In The Words of Neil Young...

02 JAN

Piece Of Crap! Yes, my MBP has bought the farm. It is an ex-Mac. Dead as a ZX Spectrum. I’m pretty new to Macs and before moving over I always had this impression that they were less reliable than your average PC. Everyone who owned one always seemed to have stuff failing on them. When I got my MBP a few months ago I hoped that I’d just got the wrong impression and this wasn’t the case. But alas, the hard drive has died right in the middle of a really busy period. Needless to say, if I see Stevie Jobs he’s going to get a good kicking. I really wish OS X would (reliably) run on none-Apple hardware.

Anyway, rant over. Happy New Year and all that. I think this year is going to be pretty good. Roll on SXSW!

Proper useful content will resume shortly. Watch this space.

16 Comments (Closed)

That sucks! I got macs that luckily haven’t failed but I’ve got this feeling that I’m using a time bomb. Some mac magazine said you should always own two macs in case one fails!

I long for the day that they outsource some models to a better manufacturer. They’re beatiful when they work though…

labrat at 02.01.07 / 20PM

Shoulda stuck with Windows! :)

Glad to hear you’re going to be at SXSW. I hope we get a chance to chat.

Jonathan Snook at 02.01.07 / 20PM

Don’t get me wrong. OS X has totally revolutionised the way I work and I’m well pissed off having to use Windows again but the hardware does seem so dodgy.

It’s a shame Linux is still so high maintainance.

Jonathan: Yeah, definitely. I’ll keep an eye out for you.

Dan at 02.01.07 / 21PM

My ZX Spectrum still works… :-)

Mark at 02.01.07 / 22PM

Seems like this anti Apple hardware is becoming a common theme. Zed hates Apple hardware too

I’ve had great luck with two Mac laptops but will buy and external hard drive asap after the warning are seeming to mount.

The thing is I don’t even particularly care for the way that much of OS X functions. I don’t like the Dock and I don’t like Finder. I “need” a unix-like system but I’d probably be much happier using BSD or Linux with KDE but then what do I do when I want to test web pages in IE and Safari? The only way to be a web developer with one portable computer is to have a Mac with Parallels Desktop with Windows. And what if I just want to plug in a digital camera and download some pictures or open my laptop and have the wireless card just work. I don’t want to recompile a kernel or whatever knob twiddling BSD/Linux machines need. It seems like Apple is in the right place to have a monopoly on developers.

I’m feeling handcuffed.

Peter at 02.01.07 / 22PM

Peter: Totally agree. What can you do, eh? I’m no longer a Linux noob but still have problems getting hardware to work properly. Whenever I try to get Ubuntu etc working with some bit of hardware or other it makes me want to destroy the world….and I’m not exaggerating!

Dan at 03.01.07 / 01AM

Completely anecdotal on the opposite side: I’ve had two PowerBooks, a MacBook Pro, a 7500, a G3 desktop and a mini, and my biz partner has had two iMacs and an iBook, and none of them has lasted us less than five years; all still could run today on their appropriate systems. We’ve had some minor problems (screen hinge loosening on a PowerBook, keyboard problems on iBook, burnt up laptop power supplies after a couple of years), but nothing too huge. When my business partner ran Windows, she was buying a new machine every year. Maybe we’re just lucky with Apple and unlucky with Windows machines, I don’t know.

dwayne at 03.01.07 / 02AM

@Dwayne

“I’ve had two PowerBooks, a MacBook Pro … and none of them has lasted us less than five years”

Nice try, but the MPB has only been around since 2006 ;)

I use a Quicksilver Dual G4 at work which started out running OS 9, is now on Tiger, and will hopefully be running Leopard when that comes out. This thing is a rock. I’ve added a faster HD over the years and more memory and it has even aged gracefully.

At home on the other hand I have one of those early gen MBP’s which I use only when absolutely necessary. I’ve had problems with stuck DVD’s had to shell out $70 for a new power cable and you could probable cook an egg on the thing with how hot it runs – but luckily it’s still running.

I’ve heard that you need Applecare as even Apple anticipates these having a short lifespan. On the other hand I’ve heard only good things about the new Core2’s. Seems they’ve gotten most of it right there. Cheers~

Aeron at 05.01.07 / 23PM

Funny, I have been running multiple Mac hardware for quite some time now, business wise about 35 machines and privately four and haven’t had any hardware problems yet, without Applecare. But that’s only the last four years…

Martijn Stegink at 06.01.07 / 23PM

Since the 80s I’ve owned: Mac Plus Mac IIsi Mac Color Classic Mac Quadra 605 PowerMac 7200 PowerMac 7600 PowerBook 145 PowerMac G3 (beige) Two iBook G3s PowerMac G4 iBook G4 PowerMac G5 (PPC)

And the only problem I ever had was a cracked solder joint on my Mac Plus (not uncommon) which I fixed myself.

That is until my PowerMac G5—which has been plagued with problems and been to the Apple Store twice (dead PSU, dead Logic Board) for repairs. I just get the feeling that with the move towards industry standard hardware and Apple’s increase in popularity, hardware quality has dropped considerably. The more I read about problems with Mac Books and MBPs the more wary I am to replace my wife’s iBook G4. My father’s iMac G5 has already been in once for repairs (faulty capicitors).

I never used to even consider extended warranties, but I do have AppleCare on my G5. And I have a Mac Mini as backup just in case. This stuff worries me.

Scott McMillin at 15.01.07 / 00AM

I’ve been using macs since the mid 80’s. My impression is that “old-time” mac users seem to keep their macs running forever. The crossover folks seem to have the bad experiences. Mac users have a Zen relationship with their macs. To PC users the mac is another piece of (expensive) hardware.

Rick at 15.01.07 / 20PM

Ignore my previous comment. Martin may be correct. I have not owned a mac more recent than a G4. Maybe the newer hardware is less reliable.

Rick at 15.01.07 / 20PM

It’s quite possible that the reason for the unreliability is that it was one of the first MBP’s. This always seems to have an effect on reliability. For Apple anyway.

Just got a call from Apple, they’ve finally found a hard drive for me….It’ll be back soon!

Dan at 16.01.07 / 09AM

Hard drives crash all the time whether it’s on a MB or a Vaio. Good luck with the new one :)

Erwin Heiser at 26.01.07 / 14PM

Fortunately I own a PowerBook G4. Pretty smooth from my experience. After dealing with piece of crap PC’s for 12 years, moving to a Mac was beautiful. ALL computers have issues. I’ve never owned a computer (out of about 20+) that didn’t have some issues…especially a laptop. I bought my PowerBook right around the time the MBPro came out and I didn’t trust the fact that it was the “new thing.” Give it some time to get stable (holding breath). I think Macs (old architecture) are stable and reliable for the most part. I’d much rather deal with OSX then a Windows crap vehicle anyday. Let’s not get started on Dell machines and failed power supplies and hard drives…

@Dan…PowerBooks are more stable from what I’ve seen than MBP. If you really like OSX, then try to get a PB. It will still be supported for a long time. Hopefully the new fangled architecture and all it’s instability will get in line eventually.

MarkStar at 30.01.07 / 04AM