My Macbook Pro 2.2 just decided to kill the display and all I get is blank on boot. Apparently, it’s a known issue relating to the 1.5/1.5.1 firmware update. When the software fixes don’t work (and they didn’t), the solution is to change the logic board. Nice.
This incident made me think about all the Macs I’ve had for the past few years and how they’ve all failed in various ways. I often donate older machines to family, so I get to hear about how they do 2-3-4 years into the process. And it’s usually not pretty.
My old G4 iMac had it’s DVD drive fail on it after two years. Three of my older laptops have had their hard drives fail (with painful data loss in one instance). One of my Macbook pros that my brother is using lost its firewire ports and its DVD drive (it’s just 2 years old). Mary’s fairly new Macbook air is making weird noises occasionally.
It’s a pretty terrible statistic. Jason’s current Macbook Pro also has a variety of issues and he ordered a new one just to be sure he wasn’t left stranded. Luckily, I also just got myself a new MBP (and the dual-DVI cable is supposed to arrive tomorrow!).
I wonder if this is just par for course. Or if I, and many people I know, have just been incredibly unlucky with Apple gear. But it has happened enough times that it seems statistically unlikely.
So please share your successful run of Apple machines that have been able to last 3-4 years without breaking down. I need to regain some faith.
Anil Wadghule
on 28 Dec 08I have good experience with my macbook. I am using it to extreme and it just works fine. no problems yet. Macs rocks!
Sixtus
on 28 Dec 08I still have a PowerBook G3 from 1999 in the family. Except for the dead battery it’s all fine and dandy :-) It even runs 10.4.11.
Robert Lofthouse
on 28 Dec 08Unfortunately it’s the same story for me as well. Every single Mac I’ve ever had has broken down. Usually not 2 – 3 years down the line though, usually straight away :)
The new macbook pro hasn’t failed me yet. Granted, it has only been about a month though so i’ll give it time ;) but the fact that it has yet to break down given my past experiences with the machines gives me hope.
I tend to use macbooks because they just work at conferences, hotels etc. However, I do run Ubuntu VMs for all my development work :)
Phil Nelson
on 28 Dec 082001 Quicksilver G4 tower, still running strong!
caustic
on 28 Dec 08every computer i’ve ever had has failed before it’s time (with the exception of the 3yr old iMac i’m typing on … knock on wood and plea to jesus). maybe it’s not bad luck, maybe it’s just machine entropy.
Otto Hammersmith
on 28 Dec 08I believe every computer I’ve ever had has failed, it’s just a question of how long. It may be (it sometimes feels it) that Apple gear fails on me faster… it’s less about it never dying and more about what Apple itself does about it when it does die. They fix it. Not tell you to reinstall your operating system and then call back later.
Mads Kjaer
on 28 Dec 082.5-year-old MacBook PRO running like a charm :)
Jordan
on 28 Dec 08I’ve not had terrible luck, personally. I have an old 12” PowerBook in use by a family member that’s still kicking without mishap. Also, my current 15” MacBook Pro has had no issue aside from the battery no longer holding a charge (though this I would consider a perishable item, so I’m not holding it against Apple).
That said, I have some friends who have had some issues. An older MacBook was having some hibernation issues when the lid is closed. Two other friend’s MacBook Pro’s power cable went out. I believe AppleCare took care of at least two of those incidents, however.
So, personally I’m having great luck, apparently. Those around me, however, a little less so.
Robby Russell
on 28 Dec 08I’ve managed to kill a hard drive in every Mac laptop I’ve owned over the past four years (and then some).
PowerBook G4 – hard drive died. replaced… year later keyboard/trackpad stopped working (fix? new logic board)
..so I went to a MacBook
MacBook – hard drive died (replaced, new one died within a year)
Since I run a company with several Mac laptops, we’ve replaced a hard drive in almost everyone of them. Some of them had displays die and others trackpad problems.
I now look at Apple products with about a 2 year life span and am buying Apple Care from now on because the changes of stuff failing are much higher than I’ve seen with other products.
Oddly enough, my iPhone (had it for 16 months now) has yet to fail on me and I have 3rd generation iPod that still works great in the gym.
Trek Glowacki
on 28 Dec 08my 1999 G4 is still running strong but every other mac I’ve owned has failed.
powerbook G4: “light saber HD”, logic board failure macbook: the chipping flaw, HD failure, disc drive mounted poorly after HD fix, logic board failure, chipping again cinema display: backlight died. mac mini: logic board failure.
Thankfully every failure was under applecare and handled quickly and professionally by apple. And once the initial issues were fixed my macs tend to live long and happy lives loaned or given to friends and family.
Robby Russell
on 28 Dec 08Oh… and batteries! Nearly every battery in the MacBooks has failed within 12-18 months.
Kyle Bradshaw
on 28 Dec 08I’ve actually had great experiences with my Mac’s
G4 laptop, hand-me-down for me Mom – she still uses that. My first gen MBP 17” is still ticking for me. An old Mac mini that my girlfriend once used I now use as a media center PC. Par for the course though is an old G3 tower which I gave as a hand-me-down (twice removed) which is at least 7 years old and is still being used by my girlfriends brother for browser access.
I’ve had good experiences, I’ve actually been very surprised how resilient my Macs have been over time. I definitely recommend Apple Care though for any hardware issues w/in the first 3 years.
Zac Clark
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had the complete opposite experience. I had a g4 imac for 4 years without a single problem and then upgraded to a 15’’ macbook pro (the last generation) and have been using it for 2 years, also problem free.
Grant
on 28 Dec 08Desktops: only my Mac Pro has had to go in for repair. My old G5 lasted several years before I sold it, and way back my family had a couple more that were solid.
Laptops: Different story. I went through 3 PowerBooks (thanks to AppleCare) before I got one that lasted 2 years without an issue (then I sold it). I went through 3 MacBook Pros before I got to my current one. It has worked well for 1.5 years, but I’m now having intermittent keyboard/trackpad issues.
Sidenote: I’m not ready to throw Apple under the bus for these issues yet simply because my brief couple years as a Dell laptop owner were met with similar hardware failures. Maybe it’s just the state of tech these days?
Sadnote: The sad thing, it seems to me, is that I find it necessary to own two computers to prevent work downtime. The longer I’ve been with Apple, the longer repairs have taken and the less likely they have been to just switch out computers on the spot so that I don’t have any downtime.
Hanz Geeratz
on 28 Dec 08My Color Classic (http://www.oldmac.de/macintosh-color-classic.html) is still alive…. The Kids use it now and then to play some old games. Air book, Imac both run fine, my black Macbook HD died after less then 2 years. So I guess luck is involved.
Chris G.
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had 5 PowerBooks (Duo, 5300, G3, and two G4s) and one MacBook Pro. Every single one of them has lived longer than I wanted. I’ve had some issues: a broken hinge (repaired reasonably) and all the batteries end up prematurely poo, but overall – a run of solid machines.
Julio Huelga
on 28 Dec 08I got an PowerMac G4 800 still working as a file server (it has been always on the last 4 years) and I haven’t any problem. My main computer at home is an iMac 2 GHz Core Duo and it’s ok. Several of my friends got macs (Mac Pros, iMacs, Macbooks) and they never told about a single problem. It doesn’t mean there’s no mac problems out there. Good luck with your macs!
Tobias
on 28 Dec 08Lets see here: I own an G5 iMac (one of the early ones before the iSight was added) which is happily running along into its 4th year or so (HD was changed cause I wanted a bigger one rather than having one fail). Mostly an iTunes and email machine now.
Jared (my co-founder at RAVE) is still using his G4 PowerBook, which is at least 4 years old now. Its one issue was a fan which went bad and was replaced near the end of its warranty.
We are transitioning away from our old server which is a G4 Quicksilver machine that is 5 or 6 years old now. It still works great and I think it will become our office iTunes server.
coldclimate
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had 3 iBooks die on me now. Love OS X, hate Apple hardware.
Caleb Jaffa
on 28 Dec 08Rev A PowerBook 17” is still running like a champ almost 6 years after I bought is for my brother’s wife. Not all machines have been as successful, and except for one instance my repairs have all been way better than the horror stories I hear PC users have to go through.
Grant
on 28 Dec 08Batteries! I forgot about batteries. They are the suck.
I call it the “battery tax.” I have to replace them at least once a year on any laptop I’ve ever owned – and sometimes they fail much sooner than that.
Macy
on 28 Dec 08Karma?
Caleb Jaffa
on 28 Dec 08That should be after I bought it,...
Chris
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had one DOA – a G4. But have owned about 9 Macs other than this and they’ve never failed me.
