Confirmed. I had a user come up to me and ask why their macbook shut off when ever they took it back to their desk. Skeptical I asked them to take me back to their desk and show me. I was quite mystified while I watched her put the laptop down, it immediately "shut off". I picked up the laptop and noticed it came back on, I put it down again and noticed they were placing it on top of another laptop.
Magnets; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvmvxAcT_Yc On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 6:41 PM, Edward Ned Harvey (lopser) < [email protected]> wrote: > This is separate from my present annoyance with newegg. But because of > the newegg problem, I got to thinking, "What other vendors are better about > customer service?" I don't have a good answer, but I have an anecdote > that's worth repeating.**** > > ** ** > > About 2-3-ish years ago, I ordered a dozen macbook pros from PC > Connection. They came in, I started applying the standard image to them, > everything was going fine, until the second day. Due to space constraint, > I moved them all from the workbench where I was originally working, to > continue working at my desk. All of a sudden, none of the laptops worked. > They would power on, flash the apple logo, start clicking the hard drive > apparently booting the OS, and just at the moment when you expect the login > prompt to appear, they would suddenly power off. I checked the batteries, > cleared the PRAM, eliminated any possibility of faulty building power or > power supplies by repeating the same behavior on systems that were > unplugged overnight and not connected to power at my desk...**** > > ** ** > > As part of standard operating procedure, of course, we record all the > serial numbers. And based on similarity, we have to conclude, at least 8 > of these are sequential, so they really are from the same manufacturing > batch.**** > > ** ** > > I tried booting from the OSX installation DVD... Still the same problem. > I figured, I've completely eliminated the possibility of faulty software by > booting from the OSX installation DVD. This is solidly and conclusively > identified as a hardware problem. I searched around online, found > nothing. I called apple support, and concluded that I could have them all > serviced under apple care, but since there was a whole *batch* of systems > with the same problem, they wanted to trace back and find the cause of the > problem instead. So we got apple support involved with PC Connection > support. I called the other IT guys in my office over, and we all worked > on it together. If for no other reason, a sanity check and competent > witness, I'm not doing something stupid.**** > > ** ** > > We all reached the same conclusion. This makes no sense, it simply *must* > be a bad batch of laptops from apple. Or random lightning strike in the > middle of the night last night, or something. **** > > ** ** > > So we'll return them to PC Connection, and they will work with apple. > Meanwhile, PC Connection will ship us a new batch. We can use the packing > materials from the new batch to return the faulty batch.**** > > ** ** > > New systems arrived, had no problem. Faulty systems received by PC > Connection also had no problem. None of us knew what the heck happened.** > ** > > ** ** > > A month later, we ordered some more macbook pros, and were surprised to > find two of the serial numbers already in our system. They re-sold the > laptops to us that we had RMA'd. I wanted to be furious, but they were not > exhibiting any problems. So I couldn't be too upset. I talked it all over > with our sales rep, who was deeply embarassed, and apologized deeply, and > we all agreed, we would just use them for now, and if there was even the > slightest sign of a problem, we would exercise extreme prejudice in dealing > with it.**** > > ...**** > > But that day never came. They continued to be fine indefinitely.**** > > ** ** > > Several months later, I had a stack of mac & windows laptops that needed > various forms of repair or reconditioning. So I was working on them at a > workbench. And I experienced the problem again. But this time, the > problem happened on a serial number that was NOT previously experienced on. > **** > > ** ** > > Something clicked. Because I had a stack of windows & mac laptops mixed > together. Because I had merely repositioned laptops on the workbench. I > figured out the cause of the problem.**** > > ** ** > > In the new model of macbook pro (new at the time) they had a magnetic > strip in the lid, and a magnetic sensor in the base to detect when the lid > is closed. This differs from the physical switches used in previous > models, and in the windows laptops. So if you close one macbook, and you > set another on top of it, the one on top will sense the magnetic strip of > the OTHER laptop. And power off (go to sleep.) The problem with each > laptop was caused by proximity with ANOTHER laptop.**** > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > > -- Joseph A Kern [email protected]
_______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
