Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How longHave u had yourMac computer(s) and how many times have u had to get it fixed?

No issues:
PowerBook Pismo (2000 - 2004)
PowerBook 12" G4 (2004 - 2007)
Mac Pro (2006 - current)
MacBook Pro Jul 07 (Sept - current) - left I/O board replacement but an unnecessary one ... old board works fine just a problem with the general manufacture of what seems to be all MacBook Pros ever made ....

Issues:
iMac G5 (~2005-2006) - power supply unit replacement
MacBook C2D (Feb 2007 - Sept 2007 haha) - logic board replacement
PowerBook G4 Titanium (2001 - current) - the display doesn't work but an external monitor does
 
Summer 2001 - 'gumdrop' iMac G3 500MHz
- No problems, still running to this day.

March 2005 - Mac Mini G4 1.42GHz
- Awesome machine. Been running pretty much 24/7 since purchase without a glitch.
- Disassembled it myself, maxed the RAM and swapped the optical drive for a multi-region Pioneer dual-layer DVD burner.
- Can I just say again - fantastic little machine!

March 2006 - MacBook Pro (Core Duo) 2.0GHz
- Logic board failure (lower RAM slot) and Shift key fell off in Nov '06
- Logic board failure in June '07
- Hard disk failure in September '07
- Crossing my fingers nothing goes wrong even more. The last repair left me with black smudges 'inside' the LCD screen.

December 2006 - MacBook (Core Duo) - from the Apple Refurb Store
- No problems.
 
I've had 17 Macs (just ordered another yesterday) and only sent 1 in for a problem. The CD got stuck in the drive and wouldn't eject in my mother's Powerbook. Since it was under warranty and I didn't feel like opening it up, I just shipped it to Apple. Free repair. :cool:
 
Many, many Macs since my first SE30...mine, wife's, kids'... and at work we had a whole slew of Performas way back when that were used by transcription secretaries.

I had to replace a hard drive on an old white iBook of my daughter's once, otherwise, no failures or repairs in all those machines.
 
PowerBook G4 approaching 4 years of age. No repairs. Well, I took it in once b/c the screen doesn't close fluidly, but no technical problems.
 
Mac Classic - No problems

Mac SE II - Started to get really slow around 5-6 year mark. Not sure if it was the logic board or the HDD

G3 PowerMac 233 Mhz - Started to get really slow around 5-6 year mark

TiBook 667 Mhz - Replaced HDD after 3 years
 
I realize there are more Dells out there than Macs, and I seriously do not want to fan these flames, but anyone wanna count the number of Dells that have had problems. In my experience, a silly amount of my friends and colleagues Dell laptops have had problems. At first I thought they weren't taking care of them but the probability seems no longer in favor of that hypothesis.
 
I've had many Macs over the past 12 years, and nothing major ever needed to be fixed. The only things that ever broke were the hard drive on my powermac 8500 that died after about 6 years, which happens to every hard drive eventually, and the power cord/power adaptor on my powerbook slowly died after I dropped the whole laptop on the corner where the cord was plugged in, which I replaced for $50.
 
I have a G3 Powerbook that has gone through one keyboard replacement and is in need of another (tab key is missing). Other than that, this unit runs like a champ. It is my download donkey and kitchen cook book. 2000-2008 and going strong. :)

Any older computer I once owned or currently own have been scrapped for parts or sold. They were some solid machines.
 
I take in many computers each week, and I can honestly say at least 50% of them are Dells. The last two, however, happened to be Macs. Both had hard drives failures.
 
Only ever had problems with the portables. Both MacBooks I've owned started "peeling", the interior coming undone due to heck knows what. Also the first MB (rev A Blackbook) suffered from incredibly poor performance... again for an unknown reason. Took that one back.

The second MacBook is my most current machine bar my 24 hour old Mac Pro, and has suffered the same "peeling" issue as the first did twice in 5 months. Fixed free both times by the Genius Bar, but if it happens again I'll want a replacement not a repair.

Owned two Mac Minis, an iMac and now a Mac Pro in addition to those two MacBooks. NO issues on any of the others.
 
G3 ibook purchased Oct. 2002, only problem was a logic board failure (well-known defect). It happened just after the end of Apple's extension to the replacement program, but it was fixed at no cost and no hassles.

24" aluminum iMac, Nov. 2007, no problems yet.

Worst experience has been a 30GB ipod which froze within a week of purchase, Apple couldn't find anything wrong with it, yet it's still very unreliable, often refuses to shut down, etc.
 
I had a PowerMac G4 733 Mhz Digital Audio and the hard drive died on me after almost 5 years of intensive use. I sold it cause it wouldn't support Leopard and now I have a MacBook which I haven't had to do anything. It works just fine.

I had a ThinkPad some years ago and I had to re install the damn thing every 6 months cause for some reason it would start loosing HD space like crazy. It was not a pain since it doesn't take a long time to re install, but it took like 2 days worth of downloads and what nots.

