How long do Macs live for?

[TyleRomeo]

Just curious how long your Mac's have worked before they died and if you think that putting it to sleep rather then shuting it down is better to preserve the life of your mac, I have a power mac MDD btw.

Tyler

[Zeke]

In my experience, they generally outlive their usefulness. The only way that's not true is if someone just can't afford a new computer and is still using a 6 yr old Mac. Then it might die. I personally don't think it makes a difference between shutting it down and sleeping. OS X, however, likes to be left on (Unix heritage) and performs maintenance in the middle of the night. So I leave my computer on folding constantly.

[Jaykay]

Originally posted by TyleRomeo
Just curious how long your Mac's have worked before they died and if you think that putting it to sleep rather then shuting it down is better to preserve the life of your mac, I have a power mac MDD btw.

Tyler

Well i have an MDD mac as well and it better last. I've had a TAM for years now and it still works perfectly. Unlike PCs, macs dont really tend to die, at all mostly.

[celaurie]

Forever...

[Maclicious]

My original apple IIe still works.

My subsequent beige mac with black and white inset video screen died, but only after about 4-5 years.

(A Gateway 300 MHz I bought in 97 still works, though I sold it; my dalliance with MS for the sake of playing games. Of course, 3 years after I bought it, I couldn't play any of the most current games on it any more, anyway).

My clamshell tangerine iBook 300 MHz still works, and is running os X like a champ (my wife is using it).

She would be using my subsequent iBook 500 MHz (white), but, it died! (at least, it is constantly troubled by small breakdowns, the last and hardest to fix cheaply, the video screen). Thankfully, it held on until I got my current mac...

I've had my current 17 inch Albook for about 2 months. Let's hope that the previous pattern continues, and this one will continue to work until I pass it on to someone else in 4-5 years.

[Mr. Anderson]

I'd agree with Zeke on this one. I have an almost 4 year old G4 PowerMac and its a dog. I need to upgrade badly. But I'm waiting for the 970s to come out, other wise I'd have bought a new machine last year.

D

[lmalave]

My friend has a 6 year old beige G3 that's still going strong, running Jaguar. Ha, she even has a PowerBook 520c that's 10 years old, running OS 8, which will even run Internet Explorer. Hilarious. Actually, seeing how long her Macs lasted is what prompted me to buy my iBook, since I was disgusted that my Dell only lasted 2 years and I wanted something more rugged.

[Pismo]

My first mac was a Classic II and then my parents bought us an LC-475. We donated the Classic II to a school a few years and the LC is still downstairs and it works great!

I think desktops tend to last longer than laptops. My brother in law bought a blueberry iBook when they were introduced. He took very good care of it and never dropped it or handled it roughly. It died after 3 years of heavy use. Of course, he used it for about 12 to 18 hours a day for 3 years straight! He tried to get it fixed but it needed a new motherboard and it wasn't worth it to him after that. He upgraded to a 1 GHz TiBook. Sweet upgrade:D

As for me and my Pismo, it's almost dead. The screen is getting darker and it's really messed up. It would last a few more years but after droppiing it, it'll be too expensive to fix so I'm going get a new 15.x" PB when they come out.

[zimv20]

all my macs still work, going back to my mac 512ke. how useful they are today is debatable, but i've got 4 folding (oldest is g3/266 running jaguar).

still use my newton, too. and it's syncing w/ iCal and AddressBook.

[hacurio1]

Originally posted by TyleRomeo
Just curious how long your Mac's have worked before they died and if you think that putting it to sleep rather then shuting it down is better to preserve the life of your mac, I have a power mac MDD btw.

Tyler

It all depends!! Sometimes it's luck and sometimes it's use, but overall my macs have lasted long long looooong enough! My performa CD is dead, and ironically, I used to take good care of it. My performa 6400 works, though I haven't turn on that computer for a while and I trashed that computer really bad. My power mac 9600 works, but it needs a new HD and I haven't had time to look for a used one. My current G4 is going to turn 3 years old and is working great. I have used this G4 for tree years an average of 10-14 hour per day and It's working great; on the other hand, I know people who had terrible experinces with some G4s because they died only after 1-2 years. Overall, Apple has great computers but it everybody's experinces are different.