Boris Chan
on 28 Dec 08The Powerbook G4 that I bought in college still works and holds up after two OS upgrades. It’s just a little slow.
Bill Israel
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had nothing but near-perfect experiences with every Mac my wife and I have ever owned. To wit: her 5yr-old 12” G4 iBook is still working great (but has been donated to her mother); save for one minor issue*, my 4yr-old G4 PowerBook hasn’t had a single problem and still works great; my 6-month old iMac hasn’t had a single problem, and her 2yr-old MacBook hasn’t had a single problem either.
the problem with the PowerBook was a HDD failure, but all HDDs fail eventually, that’s not Apple’s fault.Alan
on 28 Dec 08I have 2000 iMac – still working – though just an internet machine 2001 Titanium 15” – still working – needed to fix case above disk drive because it cracked due to my hand pressure 2004 17” Pro – no problems, still working (frame had to be replaced when one of my kids dropped it) 2004 iMac 20” – had to replace power supply this year – after having MB replaced under applecare previous year. 2006 17” intel mbpro – still working fine – had to go in for service when someone spilled a coffee on me at coffee shop 2008 – new macbook aluminum – too early to tell
I also still have 2 ipods from 2002 that are still working.
Overall, my experience has been better with Apple than with other providers (my work Windows notebooks usually die after 2 years).
My operating principle is to upgrade every two years as long as Apple gives me a decent reason to do that.
So my luck has been quite good (but I always buy applecare – it
Jan
on 28 Dec 08The company is obviously not good at making lasting products of good quality, nevertheless you buy the next pricey product from just that company?
I bought a new Macbook after my iBook died just after 22 months in operation. Looked everywhere, didn’t find anything better in terms of ease of use (best operating system after all). Then new issues startes with the new Macbook: case broken on the spot, where the display rests on the upper case (common mistake, quote of the repair centre: It happens so often, Apple ran out of spare parts. ETA for repair: 3 weeks! For a simple plastic part!!!!), cable of the power adaptor burnt and at first they wanted me to pay for a new one. I had luck that nothing caught fire in my apt. and then this lousy customer service.
After all I won’t buy new hardware from Apple again and instead try to build a Hackintosh (hope that works).
Paulo Geyer
on 28 Dec 08weird, i’ve heard good things about Apple’s hardware, but i don’t know much people using Apple computers.
I have a Acer laptop, running with Debian without problems in the last year, it seems pretty reliable (it was cheap, also)
Anatoli Papirovski
on 28 Dec 08Let’s see. I’ve had a first-gen iMac for two years with no issues, then I gave it to my mother who’s now had it for 1 year (or two, who’s supposed to remember that stuff) and still no issues. Keep in mind we’re talking about the iMac that supposedly had the most issues out of all first-gen Macs. Mine is still doing great.
My MacBook is two years old now… it’s fallen from second story, it’s fallen out of my hands on concrete, etc. Still doing great, a little cracked plastic, but that’s about it.
And I’ve got an a new 24” iMac which is doing just fine…
Maybe I’m just lucky.
Drew
on 28 Dec 08My Mac desktops have been champs. I still had a perfectly functional original G3 and a blue and white until I sold them recently. My black powerbook ran fine for years, and was second-hand when I got it… sold to buy a used G3/500 12” ibook, which I gave to my wife as her commuter computer about a year ago and is still going strong. It did need the power board repaired because numerous cases of the plug being yanked on had loosened that port, but I can hardly call that a failure of the computer.
The only hardware problems I’ve ever had with macs (and I’ve purchased or inherited a lot of them over the years, many of which have moved on to new owners and are still working perfectly) have been either due to wear and tear from hard use or defective peripherals (had a crappy firewire drive cook the firewire bus on a mini once, but that turned out to be a known issue with the controller used by that drive).
My current macbook pro is a champ, and has taken a beating without a complaint. My battery recently stopped holding a reasonable charge, but it’s gone through a lot of charge cycles, so I guess I can’t complain.
So, I guess I’m the opposite end of the spectrum from your experience. If my macs had performed the way yours have, I’d have long since been looking for something else. Loyalty to the OS only goes so far. But mine have been solid as a rock, and have held their resale/reuse value long past the lifespan I would have expected.
cawlin
on 28 Dec 085 year old emac still going strong in my parents “office”. My mothers iBook had some issues about 3 years in which made it impossible to use with a battery. She used it plugged in for another year and a half until it died just recently.
3 year old G5 tower is still going strong (sold it to a friend).
Jessica
on 28 Dec 08I’ve been lucky, I guess. The hard drive on a Performa failed in 1997 or so; I replaced that machine in 2000 with a G3 PowerBook that worked flawlessly, even running OS X, until I finally, finally upgraded in May 2006 to a MacBook I’m still using without problems (it did have the battery issue that afflicted early MacBooks, but that only took a quick swap at the local Apple store to fix).
Michael Eichelsdörfer
on 28 Dec 08I buy a new MacBook every 4 to 11 months, every time it breaks. So I will work with the new one while the broken one is getting repaired. Normally I sell the old one when it is running OK again.
I have done this for years now. Time will tell if the new Aluminium MacBook is doing a better job.
If Apple built better quality (yes, even if they lifted their prices), I would love their products much more.
Tim
on 28 Dec 08We have two MacBooks (1st gen) at home and both have had problems. Both displays have had a flickering problem that many people have (but that Apple doesn’t seem to really want to acknowledge). I had to send each computer twice for repair for that. My hard drive died and my wife’s MagSafe had a bad contact.
However, after going to the Apple Store once again last Sunday, I have to say that they make a good experience out of a bad one…
I do recommend AppleCare to new Mac owners though.
One last thing: the batteries are supposed to be under warranty for 300 cycles (seen in System Profiler), no matter how old they are. I was surprised to learn that since usually, the warranty on these is very limited.
Ginger S
on 28 Dec 08I’ve owned a lot of Mac desktops and laptops (a dozen-plus) since the mid-80s. Only two have failed me prematurely. The first Mac that failed was the first one I owned, a skinny Mac I bought at the end of 1985, which had a defective logic board when I got it. My second TiBook, which I bought as a want-upgrade and not a need-upgrade, had the lower memory slot failure. The older pro laptop took 5+ years to fail. The desktops in our house have been rolled down to use as mail and web servers for years, and all of them have seen many years of use before they died.
My mom was running a blueberry iMac until last summer with no problems.
I’m pretty happy with my Macs overall. I do think the laptops die earlier than the desktops, but I know mine have seen much harder use.
Mason
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had good luck with Macs. The only problem was a HD failure when formatting it with bootcamp (I was using some strange license for XP that partitioned it to death). We still have one of the see-through iMacs in the basement, and my grandmother uses another one (and that one receives a ton of abuse – it’s hooked up to a plug controlled by a wall switch, so it’s never actually shut down).
However, one of my friends has a MacBook that is continually breaking. He’s had a logic board failure, had his power cable melt, has a ton of cracks in his case, and there is something wrong with the graphics – the screen only works if a binder clip is attached to the top corner.
Ben Poole
on 28 Dec 081991 Mac Classic: last I heard still working (I no longer own it) 1998 Bondi iMac: hard drive died last year, rest OK 2002 iMac G4: still going strong, but CD drive no longer recognised 2006 MacBook: works fine
(2008 MacBook Pro still ok too!)
raggi
on 28 Dec 08Indeed, since owning my first macbook, I have been unable to keep it stable. I suspect that some of the few kernel extensions installed by various packages have not helped, but I think it’s really sad that this is the case.
In particular, I have parallels installed (4.0 seems a bit more stable now), and openvpn, and for a time, cisco vpn. The cisco VPN stuff was a true disaster, rendering the system unstable under otherwise nominal conditions, but there are still other niggles. About 80% of the time, when I attach an external screen, OSX crashes, hard. Twice now my username.plist from /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/ has been corrupted to the point where I cannot login. The GUI apps and ds tools don’t allow me to fix the issue, and the logs left by these errors are almost useless.
This is the kind of thing that’ll prevent me from using OS X as a business server, and it really is just my experience.
From what I can tell, some of my complaints seem to be unique, however, the common praise the OS receives seems to not be entirely deserved – in my experience.
I’m happy to use most OSes, indeed, at work we do use most OSes, various flavours of linux, BSD, windows, solaris, etc. Sometimes at customer sites, sometimes in house. All of them have their issues, but as above, I wouldn’t use OS X anywhere that availability is the key.
