Apple repair procedure???

[DontFeedPhil]

If I take my Apple Mac Pro in to my local Mac Service Center do they check all the software on it to make sure its all legit? Im just wondering cause my little brother put a bunch of stuff on it and Im not sure whats what...
Im only taking it in cause the Video Card went Crap. Ive never done that before and I just wanted to know the procedure. That and I cannot even start up the computer to erase any questionable stuff..

 

[Orintho]

If I take my Apple Mac Pro in to my local Mac Service Center do they check all the software on it to make sure its all legit? Im just wondering cause my little brother put a bunch of stuff on it and Im not sure whats what...
Im only taking it in cause the Video Card went Crap. Ive never done that before and I just wanted to know the procedure. That and I cannot even start up the computer to erase any questionable stuff..

I'm a PC myself, but are not all you Mac users at the mercy of Apple for your hardware repairs? And can't you go into the system and check by date what software has been loaded?

 

[DontFeedPhil]

Im just wondering if I bring it in. Do they do a mandatory system check to see what kind of crap you have on your machine?

 

[T'Baio]

Im just wondering cause my little brother put a bunch of stuff on it and Im not sure whats what...

Sure...right. Your "little brother." A "bunch of stuff." I see. We believe you.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

I dont really "care" if you believe me or not. Its the truth. I use my computer for recording music and some times while Im at my real job my little brother hops on my computer cause its better than the POS Im using right now to get online.

 

[Captain Ice]

^He's being sarcastic.

I doubt they even care what software is on the machine unless the software is what's causing the failure. And yes, it's possible that something that's been put on it has corrupted the video card drivers.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

Well I know hes "probably" being sarcastic. I probably wouldnt believe him if he had posted what I said either. But thats kinda besides the point. Thats one of the shitty things about living with a little "bitch ass" brother. For all I do know he put something on there and that "Is" what broke my machine. But he claims he didnt do anything to screw it up...

 

[Timby]

When a Mac is taken in for repair, either at an Apple Store or for mail-in service, very explicit notice is given to the customer that all data, applications, etc., should be backed up. For an inexplicable reason, a hard-drive wipe and fresh Mac OS X installation is a standard part of service, whether it be for a broken SuperDrive (my wife's MacBook), a faulty trackpad (my MacBook Pro) or a malfunctioning logic board (my co-worker's MacBook Pro).

 

[DontFeedPhil]

The only problem with that is the problem Im having is that I cannot even get the computer to boot. Im 99% sure that it is just the graphics card. Thats gonna be bull if they have to wipe the HD for that...

 

[Canadave]

Well I know hes "probably" being sarcastic. I probably wouldnt believe him if he had posted what I said either. But thats kinda besides the point. Thats one of the shitty things about living with a little "bitch ass" brother. For all I do know he put something on there and that "Is" what broke my machine. But he claims he didnt do anything to screw it up...

I don't want to be a grammar Nazi, but seriously, man, the quotation marks are hurting my brain in this post. There's no reason for any of those to be in quotes.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

"Why" not?

 

[DonIago]

It's more "dramatic" that way.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

Exactly...I use the quotes to emphasis a word. I alway thought that was what they were for. But I may tend to "overdo" it...

 

[Timby]

The only problem with that is the problem Im having is that I cannot even get the computer to boot. Im 99% sure that it is just the graphics card. Thats gonna be bull if they have to wipe the HD for that...

Describe your problem. A failure to boot is not generally a graphics card failure.

 

[Canadave]

^ Italics are probably the best way to emphasize a word. Quotation marks should be used only for when you're using someone else's words, or, less formally, if you want to indicate sarcasm or double-meaning. That's why superfluous quotation marks can sometimes be unintentionallu funny—if someone emphasizes the word "free" with quotes, then it looks as though there's some kind of catch and whatever they're talking about isn't free at all.

Anyway, that's enough of my grammatical derailment. Carry on.

