How this US$10,000 ‘fix’ to an Apple MacBook Pro glitch could have been avoided
- The owner faced a perfect storm of glitches that led him – and Apple – to think his MacBook Pro was defective or broken
When photographer Greg Benz started having issues with his MacBook Pro, he did what most people would, and brought the US$7,000 high-end machine in to Apple for repairs, he said in a blog post.
The issue: Benz’s MacBook Pro display wouldn’t turn on and remained dark no matter what he did. Not even Apple could figure it out. Benz went two weeks without his work machine while Apple twice replaced the computer’s logic board (the board that contains the machine’s important chips), as well as some cable replacements.
Eventually, Apple decided to replace the MacBook Pro with a fresh unit, also valued at US$7,000. Benz did not have to pay a dime as his original laptop was under warranty. But he estimates that if he did have to foot the bill, it would have cost him about US$10,000 – which tallies with my own experience trying to replace a Mac’s logic board.
It would have stunk if his laptop was out of warranty.
Finally, after all that drama, an Apple genius shone a flashlight at the screen of his original, problematic unit, and found the real answer to the problem. Ready for it? Here it is:
The computer’s display brightness was turned all the way down.
The root of the problem
Indeed, the last time he turned off his computer, the brightness was set to its lowest setting, as he had his MacBook Pro connected to external monitors.
The cause of Benz’s MacBook Pro issue – which involved several expensive repairs that did not actually fix anything – is absurdly basic. But if you take a step back, it’s not entirely Benz’s fault, and not entirely the Apple technicians’, either.
