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No More Apple for me

M

MintyMinty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 9, 2012
4
0
Hey Guys,

Today I started my 24" Imac from 2009 and it wouldn't get further then just the booting sound when it crashed again. No sign of life any further and this is not the first.

My girlfriends mac from 2008 had the same problem and is in a box somewhere upstairs, repairing would cost hundreds of Euro's and same problem occured with a friend of ours with an Imac aswell....

Why can a machine for this amount of cash not work properly for at least 5 years, why can't the richest company in the world not check my product I bought for free... it has to be 80 euro's up front and then they tell me what is wrong with it.

Can any of you guys please explain how this is possible? Because after 2 Imacs and 4 Ipods I'm kinda done with buying expensive throwaway Apple products and seriously thinking getting back to windows. I rather buy 6 PC's for the same price and deal with the Windows BS, then spending a ton of cash again. Maybe WIndows 8 will be a bright new start for me as a mac user.
 
whitel4

whitel4

macrumors member
Jul 13, 2012
50
0
UK
buy a cheap hard drive and replace it yourself. loads of videos on how to do this on youtube.
 
R

R1PPER

macrumors 6502
Oct 1, 2008
360
62
I agree but a better solution than going windows is get a refurb and purchase apple care.
 
garnerx

garnerx

macrumors 6502a
Nov 9, 2012
623
382
Try a Hackintosh, maybe

I'm still running a Rev A iMac G5. It failed after about 4 years but Apple repaired it for free and it has been okay ever since. If it ever died again, I know what to do to fix it (replace the capacitors) but I'm not sure it would be worth the effort, as it doesn't run most modern software.

As I'm long overdue a decent desktop Mac I was interested in the new iMacs, but they seem to be nearly impossible to upgrade or, presumably, repair. Given that every Apple product I've ever owned has failed at some point, sometimes very expensively, I'm probably going to buy a bunch of compatible PC components and build a Hackintosh - at least that way I can upgrade it when needed and swap out parts when they break. Might be something for the OP to consider rather than going back to Windows.
 
JGRE

JGRE

macrumors 65816
Oct 10, 2011
1,012
664
Dutch Mountains
Bad luck or bad environment impact or they way you handle your Apples??

We (my family and I) have several Apple products and have never suffered any damage besides an unwilling fan in my 2011 MBP (12 euro repair, did it myself).

My son's 2008 iMac is still running and is used on a daily basis.

I have had more problems with my Toshiba 17" laptop which died within 3 years and my IBM thinkpad who's batteries died within 6 months.

I must say that I am very happy with my Apple stuff even knowing that you pay a premium. With respect to any repairs, there is a lot you can do yourself by just watching repairs on Youtube, Apple overcharges you for any repairs and spare parts.
 
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garnerx

garnerx

macrumors 6502a
Nov 9, 2012
623
382
Off the top of my head, the Apple hardware that I've killed includes:
iMac G3 (logic board, £150 repair)
iMac G3 DV (logic board, £300 repair)
iMac G5 (logic board, free repair)
MBP 2009 (hard drive, replaced / upgraded to SSD)
iPod third gen (repeated battery failures, then total death)
iPod mini (battery failures, then HD failed)
iPod nano (refused to turn on, 1 month out of warranty, quoted £80 for repair!)

Plus there was a power supply on my Soundsticks speakers that broke, which is probably not Apple's fault, and they did send me a new one.

Looking at that list, I think I'm definitely going to try the Hackintosh. I'd be really annoyed if I got a new iMac and it ended up like all the others.
 
P

pubjoe

macrumors 6502
Aug 14, 2007
270
12
Have you tried booting from a system disk?

Find a Mac OS install or recovery disk, put it in the drive and restart the computer and then press and hold C at the chime. If you get to the install screen, click cancel and then click utilities on the top menu and then select disk utility.

Find the repair disk section, select your Macintosh HD, then verify, then repair. You may have to give this a long time. If it fails at any point, do it again.

Unfortunately HDDs in any computer often crap out after a few years, repairing the drive using the above method can move data away from bad blocks and hopefully even keep it going for another few years with no need to replace.

Doing this procedure used to be common knowledge. These days people don't even bother trying anything and just get rid of the machine as faulty.
 
Last edited:
L

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,184
19,037
MintyMinty said:
Can any of you guys please explain how this is possible?
Click to expand...

Simple. Expect over 10% of hard drives to fail within first three years of operation (*). Apple has nothing to do with this. Anyway, computers are articles of daily use. I think you should consider yourself lucky if your computer survived more then 4 years. BTW, of all the macs in our department (and there is a large bunch of them) only two have failed so far, both really old PowerBooks G4. One had its HDD fried, the other one the PSU. I have owned or used (work machine) over 5 Macs in the last 6 years and none ever broke.

