MacBook Pro Woes

Well, it looks like MMISoftware had one of the ‘dodgy’ early MacBook Pros.

A few weeks ago a MacBook Pro started to shutdown unexpectedly when the machine was running on battery. There was no warning, and the battery was typically 30 – 50% charged. It certainly wasn’t that the battery was going flat.

I phoned the Apple tech. line and they suggested I run the hardware diagnostic program that was on the original installation disks (basically, start the machine from the disk whilst holding down the D key – this was actually quite interesting because the program has a very Mac OS 9 interface). Unfortunately I was away on a trip and didn’t have the disks with me so decided to just use the computer whilst it was connected to the mains.

One evening I got the machine out to check email and discovered that the mouse click-key could not be depressed. This was odd. On further examination it was discovered that the battery had become swollen and was pressing up against the key. I removed the battery and called Apple. The tech. was concerned and arranged for a new battery to be sent and the old one to be returned. The new battery took about 4 days to arrive. In the meantime I continued to use the computer on mains supply. During this time the ‘problematic’ battery continued to swell. When the new battery was inserted in to the machine the laptop refused to recognise it. Nothing. No indication that the battery had been inserted or was charging.

Another call to the tech. line and this time they sent a box for me to return the computer. The box arrived in a couple of days and the machine was sent back. The machine has now been away for over a week…… and counting.