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A loyal Apple enthusiast finds himself rather disappointed. Perhaps you can help?

M

mbryant52

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 29, 2006
47
0
Bellingham, Washington
My first generation Macbook has been giving me all kinds of trouble lately. Frankly, I'm very disappointed in the machine. Here is what I am dealing with:

My palmrest split, cracked, and a piece of my casing broke off as a result of the contact made with the lid magnet. New casing appears to be about $400 plus labor. Any ideas on how I might be able to fix this for substantially less?

The other day I went to burn a c.d. and my optical drive started freaking out and making all kinds of noise. The disc was ejected and now when I attempt to burn iTunes tells me that the burning hardware cannot be found. I have not downloaded any new programs lately. What's the deal?

Twice in the last two days while using the computer I get a dark gray screen that says something to the effect of "your computer needs to be restarted, hit the power button". I've never even heard of this screen - what gives?

My battery, which lasts about four hours now (I usually have the charger plugged in as the computer stays mostly on my desk) immediately shuts off at about 30% life. No warning, nothing. Just off.

I haven't upgraded the ram (still at 512), but I only use iTunes, Firefox, and Word. And yet the computer seems to be getting consistently slower. I do all of the updates, but nonetheless.

I do not have Applecare. Any help? Thank you!
 
Those grey screens are called kernal panics... don't know what they are technically but I have heard of this happening with many machines.

Are you running Leopard?

If you are then that's the problem.

If not then I would suggest you reinstall Tiger and go from there. Other members can give you better advice on this.
 
heatmiser said:
Before anything, I've got to ask: are you running Leopard?
Click to expand...

And how full is the drive.

Since low memory and a full HD are a slowdown awaiting to happen.

Edit:

Memory right now is likely about $30-40 (or less) for 1 or 2 GB of memory, which would drastically alter the speed of the machine. Those holiday sales may be less.

And there are several vendors of MacBook parts which may be able to shave that $400 down to $200-$250.
 
Yeah, you can score 2gb of RAM from Newegg for $40. I'd snatch that up; it'll make a huge difference in your ability to multitask.
 
mbryant52 said:
I'm not running Leopard, and I have 30gbs available on my hard drive. Is reinstalling Tiger a good option?
Click to expand...

It's worth a try. But really, the cheapest and most effective thing you could do to improve your performance would be to go for the 2gig upgrade.
 
mbryant52 said:
My first generation Macbook has been giving me all kinds of trouble lately. Frankly, I'm very disappointed in the machine. Here is what I am dealing with:

My palmrest split, cracked, and a piece of my casing broke off as a result of the contact made with the lid magnet. New casing appears to be about $400 plus labor. Any ideas on how I might be able to fix this for substantially less?

The other day I went to burn a c.d. and my optical drive started freaking out and making all kinds of noise. The disc was ejected and now when I attempt to burn iTunes tells me that the burning hardware cannot be found. I have not downloaded any new programs lately. What's the deal?

Twice in the last two days while using the computer I get a dark gray screen that says something to the effect of "your computer needs to be restarted, hit the power button". I've never even heard of this screen - what gives?

My battery, which lasts about four hours now (I usually have the charger plugged in as the computer stays mostly on my desk) immediately shuts off at about 30% life. No warning, nothing. Just off.

I haven't upgraded the ram (still at 512), but I only use iTunes, Firefox, and Word. And yet the computer seems to be getting consistently slower. I do all of the updates, but nonetheless.

I do not have Applecare. Any help? Thank you!
Click to expand...

Well, not wishing to rub it in, but I have a 3 year extended warantee. Ive experienced the case cracking. I claimed under warantee- had a new top case (inc trackpad, mouse etc) and they gave me a new battery because it didnt seat properly. :cool:
 
That shutting down issue with the indicator showing that the battery still had some charge happened to me too. About a month later it was followed with an unusual growing of the battery. It just puffed up. And this happened while i was away in a different country so i couldnt go and get the battery replaced. Id go to an apple store if the battery issue persists.
 
Wow. Sounds like you have your share of macbook problems. Try taking it in to an Apple store and be polite but firm. Although you don't have Applecare all of these problems are 'normal' macbook problems that Apple should have corrected years ago.
Did you pay for the laptop by credit card? If so, that might have an extended coverage of the warranty. If you reside in the US and the laptop is more than a year old, you are in tough luck.

All of these problems would be taken care of here in Denmark as long as the laptop is less than two years old due to more strict consumer laws. I am glad for that, seeing as the early macbook designs were crap :)


Also, get more ram. 512 mb is horribly few and this is why it's crawling right now.
 
Hicks. said:
Well, not wishing to rub it in, but I have a 3 year extended warantee. Ive experienced the case cracking. I claimed under warantee- had a new top case (inc trackpad, mouse etc) and they gave me a new battery because it didnt seat properly. :cool:
Click to expand...

Well that post was ****ing worthless. Thanks, dude.
 
Jiddick ExRex said:
Wow. Sounds like you have your share of macbook problems. Try taking it in to an Apple store and be polite but firm. Although you don't have Applecare all of these problems are 'normal' macbook problems that Apple should have corrected years ago.
Did you pay for the laptop by credit card? If so, that might have an extended coverage of the warranty. If you reside in the US and the laptop is more than a year old, you are in tough luck.

All of these problems would be taken care of here in Denmark as long as the laptop is less than two years old due to more strict consumer laws. I am glad for that, seeing as the early macbook designs were crap :)


Also, get more ram. 512 mb is horribly few and this is why it's crawling right now.
Click to expand...

A very helpful response. Thank you. I called my credit card company and do have an extended warranty - I'll be able to get the repairs covered. Thanks again.
 
Honestly it sounds like you need to run your hardware tests from the original install CDs. Those kernel panics and other issue make it sound like you have hardware problems, not software problems.
 
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