Windows on New Macbook Pro Permanently Damages Speaker Due to Poor Drivers

The amount of hardware issues with the new MBP are kinda staggering....

USB-C issues, GPU issues, image corruption, now this.

Has there been as contentious a Mac release as there has been with the new MBPs?

I've been using Macs since the mid 80s, and I'm trying to think of some, but am drawing a blank.

The only possibilities I can think of are the two processor switches (680x0 -> PPC followed by PPC -> Intel) or maybe the first release of OSX (but that's not necesarily hardware related).

GPU issues plagued some previous models also but not this early, usually after 1-2 years due to less than optimal thermal design, but Apple usually had an extended warranty program for those.

I don't remember a release with so many weird issues, that honestly should've been picked up pretty early during the design and acceptance phases.

Last generation of iBook G3 went through graphics chipsets at an astounding rate. Most of my friends who bought one got all the way through the 3 strikes and you get a replacement machine with them. All of them got a free iBook G4 for their trouble.

At one point, the iBook G3 had a 73% failure rate...

Yeah, the GPU issues - but like you said they didn't manifest themselves right away.

I got hit by the 2011 MBP issue a year or so in. I had to buy a new laptop because Apple didn't issue the repair order until well after my AppleCare expired and I wasn't going to pay $500+ for the repair not knowing whether Apple would eventually pick up the tab.

That's the lot of early adopters. Too be fair any widely popular product will have its share of problems, and since we in the west basically stopped caring about the conditions in which these products are built...

TBH not any less excusable since laptops should be tested in a thermal chamber and for a long duration, but PR wise it wasn't this bad.

And what's worse it just hints a deeper issues, the 6/6plus bendgate and the more recent display gate were kinda meh, now this line which not only had some questionable design choices but also has multiple hardware issues.

Things just seem to be broken.

It took 4 years for the GPU in my 2011 MBP to die. Apple still covers GPU repairs on those models (or at least they did in 2015). They refused service on my laptop because I had upgraded the hard drive (to an SSD) and RAM (upgraded to 16 Gigs). I pointed out that the user's manual for the 2011 Macbook Pro specifically says that upgrading these components does not void the warranty for the entire machine, just that Apple will not cover your new HD and RAM (rightfully so).

Apple customer support refused to live up to the text of their manual, even when I read directly from it and requested that they repair the faulty GPU because I had remained within the terms of the manual.

They lost my business.

Usually the predictable venom comes from Apple haters, but with this particular release, a lot of the venom has actually come from Apple lovers, which is what makes this particular release so noteworthy in my opinion.

I had my 2011 MacBook Pro graphics fail earlier this month, which apple kindly fixed. Just today apple announced they consider the 2011 MacBook Pro obsolete and will no longer provide hardware support. I imagine anyone who hasn't been lucky enough for their graphics to fail will soon have nothing but a giant aluminum paperweight.

Hypothesis: 4-5 years ago a lot of people bought the rMBP, which continues to be, in my opinion, the greatest laptop ever made. We were looking forward to upgrading to something even more spectacular in a year or two. Instead, Apple gave us a gimmicky touch bar, beta quality USB-C ports, no MagSafe, and no indication that they see any of this as anything but swell.

People are disappointed.

I was in a very similar boat to you.

Mine died right (weeks) after my AppleCare ended.

Because a local authorized Apple dealer would fix it without an appointment (vs the local Apple Store), I took mine there.

I did upgrades too, but I always keep my original RAM and HD in case I get a nitpicky tech. I stuffed those in there (with a fresh OS install) when I sent it for repair and had no issue.

A friend of mine who has two of the same models but were not bricked yet - he had mixed experience at the Apple store. For his first one which was glitching badly, the Genius gave him a hard time because it was not glitching at the store (in spite of the repair order not indicating that the issue needed reproducing). They ended up fixing it, but not without causing stress to my friend.

My friend then repaired the second one right before the repair order was ending but did not get a hard time from the Apple Store for that one.

Because I had to choose between spending $500 on replacing a board (I already had replaced mine once under AppleCare - they basically just put a new version of the defective board in, and it started glitching in less than 3 mos) or spending a little more on a new laptop, I opted for the latter. And at that point, I was officially on the path off of OSX.

I would have stuck around if Apple issued the repair order sooner (i.e., before my MBP bricked). Apple historically has had a great reputation for making people whole again. Given how much I spent on my 2011 MBP, I expected better, sooner.

