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Apple Hardware breaks easily?

G

gamerw00t

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 1, 2009
32
0
I was thinking about getting a macbook.

I love OS X. Its just so easy and unstressful it is to use. The only problem is, is that I have heard a lot of horror stories about Apple hardware failing.

Stories:
-My friend's macbook's hard drive became corrupted
-My friend's sister's 3, yes 3, iPhones died (she kept getting new ones)
-My friend's iPod Touch malfunctioned and doesnt work
-My cousin's iPods (two different iPods) both broke (not from accident damage, they just stopped working)
-My other cousin has a new iPod every year because they break
(and, no, these people aren't just careless; they have other electronics that never break)

It's a shame that Apple hardware breaks so easily because their products are great (besides the fact that they break), and they are really expensive.


I was thinking about getting a macbook until I heard this. I realized that Im better off getting a PC, because at least they break with reason
(I am a seasoned veteran pc-user. I can fix any PC problems, and haven't had any major hardware problems rendering the system useless. I just don't enjoy doing fixing the software problems.)


How about everyone else? How many Apple products have you owned that have broken?
Be honest.


edit: I just posted this on another forum, and someone else said that:
Their first iPod broke within 1 1/2 years
Their touch is unable to upgrade its firmware
 
When most people stuff breaks people blame the product that broke, never theirs. Apple doesn't make the hard drives either.
My wife has 2 Ipods, both working 100% (160 GB and an old Nano), she has a Macbook, I have an Ipod (80 GB) and a Macbook, and an Apple Airport with no problems.
You can't always go by what happens to friends stuff, because you don't know the whole story.
 
I don't think you can blame a hard drive corrupting on Apple or even necessarily the manufacturer of the hard drive. There are alot of factors that can cause a hard drive to corrupt (sudden movement whilst on, etc).

I have had G3 iMac, 15" G4 Powerbook, G4 Mac Mini, 20" G5 2GHz iMac, 2 x 15" Macbook Pros (a 2.16GHz one and a 2.2GHz one), 2.16GHz Macbook, a 20GB iPod Photo, 30GB iPod Video, 80GB iPod Classic, 8GB iPod Nano, 2 iPod Touches and 2 x 23" Apple Cinema Displays.

The only thing that stopped working was the G4 Powerbook and that was because my girlfriend dropped it and smashed the screen (it was then replaced by the insurance company with a 2.2GHz MBP).

All in all, I have been extremely happy to Apple products and it's quite scary to think how much Apple stuff I've had, but I love it and would not buy anything else.
 
Two of my Apple product that I own have failed. One is an original Apple Airport. I was apple to fix it by replacing a couple capacitors that had failed though. The other one was my Mac Mini that had its hard drive fail. I replaced the drive and it works great. I have two G3s, four G4s and three Intel Macs. I also have three iPods and an iPhone.
 
Well, I can vouch for things working for me. I've got an original iMac G3 and a PowerBook from '98 both going strong after 10 years on the original hardware. I've owned a MacBook (still in the family, original hard drive died a few months ago due to abuse by the owner), a Power Mac G4 that's still running great, a MacBook Pro which is still going strong last I heard from its buyer, and a 12" PowerBook G4 that's been flawless (sold it a few days ago). My 30 GB iPod video is going strong since 2006, my iPhone 3G is perfect, my Mac Pro is flawless running at full load for months on end, and my new MacBook is perfect. My Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express are also all running without a problem. I'd say that from my experience Apple's got pretty good quality. Hard drives (such as those in iPods and MacBooks) are subject to the producer's flaws, not Apple's... but hard drives rarely make it past 5 years anyway. Go ahead and buy a Mac, you've got a one in a million chance it'll break on its own accord, and if it does, Apple will fix or replace it while in warranty.
 
In our family we've burned through 2 Mac notebooks and 1 Mac Mini in 3 years. But that doesn't mean that my experiences (or your friends) should be pointed at Apple only. In general, all consumer hardware nowadays should be viewed as disposable.

In typical Apple defense, you're going to see a lot of people bringing up the $400 windows machines as a bad thing. But the reality is that viewing a notebook as an 18month throwaway product isn't crazy. In the end you're getting affordable up-to-date computing and in the long run are spending much less than the people who invest in "premium" computers.

That said, I buy Apple because it's my personal preference. I know I'm overpaying but I know what I'm getting into so I know enough to get AppleCare and I don't plan on using ANY computer for more than 3 years anymore.
 