That all being said, OS X Leopard really does have a few things going for it. It has really an outstanding terminal emulator, that continually makes me happy. Just the line buffering system (resizability), can save significant amounts of time. For a rubyist, the ability to get either Fink or macports up means that you gain access to the wealth of open source out there, which is also vital to someone operating in this language.
The comfort, though, of working inside MSDE with and all MS infrastructure, and indeed it’s reliability and point-and-click scalability cannot be ignored. Sure as a computer scientist, you can tear some of it to pieces, but we can do that with ruby far far more easily.
I’m not saying one is better than the other, I’m saying they all have problems. I’m also saying I agree, and some of my experiences of OS X + Apple have been awful, and others have been joyful. In my personal experience, maybe due to knowledge of the system to a large degree, I can build more stable Windows or FreeBSD boxes than I can OS X.
The user plist corruption issue is one that I have never seen on another multi-user OS, and I would have hoped would be strongly protected by transaction and journalling, but alas, it’s happened twice, and in a business environment, is totally unacceptable. I have submitted bug reports for all of the issues I have described here, and have never heard back from Apple. Over the same time period, and again, this is my experience, I have had both feedback and fixes from Microsoft, Sun and other vendors, on other, often less serious issues.
Kris Tuttle
on 28 Dec 08So far we have bad pretty good luck. However my last new MBP had bumps which required Apple to go through THREE machines before I finally got one that worked perfectly. No profit there for them even with the high price.
All our machines are working and some are 2-3 years old. The batteries generally fail and the power supplies are crap. (The new ones with Magsafe are doing better so far.)
We did have one major but fixable “hardware failure” which happens when you upgrade microcode on one type of MBP. (It was documented but Apple went out of their way to cover their tracks on it which is a shame.)
Reminds me of the old days of boating when there were Mercs and Evinrudes. The Mercs were great but very unreliable, the Evinrudes a work horse. Everyone wanted the Mercs. ;-)
Christian Decker
on 28 Dec 08Well the thing that disturbs me the most is not that machines fail (they do it often and when you least expect it), but through how much trouble Mac users have to get their gear fixed. With a PC it’s straight forward: drive to the next store, buy equipment and install it. While Apple has it’s users jump through hoops to the same…
Brian Lewis
on 28 Dec 08The only fussy mac I’ve owned was a G4 powerbook, the one with the somewhat infamous bottom memory slot defect. It needed three separate replacements before it stopped realizing that it really did have 2GB memory.
My current MBP has been solid.
I can empathize with your plight. I am due for a MBP replacement, but am holding off till midyear for the Rev-A ‘itis’ to subside.
moxiemk1
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had a long parade of Macs, and we’ve had few incidents with them.
I’ve got an LC 575 from 1995 that still runs perfectly as it did when we got it, with no failed parts. A PowerBook 150 from 1995 as well that worked until about 2003 when its screen and floppy gave out. My PowerMac G3 desktop still runs like a champ. Our 15in iMac G4 is in perfect shape, though our 17in iMac G4 had its hard drive die, losing tons of replaceable data. (still sad) Our original MacBook has had zero issues, my Mac mini runs 24/7 with lots of use and has been perfect. A G3 AIO worked well over its purpose for six years before one IDE channel burned out. PowerMac 8100/80av worked just fine, retired not from failure but from, well, slowness :) Our iMac G5 has also had no issues at all.
I think what you may be experiencing is that your Mac becomes the only computer you use, and it is subject to more use/abuse than most computers get, so its components fail earlier than would be expected. But all computers will die sometime.
Cameron Watters
on 28 Dec 08As I also donate to old computers to family, here’s a brief history:
I have a iMac DV SE (from 1999) that still works today and was in regular use until about 3 years ago.
I have 2 PowerMac G4s from ~2000 that are both functional today and one was in regular, daily use until last Christmas.
I have a 6-yr-old 12” PowerBook G4 that is still in service today, though, the battery no longer holds a charge. I expect, however, that after 5 years of constant use, needing to replace a battery is no big deal.
I’ve got a first gen Mac Mini that is still going strong (though, we did have the SuperDrive replaced a couple years ago).
I’ve got a first gen black MacBook (almost 3 yr old) that has been rock solid, despite being dropped face down from 6 feet onto a hard floor w/ the screen open.
Overall, I’d say I’ve had a fantastic experience w/ Apple hardware, especially compared to my experience with comparable PC hardware from other manufacturers, which has consistently failed, in my experience, more rapidly.
The MTBF for mechanical drives (HDD & optical) is usually anywhere from 3-5 years and batteries shouldn’t be expected to last forever. As such, I expect to replace batteries and HDDs around 42 months.
Mike
on 28 Dec 08I too have had a very bad experience with the macbook. (although my prior iBook was solid…still in use by my sister in law).
My macbook has had a hard drive failure, the CD rom go bad, and a keyboard go bad. This is all in less than 2 years of 98% desktop living. Plus it gets very hot. Excessively hot.
In all, I’ve been VERY disappointed with this hardware and it’s really the only thing keeping me from buying another one. I can get a Dell or IBM that will work until I don’t need it anymore…and for less money. One hard drive crash can quickly obliterate any advantages of the Mac OS.
Joe S.
on 28 Dec 08I’ve always had problems with my Macs. My current MacBook Pro is 1.5 years old and has already had the logic board, DVD drive and monitor replaced.
The monitor had almost 30 dead pixels. The DVD refused to read DVDs it burned, and the logic board was replaced because the monitor wouldn’t display. I didn’t know this was related to firmware issues. Now it makes sense.
I’ve always owned both Macs and PCs and my PCs have run great without problems.
I love Macs but if it weren’t for Apple Care, I couldn’t afford to own them.
Thijs van der Vossen
on 28 Dec 08I think all the Macs I’ve bought over the years are still running. This includes a G4 quicksilver with display, G3 iBook, G4 12” PowerBook, 2x Mac Mini G4, 2x Mac Mini Core Duo, an early MacBook, 15” MBP, MB Air, and 2×8 core Mac Pro.
No major issues apart from some HD failures and color issues with a Cinema Display which was promply replaced.
Andreas Lanjerud
on 28 Dec 08Computers still running of my first shipment versions of macs include a mac mini, imac snow, powermac g5, macbook and macbook pro.
The only one that have been having problems is my Macbook pro, which has a yellow display. Apple switched the display for me, but it’s still yellow. Can be made better with calibration of course, but not good enough. Sucks.
Brenton
on 28 Dec 08We’ve had Macs all my life, and they generally become to slow to use before they die.
The only one I can think of that failed was a refurbished tray-loading iMac G3. We’ve sold/donated most of the Macs we’ve owned, but still have a handful running: - Macintosh (original 128k) - Beige G3 tower (bought as refurb) - G4 tower - iMac G4 - 2 Mac pros - MacBook Pro
Jonas Cronfeld
on 28 Dec 08We only use Macs in my company, and every one of them have had serious problems within a year after its purchase. We’ve always been mac FREAKS, but lately we’ve been thinking about getting som IBMs laptops. The only problem is that we simply CAN’T get ourself to work with Windows. Just the other day my partners Macbook air (9 months old) literally FEEL APART when he was working with it on his lap. It totally broke like if he had dropped it on the ground – which he never has. It’s very frustrating, because when they works they REALLY work!
David Demaree
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had pretty good luck with my Apple gear; until this last summer, when it seemed like I had a new problem with my MacBook Pro every weekend, I’d never had a major issue with any of the 6 Macs I’ve owned.
Is it possible that we Mac owners feel problems more acutely because we only have a single vendor to choose from? Dell/HP/Sony/etc customers have the comfort of knowing that if their computers fail and they don’t get an acceptable response from the vendor, they can just choose another one.
Seems to me like there’s a certain likelihood, given the complexity and rapid changes in computer technology, a certain amount of failure is inevitable. It’s just that on the Mac side, we can only choose one company’s products, so it seems like that company has made bad products. It’s possible that Apple gear might be shoddy, but it seems just as likely that computers are shoddy and we’re just inclined to blame Apple for being opaque and unresponsive.
Mike
on 28 Dec 08Apple desktops and iPhone have been OK, iBooks, MacBook Pros have all failed numerous times.
Jason Johnson
on 28 Dec 08Just two days ago my MacBook Pro 2.4 (less than a year old) seized up. I thought it was the RAM upgrade I had recently put it through, but after switching out to the original memory – still no luck.
About 20 seconds into the initial boot process, the spinner freezes and about an inch of screen down from the top bezel redraws with some strange vertical line pattern.
This isn’t the first Mac (laptop) to die on me. I still have a powerbook sitting on the shelf. Granted it is over 5 years old but it had all sorts of issues, too. Logic board, video, power systems (it doesn’t even recognize it is supposed to use a battery, much less charge one).
