer service department to anyone and everyone. They nailed customer service.  Life was good.

Over the last year, that fairy tale has ended. Apple’s focus has shifted to iphone customers and ipod customers. Hey, I love iPhone’s.. wish I had one… but you have to remember your roots, ya know?  Each time I visit the Apple store these days, I feel so rushed. It’s funny and sad just the same, when I visit the Apple Store to buy, I am accosted by 20 different employees asking if I need help.  When I come in the store with a computer in hand, heading for the Genius Bar, the friendliness goes out the window. (at the Easton Towne Center Apple Store anyway.) Let’s shift now to present week… the reason I am writing this post. I have valuable information for mac owners, and, I have valuable information for Apple.

This week my 1 yr, 1 mo old 17″ macbook pro went into sleep mode. Normal right? yep. However, the battery died while in sleep mode. Problem. When I tried to ‘wake’ my macbook pro, it would not wake properly. The keyboard lit up.. I could hear it running… but no screen. I tried anything and everything. Hard resets, resetting PRAM, etc. No screen. So I closed the lid, made an appt with the Genius Bar for the next morning and called it a night. When I woke up, I tried one more hard reset and miraculously, the screen fired up. P-H-E-W! I canceled my appt and went on about my day. The next morning, I opened my lid and again, no screen. Nothing. I tried all day doing the same things I had done the day before. Nothing helped. I screen shared into the 17″ macbook pro from a 15″ macbook pro and checked out the graphics card info. It was incorrect and I knew it. Just in case, I took a screen shot.

So, I made another appt with the Genius Bar.

I took my computer in and met Mr. Genius in his ‘not all heroes wear a cape’ t-shirt.. he’s expecting his first child, a girl… seemed like a nice guy. I explained all that had happened to my macbook pro, and all that I had done to troubleshoot, etc. The genius ran a diagnostic test on my poor macbook pro and said my graphics card is dead, yes, DEAD, and since I am 1 month out of warranty, you’re screwed and it will be $1200 to fix. Oh, but hey, there are a couple of local repair shops that might fix it for a little less. Ok huh?? That’s all? Seriously? The genius did not even have his hands on my computer for more than 2 minutes. He didn’t even screen share in to look around. He just ran the diagnostic test adn poof.. sorry.. buh-bye, next customer. I was rushed out of there. The best part was where he said “Sorry, kids these days” as if to imply that it was one of my children that caused some issue with my computer which caused the gfx card to die. ARE YOU SERIOUS??

That’s weak sauce Apple. And here’s why. I spent the 3 days following loading up a new machine with all my data so I can actually work, AND investigating this issue. I found several posts on the internet where people were having the same issue. Here’s one. So, I decided to take the 4gb of ram out of my 17″ macbook pro so I could use it on the 15″ temp macbook pro and slipped 2gb of ram into the 17″. I had the install disks in the 17″ in an attempt to fix it, so I fired it up one last time so I could eject the disk. Much to my surprise, the screen fired up just fine. It was like nothing had happened. Immediately, I checked the graphics card and it listed the correct one this time around…

Which also happens to be one that has been recalled by Apple HERE due to this EXACT issue. HI ho hI ho.. off to the Apple store I go. Apple clearly says that they will replace these defective graphics cards even if you are out of warranty. Well, this time around the genius is girl. She seems nice enough. I gave her my print offs of my gfx card screen shots from the screen share and then from when the screen was working. I gave her a print off of the forums post on Apples site where people were experiencing the EXACT same issue and I gave her my print off of the article noting the recall. She didn’t look at a single one. She just took my laptop and started running a diagnostic on it. (sighs) She proceeds to tell me that my graphics card is 100% A OK! It looks great and does not need to be replaced. HUH? Of course I protested because this is the same graphics card that was D.E.A.D 3 days before. She said she was sure the diagnostic test came back with the gfx card being fine 3 days before. (umm, don’t they log notes from previous convos??) So, Apple, please explain how a graphics card can miraculously come back to life. I mean seriously, what a load of crap. Tell me how I should believe anything Apple says at this point. I asked her to explain how the computer could read 2 different graphic cards. Her response… are you ready? Wait for it.. it’s epic… “I don’t know.” She asked another genius about it and he said that it was b/c I was screen sharing in with a macbook, and the GMA X3100 gfx card is used in those, and that’s why it’s showing up. WRONGO Mr. Genius. I was screen sharing using ANOTHER Macbook Pro that uses the SAME EXACT gfx card as the 17″. AND when I screen share in now while the display is working, it shows the correct gfx card. More weak sauce. Ms. Genius says ‘well, we can replace it if you want, but you will have to pay the $1200.’ I think I laughed at this point. So, Ms. Genius sent me on my way and called the next customer in line. An ipod/iphone reset no doubt.

