Apple should be synonymous with quality, but unfortunately, they are not (or at least not to the extent that they should be). Here's a list of all our Macs and their associated problems, in order of age:
Mac Performa 5200: CRT gave out probably 5 years ago - went very blue, although this was probably a fault of "old fashioned technology" and having poorly shielded speakers nearby. Other than that, worked fine.
300MHz Beige G3: Haven't turned it on in ages, but last time I did, worked fine
350MHz G3 Indigo iMac: Works pretty much flawlessly, apart from OS9 and Internet Explorer 5, but that's expected
500MHz G3 iBook: Battery has pretty much died and the LCD backlight has pretty poor performance now, but it is a 5 - 6 year old machine, so that's kind of expected!
G4 Dual 867MHz MDD model: Had a weird problem with the CD/DVD drive, where it would refuse to recognise random disks and had region issues, but this was all fixed by upgrading to Tiger. G4 has never been better since it had Tiger on it - really gave it a speedboost.
1.5GHz G4 15" PowerBook: Here's where it all starts to go wrong for us and Apple QA... although I think this machine was cursed from day one. Got unreasonable case wear (upper case) and the silver paint started going on some of the keys after 6 - 12 months. Apple replaced some of the affected keys for free. Then, 3 months ago I suddenly get the trackpad temperature sensor problem that seems to bug this model, where the sensor thinks the trackpad is overheating (when it is not) and causes the computer to randomly and regularly go to sleep, turning it onto virtually a £1500 paperweight. Just as I get time to fix it, I hear reports of Apple being out of stock of the upper case/trackpad assembly, yet they still refuse to recognise the problem and will probably squeeze over £200 out of me because the machine is out of warranty and I don't have AppleCare.
Oh and I'm beginning to get darker areas on my LCD (at the bottom) where the backlight isn't quite performing properly. AND this machine's only 2 years old (well, 22 months)
Rev. A MacBook Pro: Apple QA now well and truly down the pan - MBP had that faulty DVD drive problem where it intermittently refuses to recognise certain disks. Replaced under warranty.
Apple also need to move their callcentres away from India and back into the UK/Eire. I tried to describe my PB's problem to someone over the phone who was obviously in India and they had great difficulty in grasping what was wrong with my computer. In the end I managed to get them to pass me onto a "senior technician" (who was Irish and much easier to understand) who had been given the wrong information about my case that bared little resemblance to what I had told the Indian callcentre person.
Mac Performa 5200: CRT gave out probably 5 years ago - went very blue, although this was probably a fault of "old fashioned technology" and having poorly shielded speakers nearby. Other than that, worked fine.
300MHz Beige G3: Haven't turned it on in ages, but last time I did, worked fine
350MHz G3 Indigo iMac: Works pretty much flawlessly, apart from OS9 and Internet Explorer 5, but that's expected
500MHz G3 iBook: Battery has pretty much died and the LCD backlight has pretty poor performance now, but it is a 5 - 6 year old machine, so that's kind of expected!
G4 Dual 867MHz MDD model: Had a weird problem with the CD/DVD drive, where it would refuse to recognise random disks and had region issues, but this was all fixed by upgrading to Tiger. G4 has never been better since it had Tiger on it - really gave it a speedboost.
1.5GHz G4 15" PowerBook: Here's where it all starts to go wrong for us and Apple QA... although I think this machine was cursed from day one. Got unreasonable case wear (upper case) and the silver paint started going on some of the keys after 6 - 12 months. Apple replaced some of the affected keys for free. Then, 3 months ago I suddenly get the trackpad temperature sensor problem that seems to bug this model, where the sensor thinks the trackpad is overheating (when it is not) and causes the computer to randomly and regularly go to sleep, turning it onto virtually a £1500 paperweight. Just as I get time to fix it, I hear reports of Apple being out of stock of the upper case/trackpad assembly, yet they still refuse to recognise the problem and will probably squeeze over £200 out of me because the machine is out of warranty and I don't have AppleCare.
Oh and I'm beginning to get darker areas on my LCD (at the bottom) where the backlight isn't quite performing properly. AND this machine's only 2 years old (well, 22 months)
Rev. A MacBook Pro: Apple QA now well and truly down the pan - MBP had that faulty DVD drive problem where it intermittently refuses to recognise certain disks. Replaced under warranty.
Apple also need to move their callcentres away from India and back into the UK/Eire. I tried to describe my PB's problem to someone over the phone who was obviously in India and they had great difficulty in grasping what was wrong with my computer. In the end I managed to get them to pass me onto a "senior technician" (who was Irish and much easier to understand) who had been given the wrong information about my case that bared little resemblance to what I had told the Indian callcentre person.