[bennetsaysargh]

Originally posted by zimv20
all my macs still work, going back to my mac 512ke. how useful they are today is debatable, but i've got 4 folding (oldest is g3/266 running jaguar).

still use my newton, too. and it's syncing w/ iCal and AddressBook.

you can still sync with a newton?

anyway, back on topic. my iMac slot loading 400Mhz G3 with 512ram, and it still works pretty good. it all depends on how you use it. my brother was always on it from when he got home from school to midnight sometimes. then he got his 12" PB. heavy use by my whole family the iMac. im going to start phasing into a plan i call the G4 plan and try and get a faster computer. either a FP iMac or an eMac.

wish me luck!

[Zeke]

Sorry, posted in wrong forum somehow...

[BrittasMac]

I have never had a Mac die on me. I have 8 Macs and the earliest dates back to 1986. All of them run and boot up like new.

I have however had an Apple IIgs die on me, but that doesn't really count since it isn't a Mac.

[donigian]

Macs last forever!

I have purchased both my Apple IIe and Mac Plus from thrift stores in perfect working condition. The IIe is about 20 years old and the Mac Plus is from 1986. They both work just fine.

P.S. Anyone know where I can find an Apple keyboard or mouse for the Plus? The keyboard is telephone-cable type and the mouse is serial. Thanks.

[yzedf]

Originally posted by donigian
Macs last forever!

I have purchased both my Apple IIe and Mac Plus from thrift stores in perfect working condition. The IIe is about 20 years old and the Mac Plus is from 1986. They both work just fine.

P.S. Anyone know where I can find an Apple keyboard or mouse for the Plus? The keyboard is telephone-cable type and the mouse is serial. Thanks.
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&krd=1&from=R8&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=macintosh+plus+keyboard

Almost cheaper to get another plus that has the keyboard and mouse with it ;)

Myself... I have 2 Plus' and only one keyboard and mouse :( Pictures here. (http://www.yzedf.com/pics/s200/Macintosh%20Plus/)

[Thom_Edwards]

my rev a imac is still going strong. i put a new 20 gig hard drive in it just because i was out of space. also upped the ram to 512 to run x. i do get an occasional monitor flicker coupled with a popping sound. i'm scared it's about to go.

but hey, at $1300 new i figure that's just over $250 a year, or $20 a month! maybe i should get .mac!!!!!!

[Edot]

My brother owns the original Mac 128k. It runs with out a hitch, but making the boot disks, or any disks for that matter that are 400K isn't easy. Does anyone know how to make a 400K disk so we can run some programs? We still haven't cracked it to see if the signatures are inside. Other macs include Apple IIe, PowerPC 7200, beige G3 tower, and eMac. All but the Apple IIe and 128k are used and run fine.

[smada]

My '99 iMac DV SE handles jag like it was nothing. whenever friends come over and use it they think it's a new machine. I leave it on all the time, and I don't let the hard drive spin down. either.

My mom's bondi blue iMac still works, but it struggles with new software. Maybe I'll retire it and turn it into a nice airport/mp3 server?

[zimv20]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
you can still sync with a newton?


oh yeah baby!

newtsync (http://www.everchanging.com/newton/developer.html)

[gotohamish]

Originally posted by celaurie
Forever...

I hear that. A mac has never died on me, not has our 128K stopped, or any of the 20 or 30 or so we've had since.

Long may it continue.

[maka]

My main computer is a four year old B&W g3 350 and runs OSX pretty well, I'm even recording with it and a MAudio PCI card and I'm not getting much latency :) but I may upgrade the CPU to a g4... I also have my first mac around, but I don't use it much anymore... It's a 7100/66 av, so it's 9 years old now and works perfectly.

I think I'd never sell a mac I own :)

[bennetsaysargh]

Originally posted by zimv20
oh yeah baby!

newtsync (http://www.everchanging.com/newton/developer.html)

that's awsome. i have also heard of iTunes plug-ins that can put mp3's onto newtons. if i find it i'll post it.

too bad i don't have a newton:(
please no links to eBay because i can't afford anything because i don't have a job yet:rolleyes:

[drastik]

Originally posted by donigian


P.S. Anyone know where I can find an Apple keyboard or mouse for the Plus? The keyboard is telephone-cable type and the mouse is serial. Thanks.

