mean ole macs

[ceagle]

This is SO weird, it's almost funny!

Some of you may remember my recent resolve (after a lifetime of diggin' macs, before they started breakin' promises), to refrain from buying any NEW Apple products for a while, since my last three Laptops have been complete lemons (last good one was a 400mhz black powerbook I bought from a friend ^V^ ).

- The 500mhz iBook I bought new... bad logic board, Apple unconcerned
- The 667mhz powerbook... screen went bad (but I sure wish I'd fixed it and kept it)
- The 800mhz powerbook... not 'technically' a lemon, but built crippled, unable to support all of its own graphics

And I was jussssssst about to try again, and jump over the edge to the tantalizing iPhone soon. ;>

...and, today my iPod goes kablooie...!!! LOL!! They can't even build those consistently??
I'm not hugely upset because I got it super cheap, but I've only had it a just under two years (that's what this Apple stuff has been doing, crappin' out between 1 and 2 years)... but I don't even jog with it, or haul it around hardly at all!... it pretty much just stays next to my pillow, all comfy there on the downy sheets, in the lap of luxury, with just 55 songs on it!.. and I don't even snore! (so it can't cop a plea about that). And I'm sure I don't gnaw on it, or ask it to jump through hoops. I just wanna hear a few of the 55 songs once in a while as I drift off to sleep... oy!

And what's even *more* silly was that I figured it would be the battery first!.. Lotsa reports talk about the battery goin', so I'd even gotten a $40 spare for when that time came.. and instead it's the Hard Drive! hehheh!!

Egads, Apple... *rolls eyes*..

Comments

[swandog.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...doesn't sound like a good omen for me and Sayh, who have just started getting into Macs. My Mini was becoming slower and slower, and I think it's just because I was taxing it to the limit with memory hog apps like GimpShop and lots of other things running all at once...I hope it wasn't actually breaking down, because it is about 2 years old now. I'm passing it on to a friend whose requirements for it are much lighter than mine, but now I worry that it might die on him, or that my new MacBook will, or my iPod video, or Sayh's new MacBook Pro. :(

[artemis1.livejournal.com]

I'm a PC person myself, got into it that way, stayed that way, and my husband's family got me Dell hooked...some of my family are HP's and I was before my first Dell, now I'm Dell too!

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I prefer non branded put together computers :)

iPods are a bit fragile so I went for durable iRivers, even my old hulking 40gig hard drive based iRiver is still bumbling along.

Apple's quality control went all to hell when they started using real cheap components. (And yet the stuff still costs a fortune) My boss was is an ex-Apple service tech, and prefers the stuff based on standardised systems, trying to get the Hard Drive out of the weird stuff they've come up with is a nightmare.

[patchoblack.livejournal.com]

I'm a confirmed Mac user, myself. I must say, you have had unusually bad luck with your Apple products there, C.

[saharalion.livejournal.com]

You know, your iPod is probably not dead. I have found that there is an issue with a part in those that after I have done some work to it I can usually get them back. It has worked on about 50% of the iPods B&W Click Wheel all the way to the Color (photo) Click Wheel version. Lemme know if you would like me to take a look at it for you.

[neocanis.livejournal.com]

I heard that iPod do have some problem... Man, you already go through three Apple laptops!? O_o

Apple do build them consistently I guess, consistently lemons. It is time to make some lemon juice. <:)

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

peeeep! *HUGGLE*... don't worry tooooooo much, dear fluffy.... *scritches gently and reassuringly*.... It might just be the stuff over here that I've run into...
Remember, the new Macbooks are a whole new setup, and they might be a whole different production line...
Also... all my macs (*before* this run of detritus) are still running GREAT, when I need 'em.. *warble*
I still use one for some audio editing, and some others when older programs are needed to run :>
Best of Wishes, youse all! :9

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

*nods n HUGS!*... Jus' remember to keep 'em well innoculated, and they tend to run pretty darn good!... as long as the innoculation os not worse than the flu... I've found McAfee is reaaaaaally slowing, and Norton can be a bit of a dragdown sometimes too.. I use AVG anti-virus, and things jolt right along like a speeding roadrunner birdy!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

*coo*... I've dun a couple of those too.. they can be fun :> generally I'm fine with a packaged system, that you can then customize further.. so it's like meeting somewhere in the middle.

iRiver huh? I'll haveta keep my eyes peeled for those.. thanks! *wingpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpats.........*