The only consistent information that I have gotten from the Apple Geniuses in the last 4 days is that whatever the problem is, it will cost me $1200 to fix. Which begs the question, what ARE the requirements for becoming an Apple Genius these days? And the *real* geniuses.. the ones from my powerbook days… the ones who c a r e d, are you not pissed?? Seriously. The day Apple’s support started to suck is the day I stopped caring. You have to understand, I love my mac. I love working on it. But customer service is so important to me. If I can’t depend on Apple to give me correct information and fix my computer… how can I buy from them again?

The facts:

There is an issue with my screen not lighting up, as in “No video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on”

My computer is a 17″ Macbook Pro manufactured between approximately May 2007 and September 2008 (purchased in Sept ’08)

My Macbook Pro uses the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT Graphics card

Clearly there is a problem here related to the graphics card and Apple even admits the issue on their site. But, the Geniuses at the Apple Store in Columbus OH cannot come to this conclusion some how. (they can’t even come to the SAME conclusion in the first place) The fact that they did not bust their ass for me… try their best to figure out the issue is a problem for me. Why/ because they used to. They used to bust their ass for me. Is it wrong that I still expect that? I don’t think so. Sadly, if this is how it will be, I may have to go back to PCs. GASP. I know, right? So, yeah, I am only one single person in the sea of Apple customers. But in my opinion, that’s how you become successful and stay succesful, you care about that one single person.

For anyone experiencing this same problem, here is what I did to get my mac working.  I have no idea if it will help you… and i am very worried that it will happen again.  But, the Apple Genius(es) made it clear that I am SOL and would have to pay $1200 to replace the graphics card.

• I reset the PRAM.  Instructions HERE.
• I tried several hard resets by holding the power button down until it shut down
• I screen shared in from another mac and ran updates, etc.  Screen share enhancement instructions HERE. made it easy to find the mac with no screen since i could not check the IP.
• I ran applejack.  I am not sure if this helped b/c I could not see the screen, but i ran the auto restart.. so it would run through all the scripts and then restart.
• I took out the memory, and replaced it with memory from another macbook pro.  (right after this is when the screen fired up)  I have since put the old memory back in and it works fine.

I really wish that Apple would step up and do the right thing here, but somehow I am reminded of the Dell Dude circa 2002.  Should I have bought a Dell?  My husband would say yes. LOL.  I still love my macs, just not their customer service/support.  And a quick google search shows I am not the only one realizing that Apple’s support has just taken a nose dive as of late.  I spend $2900 on a laptop, and I would expect it to live longer than 1 yr 1 mo. Seriously.

***UPDATE***
I must say, I am thrilled to announce that Apple has come through. Specifically the amazing lead tech Michael Barrett at my Apple store here in Columbus. Basically, when I started using the computer again, it screen died _again_. So instead of wasting my time and going to the store AGAIN, I decided to call first. I asked to speak to a manager and was transferred to Michael. I gave him the very shortest possible version of the story, and told him that I didn’t want to come into the store unless they were going to actually help me out. So he said no problem… pulled up my history, and agreed that there was an issue. He said bring it in, we’ll replace the graphics card at no charge. AND, amazingly they did. Special thanks to Michael (who will probably never even read this. LOL.) I am loading all my data back on now.