I have had many Apple products.
1G iPod shuffle - Got it a few years ago. I accidently put it in the washer, still works and my mom currently owns and uses it.
2G iPod shuffle - works fine and now sister owns.
5.5G 30GB iPod video - I had this for two years NO problems whatsoever. I sold it because I ran out of space.
6G 80GB iPod classic - I got this one 1 1/2 years ago. Well by my own fault the hard drive failed because my dumbass formatted it using Windows Explorer instead of iTunes. Best Buy replaced it since I had the two year warranty. Other than that no problem. I sold it because I was getting an iPod touch. The current owner is one of my friends and it's still in working condition.
2G 16 iPod touch - I just got this October 1st and it's AMAZING. No problems, ever, other than an app crashing every now and then.
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - Just got them on Christmas and preffer them over any standard PC mice or keyboard. I have dropped the mouse 6 times and not a single scratch.
 
i think macs are probably just on par with consumer electronics. however, their applecare is superior. as long as its not user damaged like liquid or dropped they will pretty much fix or replace anything free of charge.
 
hhlee said:
i think macs are probably just on par with consumer electronics. however, their applecare is superior. as long as its not user damaged like liquid or dropped they will pretty much fix or replace anything free of charge.
Click to expand...

Yep!
Hell, it could even be the exact opposite from what you stated, a lot of it just depends in the person you get at the Genius Bar.
I forgot to mention that my 2G iPod touch's screen shattered because someone hit it out of my hand and Apple replaced it for FREE.
My Genius's exact words were, "well this isn't even covered by the warranty but we will make a special exception this one time."
 
I've done a quick count up and over the last 8 years or so, I've bought (including for my business) a total of 14 Apple computers, 14 iPods, 8 Airport Express base stations, 4 Airport extreme base stations, 2 Apple TVs and 6 iPhones.

Out of all of those, I've had one problem with hairline cracks on the case of one iPhone 3G, and one Airport Express failure after about 15 months.

Overall, I am incredibly impressed with the quality of Apple kit and find it far more reliable than many manufacturers
 
1: Hard Drives fail all the time, in all computers, it's not a Apple only problem. And might I suggest trying Spinrite, it can fix most hard drive problems.

2: 3 iPhone's, somethings not right there.

3: Try the iPod touch's DFU mode.

4: I feel that most dead iPod's are because of either misuse or the battery. The iPod's use a L-Ion battery. L-Ion battery technology has a tendency to fail unless that battery is cared for carefully. They are easily replaced, try replacing the battery. Again, this is not Apple only problem.
 
I forgot to mention that one of my friends iPhone's battery really crapped out and cant take one call without dying, but he decided to get a battery adapter

I also forgot to tell of my experience with Apple products

I've actually had good experience with them

I've only owned 1 mac. It was the first Macintosh (back from the 1980's).

It never deleted my files or broke permanently
 
gamerw00t said:
I forgot to mention that one of my friends iPhone's battery really crapped out and cant take one call without dying, but he decided to get a battery adapter

I also forgot to tell of my experience with Apple products

I've actually had good experience with them

I've only owned 1 mac. It was the first Macintosh (back from the 1980's).

It never deleted my files or broke permanently
Click to expand...

Well some people do get defects. That's why there's the 1 year warranty that comes standard with any Apple product. I'd say you'll be fine with your purchase. I have owned two iPods (nano 2nd gen and touch 1st gen) both will no problems. The latter is refurbed and the former is new. I also owned two notebooks (ibook g4, macbook). Both were new, one from Fry's and one from Apple Store. No problems. I don't AppleCare either. Go figure.
 
gamerw00t said:
I forgot to mention that one of my friends iPhone's battery really crapped out and cant take one call without dying, but he decided to get a battery adapter

I also forgot to tell of my experience with Apple products

I've actually had good experience with them

I've only owned 1 mac. It was the first Macintosh (back from the 1980's).

It never deleted my files or broke permanently
Click to expand...

But how does he take care of the battery? If it's anything like I do with my work phone, it will do that. It's to a point it has to stay plugged in all the time now.
 
Remember as well with iPods, they contain rechargeable batteries which only have a certain number of cycles, if you use them constantly they will die on you. My friends used to complain saying iPods were made to break, except that a) most of the time it was simply that the battery had run its course or 2) they treated them like s*it.
It's amazing really what people expect consumer electronics to put up with, and sometimes amazing what the products can stand.
As far as I'm aware Apple products are pretty sturdy compared to the competition, you'll find a lot of stories of people still using 7 year old Apple's today, and the only reason to replace them is because the slower processors can't keep up or are outdated.
Don't always believe word of mouth, people would much rather blame a product and company than blame themselves for ill-care.
 
martynmc7 said:
Remember as well with iPods, they contain rechargeable batteries which only have a certain number of cycles, if you use them constantly they will die on you. My friends used to complain saying iPods were made to break, except that a) most of the time it was simply that the battery had run its course or 2) they treated them like s*it.
It's amazing really what people expect consumer electronics to put up with, and sometimes amazing what the products can stand.
As far as I'm aware Apple products are pretty sturdy compared to the competition, you'll find a lot of stories of people still using 7 year old Apple's today, and the only reason to replace them is because the slower processors can't keep up or are outdated.
Don't always believe word of mouth, people would much rather blame a product and company than blame themselves for ill-care.
Click to expand...