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

That's good to hear, buddy! *wags* ... I sure wish ya the very best!... and if you run across a 667 laptop, plz by all means, lemme knows, kay? :9 *flutter flutter flit flits and fluffs out excitedly!*

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

It does sorta sound like it... and I was just about to try coming back into the fold again with the iPhone :/
I still stand by all the older products they made back when I was confirmed also :>

Certainly other things out there are bigger crapshoots than Apple products... like routers and broadband modems.. bleah!.. these things usually don't have very good heat tolerance, when they really should.. considering what they have to endure usually. Most are rated only to 40 centigrade, which is bogus. Many CPUs have to go much further than that!

One I found that has held up better than any other I've seen though, is made by Dynex... rated to 55 centigrade. Been working ever since we got it, after going thru 4 others.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Hey there tiger-lion! :D

That would be reeeeeally great, buddy... you can certainly have a go at it.. It'll just be a paperweight for now unless I look into fixin' it.. :>

Tell ya... I've done all the resets I know about, and I actually *did* get it to reboot once to full finished screen. At that point it did look like all my songs were gone, so I went to reload them in thar, and that's when it puked again. It just goes *whirrrCLICK whirrCLICK* over n over.. ;P

...but if you can conquer this beast, that'd be astoundingly awesome!
It's a 4th generation one, so it's reeeeeally nice as a concept gadget.. and has been very nifty for the last year and a half ^V^ ... I'll try to spot yer fur kickin' back in the jungle soon!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

yeah.. scary isn' it? and I coddle and pamper these things! :D

Hey.. how's your relatively new machine holding up? Coming through with you every need? (not counting that data mining stuff ya found, but everything else?)... *scritches fur..*

[pegla.livejournal.com]

Hmm, and here I was with the opposite problems, I was burning through more PC's than lightbulbs. And we are talking about custom build machines with A-brand components. Now do note, that I am not the average computer user.

So last December I made the choice to switch over to Apple, their new machines with the Intel chip kind of pushed me over the edge. The fact that I still could run windows was a major plus. And with the level of integration Parallels offered to me, all my doubts were gone.

In terms of durability. I've heard some bad things about the cheaper Apple Products, the entry level iPods and whatnot. Fortunately I never had much problems with that. And my MacBook still runs more than fine.

The only problem I have is that the Apple Pro Keyboards (I ordered one of those with it, since I hate laptop keyboards) are starting to wear out after 6 months of heavy usage. But then again, so much every keyboard did.

I know quite some people with the new Intel Books, and so far I have seen not that much problems, no problems at all actually. But, if or any of my friends have not seen them, that does not mean they do not exist.

So yes, I am sorry to hear that you always pulled the short string with Apple. Even the iPod that went kaboom? And it was always next to your pillow. I can't imagine that iPods are allergic to feathers? ;)

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

hmmmmm if it doesn't like feathers, maybe I could show it the CLAW side of me... ;D

seriously, as I noted, I've not always drawn the short straw.. just since the 500 mhz iBook onward (the one with Apple's recall on thousands of known bad logic boards. They service it by putting another one in, not an updated board, just another new one, and naturally it will puke again at some point.) I love all my older Apple stuff :>

And certainly I'll admit I haven't heard of serious MacBook problems yet.. so that's encouraging, yep!
Luckily I'm not super-dependent on an mp3 player for enjoying music, so it's not all that much heartbreak, just super-chilling enough I figured it was worth mention *scritchyfluffles ya*
And a good friend of mine says he might even be able to fixit... so all may not be lost ^V^ !

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

sorry btw to hear of your troubles with the PCs.. :/ *hughugglewaggle*...

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*Acks!* I'm being wing patted to death *curls into a ball*

[pegla.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I definately hopes your dear friend will be able to fix it. And yes, well, these days anything can play mp3's, except for mp3 players, those play WMA's.

My dad bought a G4 Laptop a while back (I recommended it, because I was getting seriously ticked off by cleaning his Windows machine once every month) and he only had one problem with it so far: The SuperCD player broke at one point. The section where you slide the CD in suddenly literally vomitted the CD out including a bunch of his internal mechanics. The CD was fine, the player however.

And because it was out of warranty, we had to pay for the repairs, 120 Euro's altogether, since then it always worked like a charm.

