My Apple Consumer rights

T

Timotheos100

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Last firday i sent my 1G 12 inch PowerBook into the shop to get fixed (when ever it 'thinks' to much it freezes up, so i cant use photoshop (im a designer). Someone on these forums commented that it may be a memory problem

Anyway, when i brought this PBook a little under a year ago there was 3 months under the warrenty because it was an ex demonstration model.

I just realised that under the New Zealand Consumer act that anything sold (old or new) is covered under warrenty for 12 months.

So am i actually still under warrenty?

I would also like to ask whether a PowerBook would be under warrenty if it was dented and there were only software problems? and also if there was denting that was not linked to hardware failure? eg.

"EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS

This warranty does not apply: (b) to damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, flood, fire, earthquake or other external causes." http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/parts.html

If damage from an accidentaly dropping of the laptop damaged the exterior casing but not the hard drive, ram etc. would i still be able to claim warrenty?
 
Hm. I guess if it's outright damaged from the outside, Apple could really claim _any_ faulty behaviour to the fall of the notebook... Even if the harddrive "still works", you don't know whether it works 100%. Same goes for any connection on the motherboard as well as RAM slots etc.
 
And what you are describing sounds like a hardware problem, most likely the heat sink got separated from the processor when you dropped it, if you are lucky, or something cracked and no longer makes a connection as the unit heats up if you are unlucky. Well, the labor will sink you at any rate so I guess in either case you might be unlucky.
 
This won't answer your question, ha! But when I dropped my G3 Lombard/Wallstreet Powerbook because I had failed to zip up my laptop bag on a nice parking lot no doubt... it didn't want to fire back up. I took it down to a local Apple reseller/support location and they ended up just re-seating everything. My only cost was a RAM cost which apparently was damaged.

My guess... is unless Apple feels that the "problem" is related to the damage, then they may not cover it. However... they are less likely to find a fault to avoid the warranty in my experience.
 
ScottW said:
they are less likely to find a fault to avoid the warranty in my experience.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by this?


Thank you three for your views and comments, i would love to hear from anyone else
 
If Apple notices that there is a dent in the unit, they are less-likely to support it. I've seen the Apple Geniuses in the stores inspect iPods for any sign of dents, and almost argue with customers that "this is, in fact, a dent, and could have caused the device to fail." From their point of view, if you have dropped your machine, the problem could have been caused by that, even if it was six months after the incident. They could refuse to the support the machine at that point. However, if you complain enough, anything can happen. Depends on how far you are willing to go and who you are willing to call to get your computer repaired.
 
Thought i may aswell follow up this thread, plus i have a question too.

It ended up being a faulty hard drive, I ended up deciding to choose to upgrade from my 40gb to a 60gb hard drive (all up its going to cost my $450 NZD), i was just wondering if the new hard drive im getting will have the 'anti-drop proof' technology that sences when my pBook is falling?

I also got an extra 256mb memory upgrade (all up, 512mb of ram). Just wondering if im going to see much difference in perfomance with a 1Ghz processor.
 
Timotheos100 said:
i was just wondering if the new hard drive im getting will have the 'anti-drop proof' technology that sences when my pBook is falling?
Click to expand...
I think that the technology you are talking about is part of the newer notebook computers from Apple, rather than part of the hard drive itself. The hard drives are not made by Apple. The answer, I believe, is no.
 
That particular hard drive technology is fairly new. As I understand it, there is a motion sensor in the latest laptops that senses when the unit is being dropped or otherwise moving in a manner which may be harmful. This sends a signal to the hard drive which parks the heads and shuts it down.

There are other vendors besides Apple who are using this technology in their latest line of laptops, and none, so far as I know, has offered a "retrofit".

So for you it means you have to continue to be careful. You would want to any way. A drop, if it was hard enough, could crack the screen and do other damage.

Getting the extra memory should produce a noticeable improvement with certain applications because you'll have less use for virtual memory. The larger hard drive will also help with speed it is faster than the original drive.

I think you'll be happy with the improvements.
 
baldprof said:
As I understand it, there is a motion sensor in the latest laptops that senses when the unit is being dropped or otherwise moving in a manner which may be harmful. This sends a signal to the hard drive which parks the heads and shuts it down.
Click to expand...
Yup...there's even a widget out now that resembles a level (bubble level, like those used in carpentry) which grabs that info from the sensors. You can tilt your PowerBook and watch the bubble move. It is a totally useless widget—but can be fun to play with when you're really, REALLY bored.
 
I have heard there is a game that can use the sensor to control a ball rolling. I think it is the electronic equivalent of the game where you maneuver a steel ball through a maze with holes.
 
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