It's nice to have a reliable computer.
 
Here's what I've owned - mac 512k, pb170, pb 1400c, tangerine and key lime clams, 3 g3 ibooks, 2 g4 ibooks, 4 g4 powerbooks.

They are all still in at least occasional use today except for the Mac512k. It still works but the floppy drive has to warm up a bit. I expect the media will fail before the machine does. The clamshells and most of the ibooks have been given to family or friends. So far they haven't required repairs. I think the tangerine clamshell was dropped one time and it stressed the case, which cracked at a curved edge but no big deal. It's slow but ok for WP, mail.

Here's what's gone wrong with them:

1. logic board on a 2002 ibook.

2. keyboard replacement on one of the ibooks. they just ship it, you install.

3. I could use a new keyboard on one of the powerbooks because i've worn off the paint around the letters on the A, S, N and O keys. well known shortcut keys....

4. The 1400c I had some extremely irritating problem with one of the bay drives, the Zip insert. I never figured out exactly what the issue was but it felt random and therefore threatening so I stopped relying on it and stuck with SCSI externals or floppies.

5. I really baby the Titanium powerbook because of all the tales of hinges going bad. I never put stress on them, open and close it slowly, etc.

That's it! Fourteen Macs, three problems, two workaround / watchfulness items. And the key lime clam showed up DOA but it was just that a chip came unseated during shipping, I put it back and it was fine.
 
darwinian said:
I realize there are more Dells out there than Macs, and I seriously do not want to fan these flames, but anyone wanna count the number of Dells that have had problems. In my experience, a silly amount of my friends and colleagues Dell laptops have had problems. At first I thought they weren't taking care of them but the probability seems no longer in favor of that hypothesis.
Click to expand...
Well, I don't know about laptops in particular, but according to Consumer Reports all major computer makers have more or less the same incident rate. However, Apple had much higher satisfaction rate with its customer support when its machines broke down.
 
PB 1.67 17" Sept 2005

FOUR times

1. logic board failure - apple care
2. kept going to sleep - apple care
3. HD failure - apple care
4. Screen had long thin lines of color - applecare

All i can say is....applecare ftw
 
Have owned five Macs now.

Performa 630CD - no problems
iMac DV400 - DVD drive failed, Apple engineer came to my home and replaced drive
PowerBook G4 - no problems in nearly five years
iMac G5 - screen developed vertical line of dead pixels, so Apple gave me...
Alu iMac 20" - no problems so far
 
16 years of Mac:

Many models, dating back to the SE/30 and Classic/II. Had a guy over once because I didn't have a startup disk for beige G3 (he did), no problem. Posted here about a problem with same G3 just recently (thank you all for your replies, by the way, much appreciated). Turned out my USB 2.0 PCI card became unseated... took some trouble shooting as I didn't think that could have happened, but, no problem. Oh, yeah, I got a virus once... just kidding!

Almost PC-like reliability, huh?;)

That's just good stuff!
 
iBook - Battery replaced after 2.5 years.
2 Airport Basestation - Both were fried in an electrical storm :( (my stupid fault, went on holidays and forgot to unplug them)
Mac Mini - no issues.
20" iMac - it was a refurb but I've had no issues with it.
Macbook - Besides cracking on the corners no issues with the operations.

7 Might Mouses - Now these things are rubbish, the ball stopped working, buttons stopped working... I should have just bought a Razer Diamondback from the start...
 
I have not had a mac yet but i have had my pc (august 2006) for almost 2 years and no repairs but some problems i fixed my self.
 
The oldest machine I have is 13 years old and still works. It's never been repaired.

The newest Mac Mini 18 months old went for repair aged 4 months but it was a simple fix I could have done (loose connector on motherboard).

EDIT: I should mention I've have 7 Macs.
And my PowerBook G4 had an Upper Memory slot die.
 
ttopp said:
well no the 1st exact but the 333mhz tray loader grape.. aww i miss it, it was a style icon at the time.. but about repairs.

grape 333mhz imac no repairs did upgrades though
emac 1.25ghz no repairs(even with the batch o dodgy capacitors)
emac 1.42ghz no repairs
macbook black c2d 2ghz 1 new hard drive and a new batt, now running ok
macbook white c2d 2ghz 1 new palm rest, now ok
new alu imac 24in running fine the now...

all repairs were done speedily and well....
Click to expand...


ok so an update, as above but other repairs required

macbook white c2d 2ghz another 2 new palm rests, one was repaired out of warranty (ta Apple)

macbook black c2d 2ghz had to get 1 more replacement batt, 1 new logic board, 1 new magsafe and 2 more hard drives.

had applecare got a new mac pro 13" for a two and a half year old BlackBook, though i paid a bit extra to get a maxed out 1

alu imac 24in has a dull/dirty bit on the screen that is getting worse will need to talk to customer service about it.

so just a prob with the macbooks really.. this new issue with the imac screen i hope is easy to fix..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back