04/04/2006, 3:40pm, EDT
Tuesday, April 4th
Apple quietly fixes MacBook Pro issues
The serial numbers are based on year and week produced. Thus '10' reflects the 10th week of production, rather than a newer revision. The newer MacBooks, however, appear to solve many of the problems that have shown up in early production models.
"Apple said that revision D MacBook Pros have many issues addressed and improvements made, including fixes to the above mentioned issues. We were also able to get a hold of a MacBook Pro that just arrived during the week with a serial number starting with W8612, which did not exhibit any of the above issues."
Other users have also complained about a whining noise when the screen brightness is adjusted, which the report said is "fixed by launching a widget or by using PhotoBooth -- oddly enough this solves the problem until the next reboot."
It is unclear whether Apple is offering to replace or update MacBooks Pros that exhibit the aforementioned issues, but it is important to note that all early models do not exhibit some or all of the problems.
Apple is offering new MacBook Pros with 24-hour delivery time from the Apple Store as well as a slew of refurbished MacBook Pros. Other internet retailers such as Amazon also have stock of the new Intel-based laptops, with Amazon currently offering a $150 rebate.
Update: The story has been updated to reflect that serial number scheme was not based on revisions themselves, but on the production week of the unit. There, however, still may be underlying revisions to the logic board that are simply not reflected in the serial number, but as production evolves.
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The 6xx means week xx of year 6 (2006). Next week they will be W8613, and the week after will be W8614. Will those be called "revision F" and "revision G?" NO!
Apple revisions have always been /b /c on the model number, not serial number changes if it is a true revision. Come on MacNN, you guys are slippin.
Surely this isn't that hard to understand. Machines manufactured during the 10th week of this year have a rev c logic board, 11th week has a rev d logic board and 12th week has a rev e. Just read what's there not what you think is there. Sheeeeeeesh!
However, unless a statement comes from Apple directly, or a ranking individual at Apple is willing to go "on-the-record" then this is just hearsay. And that's fine, as long as you treat it that way.
It becomes news (and newsworthy) when someone at Apple goes on the record and says, yes, they're fixing MBPs. Until then, this is not news (nor is it newsworthy).
It seems that news sites (MacNN included) seem to feed off of one another for news stories. If this were a legitimate story, worthy of publishing, then would it be so difficult for someone at one of these news sites to pick up the phone and ask Apple for a comment?
Just my $0.02.
It was not my intent to discount the importance of the communal effort to share information. Sharing information among users is vital to keeping companies like Apple honest. If it weren't for the community at large we wouldn't know about these common problems (like the processor whine and LCD buzz). Sites like MacNN have a responsibility to the community they serve to share this information (both good and bad) with it's readers.
Like so many other potential MBP owners, I want to see these issues resolved. But I'll wait until I've had confirmation from independent sources. Twenty news sites reporting that Apple is fixing motherboards and all of them citing the SAME blog entry is NOT the same as twenty users sharing information in the community.
Finally, the original article reports that these problems have been fixed in revision D, yet people who have these so-called revision D motherboards are claiming to continue to have the noise problems. Where is that reported?
Again, just my $0.02.