Exactly! I don't care what you buy, if you don't take care of it, it will not last.
I love how people blame my company that I work for about issues that they are the ones they cause themselves.
 
My 1g iPod shuffle is still going fine.
My iPod Touch is still going fine.
My Macbook is still going fine, got Apple to replace the top case because it had a small crack in the plastic, but other than that no problems, in fact I'm glad the plastic did crack because it just showed me yet again how great their support is.

All consumer electronics are lower quality today. Apple's hardware beats Dell, HP, Toshiba etc. in terms of reliability, and their warranty is the best in the industry (that is not arguable by the way).

The iPod Classic (the big one) can break because it has a hard disk as opposed to a flash drive. Even if you just chuck it onto your sofa or car seat over a long period of time it can break.

Sorry if that sounds biased, thats because it is, after having such a great experience with them its hard not to be :).

Edit: Oh and at my college, we have about 10 iMacs in my media class, not one of them broken or skipped a beat. Thats in a college full of constantly breaking PC's. In my computer class less than half of the PC's actually work at any one time.
 
If my Mom told me to go buy certain ingredients at the Super Market and told me exactly how to bake a cake and certain flavors "sucked" in the end, I wouldn't really blame my Mom.
My 2006 1st gen iPod Nano still going great, battery-wise too, I use it ALL the time, audiophile here.
My Dad's iPod mini, don't even know when it was produced,2003 probably, just needed a new battery a year ago, still rocking.
2006 rev A Macbook, rocked till I sold it, buying a new Macbook now.
2001 Powermac No problem whatsoever.
My friends' iPods never had problems. One of my friends' Macbook(2007): HD failed, not Apple's fault, Hitachi's, he bought a new one, piece of cake substitution. Didn't buy Apple Care, the screen was giving him problems going to sleep randomly or not waking up,etc. He went to an Apple affiliate store, the one Year of warranty was over and out of miracle his Macbook still appeared under warranty on Apple's website, screen replaced within a week, that wasn't the problem, it was resolved later, within a week as well. He brought his bad HD in store as well, I believe they gave him a new one.
I've had a Mighty Mouse(wireless), an Airport Extreme, both bought 18 months ago, an iPhone 3g since launch day, which I've exchanged a few times, but for built quality related issues, again not Apple's fault. Apple Care has been awesome.
 
I can only speak for myself but I've only lost two Apple products. The first was an Apple IIe that succumbed to a lightning strike and the second is a first gen iPod Touch. The touch still works but the sound is garbled ( I have not found a solution to this yet - any ideas?). Everything else work fine to this day. They include 2 Apple IIc's, 2 Apple IIe's, a Macintosh Power PC, 2 Blueberry iMac's, an iBook G4 ( the one I use most often!) , a new aluminum iMac, Airport extreme, 1 iPod mini, 2 nano's, 1 iPod classic, 3 ipod Touch's and two shuffles.

I think Apple makes pretty good stuff.
 
There are only two times IMO when Apple hardware causes issues:

The first is when it's abused. People forget that iPods are, essentially, absolutely tiny laptops. The hard-drive based ones are amazingly rugged and durable considering the torture they receive from most people. The same goes with laptops.

The second is when people buy completely new hardware the moment it comes out. Generally this isn't a huge issue, but when we're talking about 'completely' new designs (such as when the original MacBook and MacBook Pro came out), there are bound to be a higher number of issues. The desktops have always seemed fine.

The only Apple hardware I've ever had issues with was my 1st gen 1.83 GHz MacBook Pro, which gave me such a huge number of issues it was unbelievable. In the end Apple tried repairing it (outside of warranty I should add), and eventually replaced it. You do need to nag them, we spent about a month working at them, but in the end, it all seemed fine.

Yes, there are a million and one MacBooks failing at school, but it's because people abuse them. Generally the issues seem to be with hard drives, broken screens and optical drives.
 
made in china

Probably the problem with apple products is the fact that they are made in china, and china is only about quantity more units less money, quality is never an issue. Quality brands never ever have their products made in china. Long live the made in USA or made in Germany or Made in Italy... I guess people don't mind having their products made in the land of the knockoffs.
 
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