My gear: 17" Apple Powerbook G4 1.67 gHz, 1 Gig RAM, Upgraded Video, All less than one year old (purchased NEW from Apple store in San Diego).
It all started slow, and then the ball started to really move. ( I just want to say now that I am truly sad that Macs did not work out for me, I really was looking forward to owning a new/revolutionary/good looking computer. )
The first thing that I noticed going wrong was the function buttons. Unlike any of my friends' computers, my function buttons (keyboard brightness, lcd brightness, etc.) did not work unless I held the function (Fn) button down along with the corresponding F key. Granted that is a really small, but really annoying issue that I decided to just live with.
Second thing, programs "unexpectedly quit" regularly (Safari, Firefox, iTunes especially, Photoshop CS2, Bridge, everything). Verify/Repair disk and AppleJack did not fix this.
Third thing, my airport would not connect to any network with any kind of encryption. It would give error messages saying that it could not support this encryption type I tried (WPA Personal/Enterprise, WPA2 Personal/Enterprise, WEP both 64 and 128 bit). This problem seemed to be, at some times, intermittent. It would work occasionally, but never for more than one day consecutively.
Fourth thing, computer simply froze when I would shut down or restart computer, or wouldn't do anything at all. All programs were closed and all windows were closed (activity monitor showed no open applications).
Fifth thing, my LCD started to go through periods of being blacked out until finally one day it simply blacked out permanently. I then brought the computer to the UTC Apple Store, where they were VERY friendly and willing to help. They send the computer into the Apple repair center to address all the above mentioned issues. They asked me specifically and I told them specifically that I did not have everything on my computer backed up and to NOT clear/erase/replace the harddrive. The mac genius said that he would include a note that would instruct them not to erase or replace hard drive. He said the computer would be returned to me in 7-10 days.
Sixth thing, computer comes 18 days later (8 days later than promised). The service bulletin basically says that it is a brand new top/bottom case assembly, new LCD, and a bunch of new wires and parts. I turn the computer on and everything was cleared off, in fact, it is a brand new hard drive. They neither followed my instructions, nor the mac genius' instructions. I had a lot of very valuable, sentimental, and expensive files that are no longer recoverable (I assume the don't keep hard drives that they declare to be possibly defective, or at least the data intact).
Seventh thing, the (combo drive is it? or super drive?) intermittently worked for the first day of use, now it no longer works. That wasn't even an issue before I sent it in for repair.
Eighth thing, the airport still has the same issues as before servicing (not 100% sure if it isn't a router problem, but the issue still happens with all networks around me)
Guys I'm sad... my Mac experience has been really crappy. Really really crappy. I am now in Santa Barbara, so there is no nearby Mac store, but there is an authorized store called MacMechanic. I'm going to bring it in there and pretty much give them this thread printed out.
The kicker is that I have over $4,000 saved for when the new Intel desktops come out, but if my problems persist and the support continues to be as shoddy as it has been. I'm not spending that money on a Mac.
If they can't do a STELLAR job of renewing my Mac vigor, I'm going back to my PC. In 5 years running my PC the only problem I have had has been the hard drive started to wear down, so I replaced it. I get about 2-3 virus/spyware per year but I am a very advanced PC user, so these threats don't set me back any.
Now, I know it's not fair to compare my PC desktop to any laptop, but I do have a PC laptop that is 3 years old. I haven't even had one problem with that laptop, not even a virus.
On top of that, I spoke with my school's AV manager and he said that the last 5 desktop Mac's the school has puchased (in a row) have been defective. G5 towers, and iMacs.
It all started slow, and then the ball started to really move. ( I just want to say now that I am truly sad that Macs did not work out for me, I really was looking forward to owning a new/revolutionary/good looking computer. )
The first thing that I noticed going wrong was the function buttons. Unlike any of my friends' computers, my function buttons (keyboard brightness, lcd brightness, etc.) did not work unless I held the function (Fn) button down along with the corresponding F key. Granted that is a really small, but really annoying issue that I decided to just live with.
Second thing, programs "unexpectedly quit" regularly (Safari, Firefox, iTunes especially, Photoshop CS2, Bridge, everything). Verify/Repair disk and AppleJack did not fix this.
Third thing, my airport would not connect to any network with any kind of encryption. It would give error messages saying that it could not support this encryption type I tried (WPA Personal/Enterprise, WPA2 Personal/Enterprise, WEP both 64 and 128 bit). This problem seemed to be, at some times, intermittent. It would work occasionally, but never for more than one day consecutively.
Fourth thing, computer simply froze when I would shut down or restart computer, or wouldn't do anything at all. All programs were closed and all windows were closed (activity monitor showed no open applications).
Fifth thing, my LCD started to go through periods of being blacked out until finally one day it simply blacked out permanently. I then brought the computer to the UTC Apple Store, where they were VERY friendly and willing to help. They send the computer into the Apple repair center to address all the above mentioned issues. They asked me specifically and I told them specifically that I did not have everything on my computer backed up and to NOT clear/erase/replace the harddrive. The mac genius said that he would include a note that would instruct them not to erase or replace hard drive. He said the computer would be returned to me in 7-10 days.
Sixth thing, computer comes 18 days later (8 days later than promised). The service bulletin basically says that it is a brand new top/bottom case assembly, new LCD, and a bunch of new wires and parts. I turn the computer on and everything was cleared off, in fact, it is a brand new hard drive. They neither followed my instructions, nor the mac genius' instructions. I had a lot of very valuable, sentimental, and expensive files that are no longer recoverable (I assume the don't keep hard drives that they declare to be possibly defective, or at least the data intact).
Seventh thing, the (combo drive is it? or super drive?) intermittently worked for the first day of use, now it no longer works. That wasn't even an issue before I sent it in for repair.
Eighth thing, the airport still has the same issues as before servicing (not 100% sure if it isn't a router problem, but the issue still happens with all networks around me)
Guys I'm sad... my Mac experience has been really crappy. Really really crappy. I am now in Santa Barbara, so there is no nearby Mac store, but there is an authorized store called MacMechanic. I'm going to bring it in there and pretty much give them this thread printed out.
The kicker is that I have over $4,000 saved for when the new Intel desktops come out, but if my problems persist and the support continues to be as shoddy as it has been. I'm not spending that money on a Mac.
If they can't do a STELLAR job of renewing my Mac vigor, I'm going back to my PC. In 5 years running my PC the only problem I have had has been the hard drive started to wear down, so I replaced it. I get about 2-3 virus/spyware per year but I am a very advanced PC user, so these threats don't set me back any.
Now, I know it's not fair to compare my PC desktop to any laptop, but I do have a PC laptop that is 3 years old. I haven't even had one problem with that laptop, not even a virus.
On top of that, I spoke with my school's AV manager and he said that the last 5 desktop Mac's the school has puchased (in a row) have been defective. G5 towers, and iMacs.