All in, our company has had every single Mac laptop fail in some way. Maybe 7 laptops over a 5 year history. However, we have G3, G4 and G5 towers still humming along.
I don’t mean to say Mac laptops are junk, they aren’t – we continue to buy them. But it seems they construct these laptops to give you enormous benefits in now-term productivity (1-2yr), while sacrificing longevity (3yr+).
Jason
on 28 Dec 08My iMac DV/SE - which I purchased in 2000 - still works just fine. It’s running OS X 10.3, albeit a little on the slow side (especially when compared to my Intel iMac, which is nearly three years old). It’s only gone in the shop once, to fix the display and an internal ethernet issue.
I’ve also still got my first Mac, a Power Computing PowerBase 180, down in the basement. It’s been a long time since I turned it on, but last time I did, it booted up without a hitch.
My wife’s Powerbook G4 is nearly four years old, and has only had to have the keyboard replaced (due to a water spill). It’s still chugging along (though in some need of a little cleaning and maintenance, but I just haven’t had time to do it).
My dad still has his twelve-year-old Performa 6400. Granted, he’s done lot of upgrades over the years - e.g., processor upgrades - so it’s not really recognizable as a Performa 6400 per se, but it still boots up and it still runs the Mac OS.
And at my workplace, we’ve still got a bunch of old Macs located throughout the offices: iMacs, G3 and G4 towers, etc.
Suffice to say, Macs have been very reliable in my experience.
Brian Lewis
on 28 Dec 08Joe S. Did your MBP have those problems when you got it or over time?
I can only speak for myself, but I’m pretty brutal when it comes to taking a laptop home, it’s got to be damn near perfect or it goes back for a replacement. Dead pixels, noises, something that just doesn’t seem right. If they’re serially bad, I take it as a sign it’s not time to upgrade.
Case in point, when the aluminum revision of the 15” PB came out, I tried three different machines – all had their own quirks. Hinge problem, latch problem, dead pixel bonanza.
More recently, I wanted to upgrade to the unibody MBP. First one’s trackpad made more noise than I hoped it would. Second had a better trackpad, but the screen wasn’t tight enough and gradually leaned farther back. Third just didn’t feel right – nothing I can point to that was wrong, just had that feeling.
So, in about three more months, I’ll try again.
Jeff
on 28 Dec 08I picked up a Mac Mini in 2005 and a MacBook Pro later in the same year: neither have given me any problems whatsoever. :-D
Johan
on 28 Dec 08Same for me. I’ve never paid for a Mac, I’ve always got them through work.
First one, Powerbook G5, died 3 months after getting it from IT. They looked at it, couldn’t figure it out, gave me another one. Had terrible performance with PS, IT found out that mac wasn’t recognizing the memory. IT finally just gave me a dell to work with.
Next job, Macbook Pro 1.0. After one month, hard drive failed, had to replace it. No IT dept this job, had to figure this out with the Genius Bar. NOT FUN.
Next job, Macbook (white). Memory problems. Display would sporadically work. Casing cracked within first 3 weeks of normal use. Mini-DVI port had issues working with an external monitor. After 6 months of sluggish performance, had to demand to move to a Macbook Pro.
The VERY FIRST WEEK I had the new Macbook Pro, the power button broke and is now depressed into the casing. If I accidentally brush against the button (to adjust the display, etc) the machine will shut down.
So yes. You’re not alone. Every single damn Mac I’ve ever used has been abysmal. And I look at my co-workers, who are all mac freaks, and ask “is this normal”?
I am kind of glad all of these machines were bought for me by a company and I didn’t have to shell out my own cash for it. Because if it had been MY money, I’d be WAY more pissed.
federico silva
on 28 Dec 08macbook white (late 2006? can’t remember)
audio input: fail matshita drive: fail (twice) top case: broken
Sage
on 28 Dec 08PowerMac G3 – Finally kicked the bucket after 7 years. That’s perfectly reasonable though.
iBook G3 – Sold it in perfect condition when it was 4 years old.
iMac G5 – Still going without a hitch (and in fact, seems like it fixed its own insomnia a year ago). Optical drive is a bit temperamental though.
MacBook 1.83 – Works fine, except optical drive is just about dead.
So all of our computers seem to work just dandy, except the optical drives (note: both of the tray-loaders worked perfect, while both of the slot-loaders are failing).
Tim Case
on 28 Dec 08GREAT POST! I have this exact same issue! My display stopped working two months ago and so far none of the software fixes work. Does anyone know if Apple will replace the logic board for free? Even on out of warranty mac books? I heard this was an acknowledged defect.
Thank god I purchased a mac mini as a backup since I live in Brazil and nearest Apple store is a hemisphere away.
Paul Smith
on 28 Dec 08I got an iMac 7 months ago and it came with a dead pixel. About 4-5 months after the hard drive started acting up and died about a month later. At least it was covered under warranty. It was my first Mac too :( My friend brand new 15” MBP doesn’t read a lot of DVD’s that he puts in for some reason. I can’t say I’ve had the best experience with them.
Also in terms of software I constantly get Time Machine Errors. I don’t even know what goes wrong, but I guess something does!
aschmitz
on 28 Dec 08Just finished backing up two PowerBook 1400c’s which are still running fine, have an old G3 that’s still running fine as a local BrowserShots server when necessary, and several friends with Apple hardware that has been around since easily before the millennium as well. I guess it just depends a bit on luck. (Of course, some of those machines don’t see too much use any more except for running old apps (scanner, programming a robot, etc.), but they still work.)
Jimmy Howe
on 28 Dec 08G3 battery problem. but now i had four MBP including G4PB never failed. only last one when i spilt coffee on. so the time span, is more then ten years, never runup on hiccups.
Anonymous Coward
on 28 Dec 08@Brian – The dead pixels happened over time, starting at about 10 months old. I had the display repaired last week. I didn’t take in sooner because I needed it for work.
The DVD drive never really worked right out the box but I didn’t have it replaced till last week.
The display issues happened about 6 months ago, when the MBP was about 1 year old.
While my MBP was in the shop I used my wife’s Toshiba notebook and boy did I miss my Mac.
I felt like I’d been riding around in a Ferrari and all of a sudden I had to ride a Yugo for a week.
Jonathan Hollin
on 28 Dec 08Dual 2.7GHz PowerMac G5 with 30” ACD owned since May, 2005. Still running flawlessly, 24-7 – absolutely nothing to report.
40GB 3G iPod – had it for 5 years. Still works perfectly – which is why I haven’t yet upgraded to an iPod Touch!
MessagePad 2100 – Years old, still working perfectly although the backlight is not as bright as it once was.
Nothing bad to report at all. I have total faith in my Apple products and, should anything fail now, I think I’ve had my money’s worth.
Peter Cooper
on 28 Dec 08Today I just passed a 4.5 year old iBook on to my sister in law (replacing her 3 year old PC notebook). It was my first Mac and that on which I learned Ruby and Rails :-)
My Mac Mini (3.5 years old) still runs great. My two iMacs also fine. My Powerbook also fine although the sound is intermittent (but it’s been sitting in a pile for a year now..), and all other Macs okay.
One of my old clients also ran the same Mac desktops from 1997 through to 2007 with no serious hiccups.
Doug
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had perfect luck with Apple hardware so far.
LCIII: Got when released (1993-ish?) and still runs to this day.
iBook G4 12” (final Gen): Still running fine four years later.
MacBook Air (first Gen): No problems.
MacPro 2006 model: Could not be better. 32GB of RAM about $1000 now, drives are super-cheap. It’s a dream machine. Always remember to dust it out monthly.
Every iPod model to date save for the Shuffle series and Gen 1 / 2 normal iPods: No battery problems, no drive problems, nothing ever wrong after many many drops.
Stephen Ward
on 28 Dec 08I switched almost 2 years ago to a black macbook, 2gb. The first one had the well-publicised random shut-down problem. It was replaced after 2 weeks. The replacement’s optical drive died after 3 weeks. The replacement of the replacement worked well for about 10 months then the power adapter stopped working and was replaced. No more problems so far!
My previous laptop was the cheapest I could afford (an Acer) that ‘just worked’ for over 3 years.
Tim
on 28 Dec 08I have had to replace the hard drive on every Apple laptop I’ve owned, not a fun task. So, I have decided that once my current PowerBook dies I’ll be moving a much cheaper PC laptop running Ubuntu Linux like my desktop machine has been for years. I’m tired of working on laptops. :(
Roger Bourland
on 28 Dec 08I’ve owned the new Mac Pro, G5, G4, 9500, and all the way back to Mac SE and they have all worked perfectly. I have a MacBook Pro, had 2 of them, and about 5 previous laptops, and have all been perfect.