Yeah, I've got one, but you can't have it because it is attached to my Plus which still works like a charm, as does the 20 meg SCSI Apple Harddrive that it boots from. The Imagewriter II works as well, I can still write with Word on the thing System 7.

All of my other Macs still work, I never turn them off nad only reboot when neccesary. Only downside to this is the baterry on my pismo is now dead (after almost four years, mind you) and new ones are very expensive. ITs not enough of a problem to justify an upgrade yet, though.

[bryng]

I gotta original Mac Portable that still works... :D

[bennetsaysargh]

Originally posted by bryng
I gotta original Mac Portable that still works... :D

can you post some pictures of it? i would love to see one of those in action:D

[question fear]

So, my friend was trying to sell parts of his old computer to a used computer place yesterday, and we got into a conversation with the owner...she was telling us stories about customer screwups, etc...and she mentioned she had several imacs and an old Apple IIe (which was in a display case). My friend immediately rolls his eyes, expecting to side with the owner on how macs suck and thats why she has them in stock...she proceeds to tell us that she loves macs, and that they last longer than any of the pc's she works with, that they use the best parts and will survive longer than their usefullness. this made my pc loving friend look stupid for all the times hes been slamming my future computer choice. and made me feel quite good :-D
anyhow, thought everyone on this board would get a kick out of the story.
--carly

[bennetsaysargh]

Originally posted by question fear
So, my friend was trying to sell parts of his old computer to a used computer place yesterday, and we got into a conversation with the owner...she was telling us stories about customer screwups, etc...and she mentioned she had several imacs and an old Apple IIe (which was in a display case). My friend immediately rolls his eyes, expecting to side with the owner on how macs suck and thats why she has them in stock...she proceeds to tell us that she loves macs, and that they last longer than any of the pc's she works with, that they use the best parts and will survive longer than their usefullness. this made my pc loving friend look stupid for all the times hes been slamming my future computer choice. and made me feel quite good :-D
anyhow, thought everyone on this board would get a kick out of the story.
--carly

lol. i did get a kick out of that. sort of the same story with my iPod.
one of my friends uses PC's and hates Macs, so when I get my iPod, I say how good it is. He says "That's so cool, who makes it?"
I say "Apple"
He Says "Oh"
"you should have gotten a rio or something."

point is, they don't want to believe that apple is good.

[evil]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
lol. i did get a kick out of that. sort of the same story with my iPod.
one of my friends uses PC's and hates Macs, so when I get my iPod, I say how good it is. He says "That's so cool, who makes it?"
I say "Apple"
He Says "Oh"
"you should have gotten a rio or something."

point is, they don't want to believe that apple is good.

congrats. that actually made me laugh!
quite funny.

[bennetsaysargh]

Originally posted by evil
congrats. that actually made me laugh!
quite funny.

that's what im here for!
i think.
hold on,
i think i am, therefore i am, i think...
confused is me!:lol:

[kiwi_the_iwik]

I've still got an old 512KE that I bought in 1985 - and after 18 years, it STILL works like a charm!!! I gave it to my Dad - who was so impressed, he turned around and bought a Performa 5260.

Funny, really - when we were growing up, we never gave him the controls to the TV...

After that, I bought an LCII 8/80 in 1992, which I gave to my brother-in-law (and THAT still works, too!).

Finally, after a few years out in the "wilderness" of not owning a Mac (but still longing for one), I went out and got my current wee beastie - a G4 Cube. And it's STILL as gorgeous as the day I bought it (768Mb Ram, 15" LCD, Radeon 7500 - recent upgrade...)

The point is, whilst my Macs are all in pristine condition (although they've aged a bit), my brother - an avid PC user - is onto his 5th computer, all through just DYING on him...

Some people NEVER learn...

HA!

;)

[kiwi_the_iwik]

It's OK, though - my brother's an idiot anyway, who deserves what he gets.

That's the narrowmindedness of a PC user for you...

:p

[celaurie]

Here's my Mac Timeline (http://celaurie.worldonline.co.uk/macs.html)! And as far as I'm aware all of the beasts - despite the fact some are no longer in my possession - all survive and continue work like the individual dreams that the are.