That's odd. I also upgraded my 2011 MacBook Pro to an ssd and 16 gigs of ram, and I had my logicbaord replaced under their extended repair program last month. The Apple Store guy even offered to repair it in the store to make sure my modifications weren't altered.

Had a similar issue with a PowerMac G5. It was the liquid cooled variant, top specced version, paid around $3500 for it in 2004. Just after the 2 year mark, the o-ring failed and leaked coolant onto the logic board, obviously frying it. It was a documented known issue with the first run of G5s (they changed o-ring manufacturers shortly after they started production), and the o-rings were failing and leaking coolant.

Absolutely refused to fix it, wanted $1500 to replace the logic board and the liquid cooling system. I've refused to buy Apple ever since.

In a way, you're lucky because of timing.

There was a gap of several months where 2011 MBP owners' AppleCare had expired before the Repair Order was issued - and people like me whose machines had failed were faced with a hard choice - pay >$500 for a fix or buy a new laptop.

Prior to the repair order, the logic board replacements had the same GPU defect. I had my logic board replaced once already under AppleCare, and it got GPU glitches within 3 months of the repair. There was no point in replacing it again and again only to get the same problem over again.

The GPU problem is genuinely fixed with the post-Repair Order boards though.

I imagine the situation was even worse for people who did not buy AppleCare.

From what I've read related to the 2011 MBP fix on the Apple support boards, your experience at the Apple store can vary significantly from store to store.

My sister was in the same situation and shopped around a couple Authorized Repair Centers until one would accept it

There have been quite a few, actually, especially during the '90s. Low End Mac has a nice list: http://lowendmac.com/2007/the-10-worst-macs-ever/

The first item on the list contains this gem:

> Anyhow, Apple put a 32-bit CPU on a 16-bit bus and created a monstrosity that worked okay as long as you didn’t use the modem or a network connection.

And the PowerBook 5300 was on the honorable mentions list. I remember that machine: it was notorious for the batteries catching on fire. And I've got personal experience with one of the machines on the honorable mention list, the Performa 630: the IDE hard drive was the bane of my existence back then, and the use of the execrable 68LC040 meant I was locked out of using certain software.

Oh, and here's another, much longer, list, from the same website: http://lowendmac.com/2014/road-apples-second-class-macs/

I'm not saying that we should ignore the plight of people working in less than subpar conditions to give us our new device fix, but what does the latter part have to do with a faulty release product?

Early adopter is a misnomer, because these are not prototypes nor dev boxes. This are released to the public computers that should be in working order.

I'm not big on new hardware, so I don't follow releases like this too closely. However, this seems to be one of the worst consumer hardware releases in recent history.

I was hit by the same GPU issue twice now. Even with the Superdrive removed they replaced the motherboard both times. That is weird.

Well Apple has had design defects in almost all of their products. (Most manufacturers do. If you know anyone who works at a repair shop, ask 'em)

The annoying part is Apple silently ignores defects for a while till it becomes unpopular not to. But yeah, Apple has had design defects in several Laptop cycles. over heating issues, hinge breakage, the infamous swollen battery, retina coating issues, etc etc.

Take them to small claims court. It's really easy and they will almost certainly settle rather than fight it.

In retrospect, keeping the original components would have been a good idea. In those 4 years I moved 3 times and the original components were lost to the ether somewhere in there.

Still, they should have honored what they promised in their manual. The fact that I even had to break out the manual (via PDF) is an annoyance. The representative's failure to honor that language, even as they readily admitted that yes, that was an official Apple manual, and the manual says I should be covered...but we're not going to cover this repair because we're not going to cover this repair...that was where I lost patience. I left the store and vowed to never buy another Apple product.

Yeah, there were some pretty bad ones in 90s. If they were not as contentious, it's only because people's expectations for Apple were far lower back then.

Consider, for example, the original Power Mac G4 release. There were three levels available: 400MHz, 450MHz, and 500MHz. Turns out Apple had overreached with the 500MHz speed, so they had to roll it back to 350/400/450. Quite an embarrassment at a time when Apple was struggling to convince people that their PowerPC chips outperformed Intel and were therefore worth a bunch of extra money.