 

[JNG]

The are not likely to check stuff about software registration. If you have AppleCare, btw, they might do in-home service.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

OK, what I have going on it this. I have a Mac Pro. Its about 6 months old. I run bootcamp and Vista with it. A few months after I got it I noticed a problem when I would restart it to flip over from one OS to the other. It shuts down. And everything goes black like it should. Then I hear the Mac startup chime. Now most times the screen turns grey right after the chime. and then I see the grey apple logo and every thing is good. But every once and a while it would chime and the screen just stays black. The monitor light is on like normal. And if I wait a good minute or so I can hit eject on the keyboard and the dvd will eject. At first it only happened maybe 1 out of 10-15 times. But it has gradually gotten worse and worse. Usually the only option is to hold the power button down and do a "hard restart". There I go again with the quotes. And now on a Saturday evening it finally kicks the bucket. I record bands for demo cds and stuff so if my computer is out of Commission Im screwed. Ive already had to cancel today (Sunday) and probably Monday and Tuesday. So this really sucks.
I called Asshole support and they had me do a few things to it to try and resolve the issue and then told me that I either had to send it in or take it in. I gave them my Asshole Care registration number to let them know I was covered but they dont seem to care.
The worst case senario for me is if I call my local Asshole Authorized service center and they tell me to bring it in and then say well we whiped your Hard Drive and its gonna take 4-5 days to get parts in. I know its my fault for not backing up but if it only ends up being the Video card I dont understand why they need to clear my Hdd.

 

[the Dagman]

First thing: It doesn't sound like your video card is the problem.

You may have a hard drive problem. It sounds like Boot Camp itself could be the problem, in that it sometimes fails to reactivate the Apple Bios. Or your Mac could be like mine and it's HD is beginning to fail/has failed. My work-around for this problem was to make an external FireWire start-up drive with Carbon Copy Cloner. So that when the internal drive refuses to start up (I get a symbol of a folder flashing with a question mark), it automatically will start up off the external if that is also turned on. It is a precaution worth taking by every Mac owner even if your HD seems to be working fine now. Remember the first three rules of working with computers: Back up, back up, back up. (although the newer Macbooks have inexplicably done away with FireWire. So if your laptop has no FireWire port, this option is out for you.)

Are you able to start up off the original OS install DVD?

 

[Noname Given]

OK, what I have going on it this. I have a Mac Pro. Its about 6 months old. I run bootcamp and Vista with it. A few months after I got it I noticed a problem when I would restart it to flip over from one OS to the other. It shuts down. And everything goes black like it should. Then I hear the Mac startup chime. Now most times the screen turns grey right after the chime. and then I see the grey apple logo and every thing is good. But every once and a while it would chime and the screen just stays black. The monitor light is on like normal. And if I wait a good minute or so I can hit eject on the keyboard and the dvd will eject. At first it only happened maybe 1 out of 10-15 times. But it has gradually gotten worse and worse. Usually the only option is to hold the power button down and do a "hard restart". There I go again with the quotes. And now on a Saturday evening it finally kicks the bucket. I record bands for demo cds and stuff so if my computer is out of Commission Im screwed. Ive already had to cancel today (Sunday) and probably Monday and Tuesday. So this really sucks.
I called Asshole support and they had me do a few things to it to try and resolve the issue and then told me that I either had to send it in or take it in. I gave them my Asshole Care registration number to let them know I was covered but they dont seem to care.
The worst case senario for me is if I call my local Asshole Authorized service center and they tell me to bring it in and then say well we whiped your Hard Drive and its gonna take 4-5 days to get parts in. I know its my fault for not backing up but if it only ends up being the Video card I dont understand why they need to clear my Hdd.

Because sometimes, the only way to fix a corrupt driver issue IS to just reinstall the OS from scratch (although that's rare); HOWEVER, from what you describe, I think either the display screen hardware itself has a fault (and even though it shows as powered, it's not getting/displaying a video signal); OR the physical video card hardware has problems, and that's not a software driver issue.

Unfortunately, because it's a MAC, your only way to get a Tech to find out for certain is to take it in.

 

[Shaw]

I service Macs for a living... and I don't work for Apple.

If you are afraid of what Apple might do, why aren't you hiring someone to find out what the issues are first. I have tons of clients with systems that are under Apple Care warranty, but that covers repairing the hardware. Finding out what the problem actually is and making sure that client data isn't lost are important functions even for systems that Apple is responsible for fixing.

I find it interesting that people believe that Apple is the only service choice for Apple computers. What are you guys going to do if your system gets older than Apple is willing to service?