My MacBook Pro (I bought it December last year, the MacBook Pro 17" version) has only one remark: With intense usage, the underside tends to get a bit hot. And 6 months of intense usage made my desk give a hint by showing a few cracks in the pain where the laptop uses to stand.

And no worries *hugs* it is a family curse. My mom used to kill PC's just by looking at them. She never had problems with her iMac though, it still works even. But it gets barely used these days around here.

Which reminds me, I still have to shuffle through the harddisk. Pfff.

Anyways, I am rambling.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Fear not, o' feline so curled and tucked into patta patta oblivion.. death (to quote you) will be swift!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

mp3 players now only play WMA's .. LOL!! great comedy! World is all twisted, isn' it?

heh... funny you should mention that too.. cuzza nuther item on the Win/Mac ongoing saga, is I bought a song offa Last.FM the other day, and it has the very latest DRM lock on it apparently, which is not supported by Microsoft on Macs at all ;P

So I've been trying to decide whether to latch it to my XP or my Vista machine, or just neither and eat the 90 cents. :D

and heh!... ALL laptops seem to get super hot ... errrgh...! Just gotta place a book or a laptop cooling base between it and your legs, if you plan to really use it as a LAP top for a while.. *wingpattapats*

[pegla.livejournal.com]

Well, the new OSX (Leopard) will feature an integrated version of something similar to parallels. Basically you are having a fully integrated Windows XP version on your desktop, I can have Internet Explorer 7 open in Windows XP as a window in MacOS, I can drag documents over and forth just like it is part of the OS. And it works fast, and like a charm! No emulation, it is just another layer of the OS. But, it is very memory intensive, with less than 2Gb of RAM I wouldn't even touch that feature if you plan to do a bit more than Office.

And if you don't like that, there is always BootCamp.

DRM is old fashioned, recently, more and more people decide to sell their stuff without DRM. Apple Store now has DRM free songs, and it seems the technology is on their detour. Which is good, since the Recording Industry got a little bit too cocky with the whole record protection thing. Just take the Sony RootKit Scandal.

Also, I saw your comment on my skunk, thanks! Been reading back have you? If you want, feel free to IM if you have any things you want to know about lil'old me. I sure wont mind chattering with a feathery fuzzball :)

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Ahhh I'm being patta patta'd to death!! The birds the birds!!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Indeed sir!
I've heard some good things about Parallels and Boot Camp ^V^
At the heart of it, it does mean returning to Windows though, so in a sense that renders the OS discussions moot :9

*nods about drm* .. yes, Steve Jobs essay about was very encouraging, and maybe companies will some day see that they have been putting out Records, Tapes and CDs for *years* without DRM, so having drm on downloads is essentially just a big inconvenience for the honest patron. (and that Sony thing.. eeeesh!)

Ultimately last night I found the vid for that song I bought on YouTube, and I was satisfied with just seeing the vid... so I don't think I'll bugger up my systems with any more media player 'upgrades' at this time :D

...and ooo yaw! *le chirp* .. As I've noted over the years in my postings (I think my second posting ever I was talking about 'em), I don't use the messengers all that much, maybe twice a month, but if I can catch ya onnit, that'll be a blast!

[neocanis.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is scary, indeed...

Thanks for asking. My relatively new machine are holding up ok... a bit slow sometime, maybe because it is relatively old. It is still ok doing art with it, still running with ok speed. By the way, thank you so much for exorcise the evil out of my computer last time. *hugs*

:P

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

You are very welcome! Getting the evil brought lots of joy and not-evil to my desktop pictures, thanks to you! ^V^ *wags tail*

maybe see you tomorrow.. oh.. today!

[kaysho.livejournal.com]

iPods seem to be designed to last about a year, which makes sense for Apple since they don't have to spend quite as much making them and it gets people to upgrade faster. They're kind of like 1970s American cars that were built to a quality level to last about four years because that made them really cheap to make, and then you'd buy another one sooner than you would have if the old one had kept running. Win-win for Detroit until the Japanese came along. :)

The real problem was that you had only 55 songs on it. All that empty space encourages corrosion, you know. :)

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

huh wha? LOL!
Well, if they want to join the built-in obsolescence faction, much of their ole-time fan base will be obsoletin' themselves out the door! ;D

*hugs the new MP3 player and negotiates with it, in hopes it will last mo bettah...* :9

Have a great time on yer vacation, sir woof!