The new MacBook Pro is a pretty decent machine. It has some typical first-generation hardware problems, and the design certainly doesn't make everybody happy, but it's not bad. And Apple has released outright bad machines in the past.

Bearing in mind that they have been supposedly working on it for almost 2 years.

I know there is a perfect misalignement of stars between Apple release plan and Intel roadmap. But that is still scary for the future of the Mac line. It looks like half-assed effort to give a last kick in the laptop area before slowing things down like with the Mac Pro.

2016 is really not living up to its expectations.

While they should have accepted non-stock upgrades (and it is possible you just got a cranky tech), the reason why I keep that old stuff around is that I don't trust them.

I read stories on the Apple Support boards related to repairs on the 2011 MBPs and some people were getting laptops back from Apple with RAM upgrades missing, etc. And because of the Geek Squad horror stories (yes, I know Apple is not the Geek Squad - but better safe than sorry), I'd rather just give them a working HD with no data on it.

-- edit

Having said all of this, you can't swap out parts with the newer macs as easily since they're not as user-serviceable as the 2012 unibodies and earlier.

Nope. Issues have existed on all new computers released by Apple. None of them are widespread which is why the computers are not recalled and are selling more than ever.

The only thing that is different now is the piling on of negative social media commentary that adds no value. This is why we can't have nice things.

Because the MBP matters so much to techies.

Technically, the 12" MacBook was worse than the MBP refresh in every way: Only one USB-C port, extremely underpowered, flimsy keyboard. Commenters everywhere ridiculed it, but it was obviously an "optional" product. So what, Apple often releases things that are too far ahead of the curve for most people. (Voice-controlled iPod shuffle, anyone?)

But by calling it the new MacBook Pro, they've pretty much guaranteed that none of its laptops will ever be thicker again, or come with "older" ports, or with a traditional keyboard. They've put upper limits on all its laptops now. It's not that I am disinterested in the 2016 release. I also can't imagine how the 2017-2019 releases could possibly appeal to me, unless they surprise us with a MacBook Pro SE.

This is not like the disappointing 2014 Mac mini, which Apple can fix overnight just by updating the parts. knocks on wood...

The first generation of Intel MacBooks was terrible. The plastic broke all the time while also turning yellow, and many CPUs could be overheated (instant shutdown) just by running `yes` on two cores.

I suspect they hit similar issues with the delayed AirPods, easy for software to blow the speaker off. Maybe Tim Cook finally took a look at these issues with the new MacBook Pro before its launch and decided to kill its car project. Joke aside, I think 2017 will be tough year for Apple, as it is likely we will see a Made In USA iPhone, which will either eat into its profit margin or many will finally realise iPhone is way overpriced. 2017 will likely hit recession for US and globally, judging from history which happens the year when US political power shift from Republican to Democrat or vice versa. This will made no-buy for many for the 10th anniversary new iPhone 8.

Worst off, Apple is likely to create a third iPhone model which is highest end, premium and meant to milk more cash. Apple still think all its fanboy can tolerate its strategy of high profit from RAM add ons. It is likely due to political thingy the next 4 years will make Apple hard sell to convince users that iCloud is safe.

TouchBar and Retina ID is making the MacBook Pro hardware more complex. But how long will finger print tech last before the next tech take over? They are making something that is not applicable for other Mac models such as iMac (so you build a TouchID panel on the side of the screen?), Mac Pro and Mac mini. I believe Apple is retiring Mac Pro and Mac mini next, but will need to keep iMac due to sale volume. Someone please tell me how feasible it is to implement Touch ID on external keyboard? This whole thing does not look like holistic design to me, something like how you need to turn back the Apple MagicMouse in order to charge.

Which top tier computer manufacturer other than Apple is selling 3 year old computer hardware? I hope Apple will never use the word 'magic' in their ads anymore. I hope Apple has the courage to adopt USB-C for its iPad and iPhone. I hope Google will lower Pixel by $200 dollars. I hope Google will develop its own Linux notebook for its own employees and then the rest of the world. I hope Microsoft will develop a version of Windows on top of Linux core and file systems. Or the Surface group just buy Canonical. I hope Facebook will have an App Store for us to run React Native app or something like WeChat mini app over the web.

Yes, but those were times where computer design was still being experimented on a lot. Apple has much more knowledge and resources now, Their products having issues like these, in 2016, is pretty unacceptable.

That's what I'm getting at when I say that expectations used to be much lower.