The thought of moving to PC is unthinkable. But, Apple needs to keep up or some other company will blow them away, maybe Palm?
Brandon
on 28 Dec 08PowerBook G4 – Still hasn’t failed (Except for battery that only lasts 10 minutes w/out power and chinsey power plug that needs replaced every year or so)
iMac G5 – Still going strong, no problems.
MBP – Still shiny new.
Drew Pickard
on 28 Dec 08I’ve owned 4 Macs.
6500/250 603e processer 128MB RAM Had a harddrive issue with it that was eventually fixed with an Apple software update. Had some small issues with it later due to me accidentally breaking things in the interior chassis. Oops.
G3 450 Never had a problem with it.
G4 dual 800 (I think?) the “wind tunnel” mac. Had some fan issues with it early on, but it also was fixed with a software update. It just ran really hot.
Macbook Pro 17” 2.16 Ghz Core Duo
Next purchase will be a Macbook Pro 17” once they’re updated to be in line with the current design.
ALL brands fail. Some people have bad luck and some people abuse their computers. On average, I think that Macs are more durable and reliable than other manufacturers. And Apple’s support is unmatched among other computer brands.
PJ Hyett
on 28 Dec 08This is why I will never buy an Apple product without AppleCare.
Tyson Tate
on 28 Dec 08Every Mac I’ve ever owned has worked flawlessly. My old PowerBook G4 12” even had a full vase of water spilled on the keyboard while it was running and it still worked perfectly after I dried it out for two weeks.
My parents have a iMac 333mHz that still does duty as a reliable web machine.
The only Apple hardware I’ve ever had fail on me was a keyboard whose Esc key died after about four years of use.
Brian
on 28 Dec 08at least it fails for a reason usually. every windows PC i have owned has had to be rebuilt/reloaded after like 6 months.
Macy
on 28 Dec 08@Jonas, some constructive feedback regarding your comment. Your comment would read more credibly if it employed less hyperbole. For example, an undamaged Macbook Air in use, literally falling apart seems highly unlikely. Authentic details would give a fringe case like this legs.
Adam Meisel
on 28 Dec 08I have an original dual-processor G5 and it’s always made very strange noises. Every little process makes very mechanical noises.
I also have a 2 year old Macbook (2nd gen intel macbook?) that after having a screen issue repaired by Apple, it’s never quite run the same. It’s a shame.
Brant
on 28 Dec 08I had a iMac G3 (original Bondi Blue): CD-ROM failed under warranty – replaced no problems. Given to sister, was working as of last report. PowerMac 7100/80 – no problems ever. Eventually thrown out due to age and we were moving. PowerBook 160 – no problems ever – thrown away eventually due to age. iBook G3 – no problems, still works fine. PowerBook G4 – no problems ever, sold on Craigslist when it was 4 years old. MacBook – our baby destroyed this computer by shoving 3 DVDs into the drive at once. Apple fixed it under warranty (I even told them how it happened and said that I didn’t think they should cover the repair – they disagreed and fixed it for free). MacBook Pro – logic board failed, optical disc failed – both fixed under warranty.
Drew Pickard
on 28 Dec 08I’ll also say that any time I’ve ever had a Maxtor harddrive in any computer or external case – it has failed spectacularly.
So I probably did replace my 6500’s Maxtor drive at some point.
but that’s a Maxtor issue, not an Apple one. Apple doesn’t use them anymore.
Tom Karlo
on 28 Dec 08I’ve always had good experiences with my Macs, and I’ve owned either a desktop or laptop since about 1994. In all cases, they’ve gotten obsolete well before dying. I’ve seen the occasional glitch, but nothing exceptional (my current, 2-year-old Black Macbook, on which I’m typing this, has a cranky CD-ROM.) All manufacturers hit issues and the internals on a Mac aren’t all that different from any other brand. By comparison, I once had to send back an entire order of Dell laptops (about 14) because most if not all had an odd glitch right out of the box where they would periodically (and randomly) choose to reboot. That experience didn’t mean I wouldn’t buy Dell laptops again; their service (at the time) was responsive enough that I was okay with them. All of the major brands have outsourced manufacturing at this point (a decade ago, really) anyway.
Tom Karlo
on 28 Dec 08“But, Apple needs to keep up or some other company will blow them away, maybe Palm?”
Or maybe BeOS!
Palm will be lucky enough to have a mobile customer base a year from now. I can’t remember the last time I even saw a blog post about an interesting Palm product.
Laidlaw
on 28 Dec 08I’ve only had my MacBook Pro for 2 years, but I haven’t had a single issue with it in that time. 3 to 4 years is a long time to keep a laptop for though, no? I usually upgrade every 2-3 years.
Sam
on 28 Dec 08Macs fail faster because they’re used more.
;)
JK
on 28 Dec 08First gen Intel iMac works under heavy usage (home and media server with 4 active users, 2 of them- kids) without any problems.
Jason Scheirer
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had optical drives fail and hard drives die in every piece of hardware I’ve owned. I had a Sony VAIO laptop in 2000 whose optical drive died the day after warranty. I still use my 800 mHz 12” powerbook and I love it. Every corner is dented in, and the hard drive failed once, prompting me to crack the thing open and replace it, but it still works fine and the display is still working great.
I think the title of this article should be changed to Every Piece of Computing Machinery I Have Owned Has Or Will Fail But I Mostly Own Macs. Consumer Reports magazine rates Apple highest for reliability and customer service, so just be thankful you’re not using something else.
Brian Lewis
on 28 Dec 08Raggi,
You mention having hard freezes. I had somewhat random freezes until I dropped parallels for vmware. The 3.0 release tended to just be a powderkeg. Once I moved to fusion things got stable.
Just a thought
zack
on 28 Dec 0850% of the hard drives I’ve owned have failed.
0% of the laptops I’ve owned, (2 Dells, 1 Thinkpad, 1 Alienware, 1 Macbook Pro) have failed, but they have all really been at home laptops and haven’t seen much traveling. I think that most of the people I know that have issues with laptops tend to travel with them a lot, or spill stuff on them.
Ken
on 28 Dec 08I’ve got a ROM 01 Apple iigs at home that still works just as good as when we took it out of the box, though the case color has faded a bit.
Perhaps even more impressively, its 120 MB SCSI hard disk (which had to be mounted as 5 separate partitions, since GS/OS can’t handle a single disk larger than 32 MB) is still working.
leethal
on 28 Dec 08My dad has my 4 year old Powerbook G4, it’s as good as new.
stefan osa
on 28 Dec 08hi Have being a mac user since 1994 and i never had problems with my macs currently personally on a macAir,macBook , professonaly on a powerBook pro 17’ , and i must say they are just solid. Never used anti-virus and all data has always being backed externaly w a 300G hard drive partioned for both mac n pc! cheers and goodLuck.
Carlo Pecchia
on 28 Dec 08MacBook white (2006) after 2 years the HD died… I used it normally (6hours/day).
martin
on 28 Dec 08My first mac was a quicksilver tower circa 2001. I ebayed it in 2002 when I upgraded to a mirrored drive door dual G4. I had this computer for 5 years. For a while, I was running it 16 hours a day. The only thing I had to replace on it was the GPU fan which started to make noise at one point. In 2003 I also purchased a G3 white ibook. I used the ibook when I was traveling, which means it was on the road about 3 weeks a month. Later, my wife used it as her primary computer at school, and when my wife got her macbook in 2007, the ibook was donated to my sister, who still uses it today. The ibook had the internal display cable replaced just before my extended apple care expired due to wear, and had the hard drive upgraded before my sister got it – not from a failure but for more storage. I purchased my macbook pro in 2007 when I sold my G4 tower, and haven’t had any problems with it at all. The battery still works too. Ditto for my wife’s macbook. We bought my wife’s grandmother a g4 mac mini in 2004 and have not had any problems there either. My experience: 6 computers, 18 years cumulative use, 1 display cable and 1 GPU fan.
Steve
on 28 Dec 08My old titanium PowerBook from 2003 still works great, as does my ca. 1999 blue-and-white G3 desktop (and my ancient and venerable PowerMac 7600). My partner’s 2003-vintage iBook G4 is also going strong, although its once-spacious 40gb hard disk is no longer big enough.
Now, it should be noted that the particular iBook she’s using is her third- the first two were replaced by Apple due to factory defects (one for a faulty logic board, one for some sort of mysterious power-management issue). Apparently third time was the charm with that particular model.
