homeGeek CultureWebstoreeCards!Forums!Joy of Tech!AY2K!webcam

« While you're waiting for the new Star Wars... | Main | Plate Tectonics in two minutes! »

April 27, 2015

Apple Watch heartbreak... defective units with blinking logo

Well, after weeks of geeky anticipation and downright going insane waiting for his Apple Watch to arrive, a good friend of ours has only heartbreak and disappointment. The 42mm stainless steel watch that was just delivered to him is part of a small number of Apple Watches that are arriving DOA. That's right, Dead On Arrival… they won't boot up, start, blink, bloop, bing, click, tick, or even tock... nothing, no matter what button is pushed or reset tried. Bummer!

The only thing the watch does is display a blinking half-illuminated logo while charging. It blinks in a pattern, on for 5 seconds, off, on for five seconds, off, then on for 2.5 seconds, then dark for almost 15 seconds, then repeats. We have dubbed this sad time The Apple Watch Blinking Logo of Doom. Seriously though, it brings tears to our geeky eyes.

Here's a video of the problem, taken while the Watch is charging...

We've found two other reports of this exact problem on the MacRumors Forums. Just like with those ones, our friend had to call Apple Tech Support, who after some troubleshooting, declared it a hardware issue. They are now arranging to ship out a new one to him. He keeps his band (Milanese loop), and just returns the watch unit itself.

Good on Apple for working on fixing this asap, (they say a replacement will arrive in 4 business days or so) but still... a real bummer for those unlucky few!

Posted by Snaggy at April 27, 2015 03:12 PM