Followup on 17" MacBook Pro Issues — Problems Have Not Gone Away

2011-04-22 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: gear, laptop, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Other World Computing, SSD

Update: I called Apple, and I was impressed that they accepted my explanations of what was going on, accepting it as a legitimate issue.

They’re talking about swapping the MacBook Pro for a new one, and they even want the OWC 6G SSD for testing. They offered to swap for a 256GB Apple SSD, but I explained that at half the speed, that was not an appealing option. So then they suggested they might be able to reimburse for the OWC 6G SSD, but Idon’t want to do that, because I can’t get another one for at least 2 weeks. At this point, I’m not sure what will happen, except that it sounds that a replacement 17" MacBook Pro is in the cards somehow.

Original post below

I reported on the flaky 6G SATA performance with my 17" MacBook Pro, along with the aluminum foil fix as well as how a brand-new recent-build 17" MacBook Pro appeared to perform just fine.

I ordered the iFixIt cable, and sent my 17" MBP to OWC. OWC installed the cable, and performance appeared to be close to normal, so that was that, and the OWC shielding kit was not installed. UPDATE: the iFixIt cable might not be the right cable for the 2011 MacBook Pro 17", so I strongly advise NOT ordering one. Doesn’t fix the issue, part number is wrong.

Upon return to me, tests showed very good performance, not quite as good as the 15" model, and with some unexplained variation.

Today, the 17" MacBook Pro tested as low as 1MB/sec, with multi-second dropouts with no I/O activity during the test— horribly broken behavior. Yet yesterday it behaved more or less normally. In short, the iFixIt cable fixed nothing.

So what’s going on? Well, I think a LEMON is going on, and maybe (just maybe) a LEMON DESIGN— at this point given the erratic performance ranging from good to almost non-functional, I am wondering whether the issue might well exist with other 17" models, but just come and go for unknown reasons.

It seems that my only option is to waste hours of my day at the Apple Store (minimum one hour just to drive back and forth), and hope like heck that Apple will see fit to replace my MacBook Pro, but just how I’ll argue that it ought to work with a 6G drive I’m not yet sure.