Jeremy
on 28 Dec 08Sorry to hear your Mac horror stories.
I actually just replaced my eight year old dual 450 G4 Mac Tower (only reason for replacement was I thought I would treat myself to a little speed). Eight years and never once had it in a shop or open to replace something broken.
I also still own and use my “original” ipod. You know the one you connect with firewire and has a b/w display. It works great, also never a problem.
So here is to hoping your experiences get better!
Marshall Huwe
on 28 Dec 08Pretty much every computer, PDA, and Smartphone I have ever purchased failed on me in one way or another so for me the question is not whether or not the device fails – I just assume it will – but what happens when it does. My experience so far has Apple as the hands down best at resolving the situation. I actually get my Apple products repaired because dealing with them is such a pleasant experience. On the PC and Windows Mobile side I got to the point where if it was something that I could not fix myself I would just replace the device vs go through the hassle of trying to get it fixed. That is my two cents.
Jan
on 28 Dec 08I used to do System Administration for a mid-sized online company, and I introduced Macs as a Windows platform close after the Intel transition.
We must have had around fifty to sixty Minis and iMacs in use over the next two years, and I had an excellent experience with them in this admittedly short timeframe – only remember two hardware issues, one being a faulty temperature sensor cable which was fixed by a local dealer and back in operation later that day.
The guys still went Dell-only after I left the position .. oh well.
Personally I’ve owned a G4 iBook, a white Intel iMac and an Intel MBP so far, of which I only had the G4 die on my after three years with a faulty logic board. Still, I’d never buy a machine without Apple Care, especially not a laptop.
VM
on 28 Dec 08I’ve been using my MBP for about 3 years now without any problems… well the left side fan broke so that I changed (paid 25€ for the part and changed myself).
Other than that.. no problems. Actually I just did some checks and maintenance on it this week. For example the hard drive check did not find any bad blocks out of ~1.2 million on the drive… 0 (zero). That’s pretty good for a drive that’s been in use for almost 3 years.
VM
on 28 Dec 08Btw.. I think it was about 128 million.. anyways…
Jesse Newland
on 28 Dec 08My 3+ year old Powerbook G4 has served me well, and now runs 24/7 powering a photoframe.
Fans, hard drives, and optical drives all have moving parts, and their manufacturers realistically expect them to fail at some point. The mean time between failure is often disclosed when purchasing these components separately. Since every Mac you’ve owned has moving parts, they will all fail at some point.
I’m sure AppleCare is tracking realistic MTBF statistics for various components of Mac hardware. That’d sure be interesting to look at.
andrew
on 28 Dec 08My Mac Classic is in the basement. Hasn’t been fired up in years, but I bet it still works.
Nearly ten year strong iMac still functional, plays some Flash-based games for my son. Previously spent a few years running Quickbooks for my company.
G3 Powerbook (Pismo, 8-9 years old?) by far the greatest computer I’ve ever owned, still rockin’. My sister uses it to check email and browse the web when she’s on the road. That computer is a friggin hoss.
7 year old(?) G4 Digital Audio tower is a Quickbooks / spare Internet machine / print server at my office
A dual G4 tower (that we bought from used from you guys actually; it was Fried’s old machine I believe) capably serves as my wife’s main computer at home.
At work I’m on a dual G5 tower that has never had even a hiccup of a problem (although it’s about to get some upgrade love, which will probably bite me in the ass for messing with something that isn’t broken.)
I think over my entire Mac-owning history, I’ve had one problem with the Pismo Powerbook that required me to send it somewhere to get fixed. Other than that, nothing more than a dead power cord for my current Intel-based MacBook Pro, and that was covered by Apple Care.
Macy
on 28 Dec 08Quickly tabulating reports, roughly 76% of 62 are positive. This just reaffirms something many already know. While not egregious, Apple clearly has quality control issues.
That said, David’s experience does not appear to be common. And, not all the failures he experienced are Apple flavored. Looking at his issues and those reported by others, many describe component failures, such as CD drives or hard drives, which are not Apple-specific. Not that this makes them any less aggravating.
Apple ought to be careful. Sentiments towards its products are increasingly precarious. It’s hard to feel sexy when confronted with peculiar design choices (glass) and quality control issues (MBA v2’s screen).
Perhaps Apple’s recent stumbling are a reflection of its HBIC’s health. Made worse by high expectations and a fanatical base that can scream just as loud as it can shout.
Matthew Tully
on 28 Dec 08I have a 2002 G4 MDD. Still kicking ass, even runs Leopard fine. The Cinema Display burned out some, but it still works. It exists as part of a render farm and acts as a Media Server. I am shocked to hear of so many faulty Macs, bummer dude.
JV
on 28 Dec 08So the moral of the story is: MAKE SURE YOU BUY APPLE CARE!!!
Richard Allum
on 28 Dec 08What an ironic post. After reading so many comments on 37S blogs and forums about how good Macs are, I just got my first Mac!
Ben Atkin
on 28 Dec 08There’s a grammatical error here. It should say “its” rather than “it’s”. It’s explained well in one of my favorite sites, Common Errors in English.
My first Apple computer failed way too soon. It was an iBook I bought new in summer of ‘05. It started acting up in summer of ‘07 and failed in fall of ‘07. I didn’t have AppleCare, and wound up buying a MacBook to replace it. My new MacBook’s warranty expires in a few months, and I have to figure out whether to buy AppleCare, sell it and get a MacBook Pro, or just keep it and hope it keeps working. So far so good.
Bob K
on 28 Dec 08My 2003 iMac G4 and 2004 iBook G4 are still rock solid, and my old 1998 “Wallstreet” G3 was my home, work, and field computer for a good 4/5 years until I sold it. I wish I could say the same for a refurb PowerBook G4 that keeled over half an hour after I took it out of the box.
Erik Bartz
on 28 Dec 08My dad still plays games on my old Performa 6116CD, running Mac OS 8.1. My parents are currently using my iMac (the one with the round base), and my subsequent iMac and MacBook Air are still running strong without incident. The only Mac to let me down was a PowerBook G3 – the screen/hinge eventually went out on it but that was after 4 brutal years in college.
Richard
on 28 Dec 08I just gave my wife’s G4 iBook to our granddaughter. It has never broken down (got wife a new MacBook which is spectacular).
I’ve had too many Macs to count since 1984 and my first 128K machine and while some of them have had issues, I don’t feel in retrospect like Apple has general Q/A issues with their machines, at least in my experience.
I do buy AppleCare and have only had to use it once many years ago when the screen failed on my PowerBook. I had a new screen and logic board in less than 36 hours and I was back in business.
Apple is far from perfect but my experience has been quite good.
debo
on 28 Dec 08I know it has already been stated, but I have had the exact opposite experience: My sister used an iMac from 2000-2007, still works, although stored, and she has had a macbook for almost 2 years with no problems; I used a g4 cube from 2002-2004, which I sold to a friend and it is still going strong; my mom still uses an iBook that she bought used on ebay in 2004; I have been using a 17” powerbook, which I bought used on ebay in 2004, and I have had no problems, except I just had to replace the battery. I’m looking forward to selling my powerbook at a decent price when I upgrade, pretty soon. I always recommend macs to family and friends based on how long they last. Maybe I have been lucky and I should rethink my recommendation…
Victor Ganata
on 28 Dec 08I’ve still got a 2004 iBook G4 and a 2005 Mac Mini G4 running without problems.
Brad
on 28 Dec 08My wife spilled water on her PowerBook’s keyboard twice, dropped it on concrete, etc. and it still worked like a champ.
Kelly
on 28 Dec 08Bought my first Macbook in August of ‘87. Since then the hard drive has failed, the magsafe connector has failed, and recently the superdrive died.
micker
on 28 Dec 08It’s ironic that for all of the innovation that apple has delivered, their quality really isnt all that great. I’ve had the same problems with Mac’s in my shop over the years whereas my Toshiba’s just keep going. As a matter of fact, I think that everyone I’ve given away after upgrading is still running…
Sami
on 28 Dec 08Let’s see …
PowerMac 7200, 1996 to 2001; after that used by my father for a few years before the PSU failed. One HD failure (not the original one, though).
PowerMac G4/466, 2001 to 2006; then sold to a distant acquaintance, and still running, I’ve heard.
PowerBook G4 12”, 2004 to present; 3rd HD, 2nd keyboard, and a few uncomely dents in its shell, but still running (I’m typing on it right now).
Mac Pro 2,66, 2007 to present: added a lot (6 HDs altogether), replaced nothing, yet. Seemingly, not one of the “stinking” Mac Pros.