Chris

[donigian]

Originally posted by Edot
My brother owns the original Mac 128k. It runs with out a hitch, but making the boot disks, or any disks for that matter that are 400K isn't easy. Does anyone know how to make a 400K disk so we can run some programs? We still haven't cracked it to see if the signatures are inside. Other macs include Apple IIe, PowerPC 7200, beige G3 tower, and eMac. All but the Apple IIe and 128k are used and run fine.

I'm pretty sure your Mac has the signatures inside, if memory serves me correctly, all Macs before the new Platinum coloring had the sigs. And it's a bitch to get those cases open, you need a really long torx wrench to get at the screws in the handle well. Please correct me if I'm wrong about the sigs, though.

[bennetsaysargh]

i am still amazed on the who;le thing with the opening and the signatures. that is so cool! i hope ton the next computers, there is something cool on the inside.

[Dont Hurt Me]

My old 333 imac is still purring along at my stepsons home. 4-5 yrs?

[LimeiBook86]

My first Mac I ever used was my Dad's Mac IIcx, now taht still boots up but the hard drive needs to be reformated. Then we got a PowerMac 7500/100 with a proccessor upgrade taht added 50mhz this machine runs well. I will soon ad a USB and ATA/IDE card to it. Then I got a PowerBook Duo 230, which used but then after buying a Duo 270c I gave the old one to a friend. Now the 270's screen cracked in 99' so I went on a bought a PowerBook 540c. Now the screen ribbon cable ripped but I have the motherboard that works and I can make it a mac desktop if I want. That lead me to my iBook. The Key Lime 466mhz FireWire Special Edition iBook with a DVD drive is my favorite Mac. Although it has a small hard drive (10 gb) it has 320mb of RAM (MAX) and runs Jaguar great! My dad Got his PowerMac G4 AGP 400 0r 450mhz I forget which one. But his machine is running great, it has 768mb of RAM, the original 20gb HD and an additional internal 80gb HD. We recently upgraded the DVD-ROM drive to a DVD-RW drive. It still runs great!. As for some other macs I have bought in flee markets and whatnot they still run fine. The 512k boots up but I lost the boot disks so I can't boot it up. The Mac Classic I aquired runs well but lacks internet connectivity. Although I know it is possible to use a ethernet connection via a SCSI converter I don't feel like I need to use the Classic online. I have had some Performas that are still kickin but they are missing parts which were givin to other Macs. I also have a PowerMac 7100 that is making a good home with my grandpa which is learning to type and such. I also have some other incomplete macs with missing parts or that are semi-working because of my own actions. :rolleyes: I have bought a PowerBook 520 off eBay and that works ok, hey it was only like 10 bucks the guy said it was broken but, heh what does he know :p I purchased a Power Mac G3 MiniTower for $400 last year in October, it has 333mhz, 9gb HD, Apple AV in/out card, USB card, FireWire card, UW SCSI card, Yamaha Internal 6x CD-RW, Apple CD-ROM, Apple DVD-ROM (the one that was taken out of the G4 and replaced with a DVD-RW drive) , Zip 100, and 256mb of RAM. This machine badly needs a bigger Hard Drive but other than that it is working fine. I use this machine as a server. Maybe I’ll get Mac OS X Server if the prices go down reaaaalll low for some reason. I hope all these Macs continue to work for as long as phisicaly possible. :)

[5300cs]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
can you post some pictures of it? i would love to see one of those in action:D

Here's a picture of mine.

It's in rather bad shape, unfortunately. I've posted a movie of it running at this address. (http://homepage.mac.com/time_pilot/iMovieTheater2.html) It's a shame, really.

[WeirdPixel]

Hey,
I have to admit i dont really use macs, I own one,
a eMac: 512RAM, 700Mhz G3, 40GB HDD.

I am a heavy pc user (plz dont hurt me)

I have a PC from 96' which still works fine, its currently my PHP server.

Its never been upgraded or anything tho, apart from the OS.

