MacHarne said:
Congrats on your iBook. Hope it is pleasant.
The whole logic board issue isn't something to quell over. Since it is a recall service and not a warranty issue, you don't have to pay anything to get it fixed apart from transportation costs to and fro an Apple Store or service center. I had my iBook's logic board replaced very quickly. And if it does crap out on you, you'll have doubt that it is the logic board at fault (expect screen flickers or static or just no screen response).
I disagree entirely.
I have suffered 3 logic board failures in the last year. It is an absolute nightmare.
Expect to spend at least 3 hours on the phone to Apple each time while they try and prove that it's not the logic board at fault. Then if you are like me in the UK and don't live within 2 hours of the nearest Apple service spend, expect to spend a while persuading them for them to pick up the iBook.
Then have fun trying to backup all your data while the machine works spectacularly poorly and reinstall OSX.
After that, count in the time wasted that you are spending sitting at home waiting for the delivery van.
Take another 2-5 days for them to fix it and send it back to you, or usually what happens, tell you that there is nothing wrong and they spend a week 'testing' it and then discovering, no, you are not lying and yes, the machine really is broken.
Then spend another day waiting for the delivery again, then you have to reinstall all your applications, settings and copy your backups back over...
Then have it happen again, and again, each time Apple telling you that they won't replace the machine. Why do they do this? How can it be cheaper to continually spend hours of engineer time (it must take 1-2 hours to fix these issues, considering how complex the iBook is to take apart and reassemble then test) and blow godknows how much on logic boards with all the components integrated (more $$$) and all the delivery expenses than simply replacing it with a low-end iBook G4 which has 'no issues'? I have had 5, yes, 5 logic boards (talking to the engineer about half of the ones they get are completely dead on arrival) and I am not alone.
To be honest I'm just waiting until I get my forth then they will 'possibly replace it' with a new one. Total insanity on Apple's part.
I have thought about simply buying a new Powerbook but then it's became a bit of an issue of principle - why should I back down when Apple sells knowingly faulty products?
I know everyone hates Dell here, but I had a problem with a Dell laptop, they had a replacement on my door a day later, I copied all my data over and sent the old one back. This is the sort of service which is not only cheaper to provide for Apple in most cases, but is far better for the consumer.
) a combo drive or even a dvd burner is quite reasonably priced.