Since the two of my Macs that I’m not using anymore, have at least outlived my own use, (and the maintenance expenses for the PowerBook have been affordable, so far), I can’t really complain.
David
on 28 Dec 08My first Mac (17” Powerbook G4) fried it’s own logic board within a month (the replacement was fine for the 3 months I had it before it was stolen). Next one was OK for 18 months (when I sold it) except that the PCMCIA slot broke and needed replacing. Latest one has been OK for a year, so I’m due something awful anytime now.
Darko Kontin
on 28 Dec 08I have a Powermac G4 400mhz and it works great…no problems at all.
iMac G4….the same.
And now the new Alu iMac and it is working fine also (for know :) )
I think you just have bad luck with mac’s. Hope that changes for you as I really like seeing You guys using mac book’s in videos and presentations :)
JRF
on 28 Dec 08All my Macs are still working. I have a Centris 650 in working condition. Original iMac also and many others. Still working everyday: iMac G4, iMac G5, iMac 24”, white MacBook and PowerBook Titanium (the first batch G4 500Mhz). For me the only thing Apple consistently dead before time are the monitors (CRT).
David Anderson
on 28 Dec 08I guess I’m vaguely satisfied. My main machine is a 30-month old MBP; only problem is a battery that now only lasts 17 minutes. My previous machine, a 4-year-old 12-inch powerbook is still usable, as is a 6-year-old iBook G3. My wife and daughter also have first-generation MBP’s that work fine. The only member of my family who actually uses the optical drive has seen them fail in an iBook and then in a Macbook - that and a display going bad are the failures we’ve seen in 9 mac laptops over the past 6 years - plus 4 dead power supplies and lots of battery problems.
Craig
on 28 Dec 084+ year old powerbook G4. I travel a lot, but always handle it very carefull. Logic board died within first year. Hard drive died within 2 years. Power cord stopped working within 3 years. On my third battery. The screen is also showing signs of vignetting. I’ve also replaced the keyboard (my fault, water spill), and the RAM (upgraded from 2×512 chips to 2×1 gig chips). It is basically a completely different machine from the one that was originally shipped to me.
Jake
on 28 Dec 08A hard drive failed on a two-year-old PowerBook, but it was under warranty, and I’ve had an iMac for about a year and a half without problems. My parents’ MBP and Mac Pro have been solid for the ~two years they’ve had them.
But then again, the plural of anecdote is not data, and so far as I can discern no one keeps good data on the failure rates of various computer brand names.
AS
on 28 Dec 08I’ve used Macs since 1984. This one time I had to trade in a battery, which they replaced for free. Someone gave me a Newton as a present last year, it also works fine, believe it or not. I’ve gone through three Dell laptops in 5 years @ work. I’ll take the Mac every time.
Ole Begemann
on 28 Dec 0826-month-old MBP 2,2. Firewire ports died after 14 months. At about the same time, the display started making a humming noise if not set to maximum brightness. I’m not satisfied at all. Hope things got better with the new unibody notebooks.
Antonio Cangiano
on 28 Dec 08David, I wish I could restore your faith with tales of flawless Apple hardware. Sadly I own the same MBP you do, and I encountered the same identical problem that you experienced just a month ago or so. My MBP 2.2 was bought in June 2007 and has been a huge disappointment. I feel that Apple should fix our laptops since this is clearly a common problem – but I don’t see it happening. In January I’m going to buy a new laptop. If it ends up being an Apple, I will buy Apple Care this time around. The sad reality is that it’s a must.
jb
on 28 Dec 08I think Apple hardware quality has deteriorated in recent years. The iMac G5 I am typing this on has had a few hardware problems; fortunately Apple has fixed them for free every time thus far.
Its also worth noting that laptops are much, much more likely to fail within a few years than desktops. Part of that is compromises in durability that are made as trade-offs to portability. Part of that is that laptops are moved all over, which increases wear and tear and increases damage potential.
In addition to hoping that Apple addresses their hardware quality issues, I also hope that Apple’s new “unibody” enclosures increase their laptop durability.
Daniel
on 28 Dec 08Good Lord a lot of comments already. Never ever ask for comments related to Apple. Even among the faithful the relationship to their products run the full gamut.
Nevertheless, here are my two cents: I’ve never had an Apple product fail (as in “repair needed”) on me without me being responsible until very, very recently. I’ve seen it happen to friends and family, but I’ve never seen anything I couldn’t fix with software. But, I do believe this owes more to luck than pure build quality.
I’ve had to replace the display on my PowerBook G4 once, after it got banged around. That was my fault but I managed to get it covered by the warranty. Besides that, I’ve never had to send something in for repairs. Ever. (sidenote: I have had an iBook’s display develop a loose connection and an Apple Trinitron display spurt sparks, but both work to this day with some MacGyver’ed repairs)
Not long ago, though, one of the so-called inverters in my 6-year-old Cinema Display fried, causing part of the backlight to go dead. It doens’t really bother me that much though (it’s really very subtle), and I can fix it myself if I want to, but that’s the only real parts failure I’ve had in an Apple product.
I’ve seen family members’ Macs act up, need new logic boards, etc., but it’s never happened to me. Heck, I’ve never even had a hard drive die on me!
Just for the record, these computers constitute my experience with Macs:
• Mac Plus: Still boots like new! Brickles and Dark Castle still rock!
• Various LC-series computers: All worked great
• Performa 6200: Not a good computer for many a reason, but it always worked.
• PowerMac G3: Never an issue. Even after I fiddled with it to overclock it and gave it non-sanctioned PC gfx-cards.
• iBook G3: The loose backlight connection mentioned earlier. Fixed in 15 minutes by me.
• PowerMac G4 (the last of its kind): Loud! But a true workhorse. I’ve ripped its guts out and voided my warranty plenty o’ times, but it has never complained
• PowerBook G4: Replaced display under warranty (because of white spots), but that was my bad.
• MacPro 2008: Damn it’s a nice machine!
Marshall
on 28 Dec 08I always find it funny that when Macs fail people despair, whereas when ‘pc’s fail everyone just expects it as par for the course. All my macs have taken some pretty severe beatings and kept on going, except for my current iMac which I’ve managed never to abuse. That said, quality has gone down since the move to intel from what I’ve heard, but just to the level of normal computers. Which is what the warranty is for.
Daniel
on 28 Dec 08Oh, yeah, forgot to mention: I’ve ruined a heap of keyboards… but that’s cause I like to drink coffee while I work. And the coffee likes to get spilled.
Jason Zimdars
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had 5 Macs in the OS X era and only had problems with one.
- iMac G3 DV (2001) had problems with the built in NIC. Took it to CompUSA (they were auth. service pre-Apple Store) and they made it completely non-functional over the course of several weeks. Apple replaced the machine with the comparable model in the current line…
- 15” iMac G4 in 2002. This was the very first of the lamp-style iMac computers and I got an early shipping model as a warranty replacement for my iMac DV. My wife (not a heavy user) still uses this computer as her primary machine.
- PowerMac G4 700 (I think). This was a work machine that I used from 2001 to 2004. Never had any issues. I don’t work there anymore so no idea what happened after that.
- 20” iMac G5 2Ghz. First run of the LCD-style iMac. Bought this in 2005 and it’s still my primary home computer. I use it daily for everything. No issues whatsoever.
MacBook Pro 17” 2.4ghz – 2007. This is my current work computer. No issues after 1 year.
Other than that G3 (which I blame the guys at CompUSA for messing up rather than fixing a minor issue) I haven’t had a single day lost or defect with any Apple computers.
Sorry to hear your experience hasn’t been the same, David.
n8
on 28 Dec 08i’ve only had one mac really “die” on me—my macbook pro, bought refurbished in 2006 just fried christmas eve. it also went through 3 fans, required a trip back to apple (covered) for a new trackpad, and (also covered) needed a new keyboard and top case.
aside from that, it worked well for two years. in my experience, the newer intel machines’ QA has seemed to decline.
all previous macs i’ve owned are still running in some fashion, as far as i know (original g4/400 pci, dual g4/450, powerbook g4 1ghz, g3 imacs, etc.).
i have clients still using 8 year old g4 systems as small servers. now, i don’t recommend this, but they tend to “just work.”
Nikita
on 28 Dec 08My 15” Macbook Pro (previous generation) had a left I/O board failure that prevented it from charging the battery 3 months after purchase. I had to live without it for a month (that’s how long official Apple service centers take to replace a logic board in Russia). Not to mention increasing noise from the cooling fans (9 months after purchase).