[kaltsasa]

I'm off away at school but I've got some machines purring a long in my apt. Right now I'm typing at a 6100 upgraded with a G3 card, that baby is almost 10 years old, and still usefull. I also have another 6100 with a dos card that runs, but it has out lived its usefulness. I mostly use it as an NES emulation station. Try that with a 10 year old PC. At home theres my first mac a 575 that still runs great, a 474 that boots up fine, several motorola starmax towers that run supurbly....though I have robbed from peter to giveto paul to create one super moto starmax out of several. My 7200 works as well. I even have 2 IIgs, one is a limited edition woz. They both work, however i only have one power supply for them. My brother has my 5500 churning away at debian linux. He also has a 630 that works. The s900 he got for nothing is a beast of a machine.

I have an apple laserwriter 16/600 on my network that is a tank. made in 1996 and it still prints like new. I foresee it running for many more years.

As for new machines, I have an iBook 900 that i got a couple months ago to replace my aging iBook 500 ;). Ok so I got it for my girlfreind. But my work gives me a pismo anyway.

thats my story of non dieing macs.

[bennetsaysargh]

Originally posted by 5300cs
Here's a picture of mine.

It's in rather bad shape, unfortunately. I've posted a movie of it running at this address. (http://homepage.mac.com/time_pilot/iMovieTheater2.html) It's a shame, really.

that's cool.

i've had my Slot-Loading G4 iMac for a few years, i think since 98. i need this new cube. i know my dad will want to get it.

[gammada]

First let's talk about what I have or did have:

I use to have a PowerBook 180 with an astounding 14Mb RAM, a whooping 360Mb SCSI hard disk and an impressive active matrix display with 16 shades of gray that was well and alive until 3 months ago then someone stole the little toy from me but I'm almost sure it still works today.

Also I own a Performa 630CD with a Daystar Digital PowerPC 601 upgrade and a TV tuner card that has been subjected to the rigors of a little 5 y.o. girl for the past 3 years and it's still working flawlessly. Actually it is my bedroom TV while not performing like a gaming machine. The original IDE disk left us quite a while ago but with an external SCSI 2 Gb drive the machine performs like it never did with the original disk.

In my experience macs live quite long even if subjected to a less than respectful treatment, the only parts that defy this rule are hard disk. Specially those in early-model performas with internal IDE hd's.

As for PC's, they last quite a while too. Most of the time it's only a matter of replacing (quite cheaply) daughter cards when they do fail at all.

[mactastic]

I've got a 6400/180 that must be at least 6 or 7 years old by now, still works great running 8.6. I tried running 9.1 on it but went back to 8.6 because it was too slow. Still running strong though. I should run tech tool on it again to see how many hours of use its gotten. Actually the Apple monitor and printer have long since bit the dust, but the computer is working fine.

[bennetsaysargh]

Originally posted by mactastic
I should run tech tool on it again to see how many hours of use its gotten.

is there an app for that? i would be curious to see how many hours of use my iMac had gotten.
thanks:D

[springscansing]

I have four working IIgs machines, including one with a blazing 7.6mhz upgrade card!

[springscansing]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
is there an app for that? i would be curious to see how many hours of use my iMac had gotten.
thanks:D

It's not very accurate since it only works if you haven't zapped the PRAM (which resets the time used to zero).

[bennetsaysargh]

i wanna just see. also, i wanna see how much my older brother has been on his 12inch PB:p
can you link me to a download of it?
thanks:D

[andyduncan]

I had one of the first Apple Macintosh (yeah, that's the model name) computers that were built, and it was still going strong 13 years after it was produced. Ended up donating it to somewhere I think. Got a rev-a 7100/66. Ugh, the bane of the nubus powermac, didn't help that software updates for it were six digits deep, anyone remember 7.5.1.2? Still, blame the crashes on the OS or the hardware, it ran till I dropped it in shipping, by which time I had a rev-a beige G3 266. A great machine my mom was using until a few months ago when she got a 12inch pb, now it's going to grandma for email.

My rev-a G4 450 (bought it during the keynote it was released at, lol) is the most stable piece of hardware i've ever seen, next to my sun box (uptime 1.5 years, although admittedly the load is light). I've run the damn G4 24 hours/day 7 days a week no shutdown no sleep, for going on four years now (use it for routing all the internet in the house). The only thing you need to watch out for are hard drives, those tend to fail whether the drive is in a pc or a mac. so backup your stuff.

Considering all four macs that I have owned have been revision-As, i'd say my experience has been exceptional. now all I need is a rev-a 970...