(*)Source: http://static.googleusercontent.com...ch.google.com/en/us/archive/disk_failures.pdf
 
A

aristobrat

macrumors G5
Oct 14, 2005
12,292
1,403
MintyMinty said:
why can't the richest company in the world not check my product I bought for free... it has to be 80 euro's up front and then they tell me what is wrong with it.
Click to expand...
Which Apple Store did you take it to? I've never heard of one charging a diagnostics fee.
 
garnerx

garnerx

macrumors 6502a
Nov 9, 2012
623
382
aristobrat said:
I've never heard of one charging a diagnostics fee.
Click to expand...

I've been quoted a diagnostic fee before, maybe it's a European thing. The store was an authorised reseller in Bath called Farpoint, and they wanted something like £40 or £60 to examine a broken iMac before they'd even give a quote for the actual repair. This was before there was a proper Apple store in town.

In the end I called Apple and persuaded them to repair it for nothing.
 
iMcLovin

iMcLovin

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2009
1,963
898
garpen said:
Yes Mac sucks my iMac death after 3 years my pc last for 6 years. :eek:
Click to expand...

Man U guys. Apple doesn't even produce the hdd's themselves. It's made at the same factories as pc hdd's. and it's all about luck or un-luck; it can last for the entire time you have the machine or die in 6 months. It's a device with tons of fragile parts moving. I had a LaCie hdd that simply tipped to the side and got broken, and LaCie refused to fix it for free because the warranty says it doesn't cover a fall (and this was a fall of 15cm). So should I hate LaCie and never buy a LaCie hdd ever again? No, I was simply unlucky, it happens to many. When I opened the hdd I even saw it was a toshiba drive, since LaCie just make custom boxes.

And I mean 4 years??? My iMac is now 3.5 year, I will now give it to my kids and every day it works will just be luck and I don't expect anything more from it. It's on overtime all ready. If nothing happens with it until I get my 2012 iMac I consider myself lucky, then I had a machine that has earned me 100x it's value without breaking.
 
garnerx

garnerx

macrumors 6502a
Nov 9, 2012
623
382
iMcLovin said:
My iMac is now 3.5 year, I will now give it to my kids and every day it works will just be luck and I don't expect anything more from it. It's on overtime all ready.
Click to expand...

That's an ... interesting way of looking at it. Personally I don't consider a £1200 computer to be in any way disposable, and I would like to keep it going for as long as possible.

I just priced up a high-spec Hackintosh system on Amazon. With a 24" 16:10 monitor, i7 processor and a very good graphics card, it comes in at £1100. I like Apple's OS, and because I have 16 years' worth of legacy files that I can't face transferring to Windows, I'm kind of locked in to it. Hardware-wise, though, this is definitely the way forward for me from now on.
 
hfg

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
Disk drives which have been used extensively often fail after being turned off for an extended period of time. The old spindle lubricants bind the shaft and the tiny motor can't get it started. They actually last longer if left running.

A 4 year old drive had a high probability of failure anyway, but using it for 3 years and then storing it unused for a year would invite failure. You might be able to get it going again with some work, but I wouldn't trust it for long and would backup my data and replace the drive.
 
E

excommie

macrumors regular
May 12, 2009
206
1
I would try booting from external HD over FW800. I tried it once on my 2008 iMac (using SSD in FW800 enclosure) and never went back. The FW800 with SSD is a great combo - boots in 20 seconds, apps open in a single bounce. My internal HD still works, but SSD over FW800 makes it a lot faster.
 
LagunaSol

LagunaSol

macrumors 601
Apr 3, 2003
4,798
0
We picked up a half-dozen 20" iMacs in 2006 at a university store clearance sale. Two of them are in my home, two went to extended family members and two went to friends. All are still running. No problems with any of them. Not even a failed hard drive. Remarkable.

I'd put Apple reliability up against any other computer maker any day of the week. Consumer Reports backs it up with numbers.
 
G

G4DP

macrumors 65816
Mar 28, 2007
1,451
3
iMcLovin said:
Man U guys. Apple doesn't even produce the hdd's themselves. It's made at the same factories as pc hdd's. and it's all about luck or un-luck; it can last for the entire time you have the machine or die in 6 months. It's a device with tons of fragile parts moving. I had a LaCie hdd that simply tipped to the side and got broken, and LaCie refused to fix it for free because the warranty says it doesn't cover a fall (and this was a fall of 15cm). So should I hate LaCie and never buy a LaCie hdd ever again? No, I was simply unlucky, it happens to many. When I opened the hdd I even saw it was a toshiba drive, since LaCie just make custom boxes.

And I mean 4 years??? My iMac is now 3.5 year, I will now give it to my kids and every day it works will just be luck and I don't expect anything more from it. It's on overtime all ready. If nothing happens with it until I get my 2012 iMac I consider myself lucky, then I had a machine that has earned me 100x it's value without breaking.
Click to expand...

It's not all about luck. Apple are known for buying the crap no-one else would take. They will take the cheapest parts possible. A computer should not be on overtime if it lasts past its AppleCare period. Machines of this cost should last for years without failing in the numbers they do.
 
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