My friends’ experience is similar – several battery failures and one hard drive failure (various Macbooks, all purchased in US).
rickey gold
on 28 Dec 08Last year I was told that my original Mac Classic (from 1991) was still working fine, albeit slow (no kidding!). Am still a huge fan 5 or 6 Macs later, but have found that as I’ve added more apps…especially graphics programs, there are occasional probs:periodic freezing issues on my G5 desktop and my iBook and a strange humming sound when the G5 monitor is positioned at a certain tilt (probably the fan). That said, the service is so great (if you’re a ProCare customer), I have no complaints. I think Apple rocks!
Douglas F Shearer
on 28 Dec 08Due to previous catastrophic Mac failures, I now make sure my MBP gets replaced every year. Working as a tactic so far.
Jaime
on 28 Dec 08My first and possibly last Macbook:
- Battery failed, and was replaced under warranty.
- Logic board failed, and was replaced under warranty.
- Replacement logic board worked fine until a month after the warranty ran out, then bluetooth and sleep mode broke. (cycles in and out of sleep until the battery dies). Apple refuses to replace it…. :(
Definitely not a great customer experience. I really wanted to join the fans of apple, but I can’t recommend apple computers anymore without warning of their reliability.
k
on 28 Dec 08My iMac crashed a while ago. I should have taken back ups every day. I didn’t.
The problem was a Western Digital harddrive.
By the time mine got fixed the storeowner had another one in that broke down due to the same ff harddrive. And those two weren’t the first ones he came accross! It’s a trend. One that can be fixed. Out with the old, in with the new, no problem, that’s what the waranty is for but I didn’t want another Western Digital harddrive!!!
Esme Vos
on 28 Dec 08The same thing happened to my Mac Book Pro two months ago: blank screen on boot. The Apple Store in downtown SF had to send it to an Apple repair place in Texas to change the logic board. They must get hundreds of these Mac Book Pros with the same logic board problem.
guns
on 28 Dec 08I’ve bought all of my Macs used, and I’ve had fantastic luck. Everything works great, and the battery in the macbook I’m typing on is astonishing. I’m not sure if buying used is a kind of vetting process, but I’m getting good value from it.
Half the problems you posted were hard drive problems; that’s not the fault of any computer manufacturer. Spindle based hard drives are going to fail if handled enough. Why not invest in a SSD this time around? If you keep all your large media on the network, you could invest in an extremely fast, but moderately sized, SSD that would cost about a third of the price of a Macbook Pro.
josh susser
on 28 Dec 08This sort of post/thread is nearly pointless, except maybe to get people riled up. Consumer Reports’ latest research shows that there is no statistically significant difference in the reliability of laptops across the 8 major brands. All brands got roughly a 20% defect rate, and Apple was right in the middle of the range. Self-reporting data on reliability is the worst way to collect data, because you’ll tend to get people with strong memories of things going one way or the other.
I’ve had a few failures on my Macs, but also have had ones that lasted years and years. My sister just called me today to ask advice on what her next mac should be – she’s replacing her 6 year old PowerBook G4 12”, which has worked great for the whole time she had it. But anecdotes don’t matter. It sucks that you personally have had bad luck, but maybe you use your Macs harder than most people (with all that travel), or maybe you keep them around longer by giving them to family.
Anyway, I don’t think this post really serves anyone, except for a place to rant. You’re definitely not going to get any statistically meaningful data. But if you are having trouble with the impermanent nature of reality, maybe you should look into Buddhism :-)
Christopher Lord
on 28 Dec 08Except for my 2nd gen powerbook G4 (still going) and my current one, this is true for me as well. 3 machines total have failed. It seems to me they have a fuse that always leads to black screens and beep-codes. Apple geniuses always say “needs a new mainboard, thousand bucks”
Jim Gaynor
on 28 Dec 08The Macs I’ve owned (or used through work)
Plus, SE/30, IIsi, G4/350, G4/667, iBook G3 (white), iMac G3, PowerBook G3, Power Mac G5 (1.8), PowerBook G4 12”, PowerBook G4 15” (Al), iMac 20” Core Duo, iMac 17” Core 2 Duo, MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo.
The problems I’ve had total three, all with 15” PowerBooks
PowerBook G4 15” – sticking hinge, repaired under AppleCare PowerBook G4 15” – dead HD, self-replaced out of warranty MacBook Pro 15” – bad video on logic board, replaced out of warranty.
And that’s it.
I generally avoid first gen Apple products, as well as cutting-edge BTO options. It’s served me well.
James
on 28 Dec 08got a MacBook in July 2007, OS X would not detect the hard drive after two weeks (although a Linux boot disk was able to detect it and back up its contents), after replacing the hard drive I’ve had no problems, besides the plastic chipping where the screen’s two pads hit the rest of the computer when closed. a friend’s MacBook (of the same age) has dead lines on its screen.
Mazdak Rezvani
on 28 Dec 08I don’t want to tempt fate, but every single Mac I’ve had has worked beautifully until the day I sold it (at a great re-sale value, I might add). However, there was a slight video card problem with the 24 inch iMac at work…
Jack Jennings
on 28 Dec 08My Mac Classic II lasted for almost 17 years.
James
on 28 Dec 08I experienced a massive customer service failure with Apple when I bought my first mac (a PowerBook 5300)... 3 logic boards, countless hours, and much denial later, Apple came clean and admitted the model line was a dud.
I had been thinking my next machine might be a mac, but this thread is giving me pause.
My wife has had two macs, and the first had the trackpad fail and the second (a new one that came out just before Leopard) was bricked when I tried to upgrade it to leopard. Apple handled this one OK by installing leopard from their “special version that works on your model”.
I have never had any failures with other laptops I’ve owned (Toshiba, a few Dells, a Sony).
I admit my experience is not statistically significant… I had really been looking forward to getting a new Air as my next laptop, so I hope comments in this thread convince me that it’s still a good idea.
note: I am one of those people who used to have Textmate envy who now uses emacs on Linux and really wonders whether a mac still offers any advantage for ruby dev… (now that there is more of a community around ruby + emacs)Stuart Tevendale
on 28 Dec 08Haven’t had many macs die on me since 1992, but I’d NEVER buy a first-generation mac of any design after my experiences with the first-generation iBook G3. Eventually got it replaced by Apple for a G4 iBook.
Since then I’ve always waited a generation before buying, and, touch wood, been ok.
Jochen
on 28 Dec 08My first-generation MB Pro failed motherboard, fans, trackpad and dvd-drive.
My sister’s first-generation MB failed batteries, display and cracked where one places the handballs while typing.
My father’s second-generation MB failed… I don’t know. It keeps crashing in random intervals. His retailer is mentaining that it’s working perfectly each time he is bringing it in for repairs.
Patrick Henry
on 28 Dec 08What happened to the silly (stupid) Macbook Air you raved about when you bought it?
I’ve had mixed luck with Apple, but no worse than with any other hardware manufacturer.
2003 15” PB: PCMCIA slot died. But I didn’t care. This machine also grew the dreaded white spots on the LCD screen—they replaced the screen under warranty.
2004 20” iMac: no problems, but sold at 1 year
2005 17” PB: Last of the G4 breed - you figure it’d be perfect. Audio skipped/repeated when the processor speed slewed to save power. INSANELY ANNOYING. After /many/ moons, Apple released a firmware update - no more repeating audio, but instead a loud POP that hurt your ears if you wore headphones. In other words, they never fixed it, just tried to sweep it under the rug. Evil.
2006 Mac Pro: Numerous lockups from ATI card—bad driver software. Years of lockups, never fixed. Got an NVIDIA 8800 for it in 2008, been perfect since!
2007 Blackbook: Perfect—once they fixed the keyboard with a firmware update that came out 2 weeks after I bought it. Survived wife dropping it onto marble floor.
Original Bluetooth Keyboard: randomly, but more so when the battery was low, keys would repeat even if pressed just for an instant. Apple never fixed or admitted this.
Aluminum Bluetooth Keyboard: same problem as original, but then fixed with a firmware update!—Now the best keyboard the world has ever known.
peterlih
on 28 Dec 08Well, I sold my first mac, my iBook G3, after five years (!) without any issues. Any of my further macs had some trouble with something.
iMac G5 -> 6 Months (!) fixing the display, motherboard and any other pieces of this computer
MacBook pro (first release) -> especially the damage of the CPU fans was horrible
But anyhow: Mac is still the best plattform. You need to have luck with the hardware (and then you will be lucky till the next upgrade …)
Josh N. Abbott
on 28 Dec 08My Black MB that I bought about two years ago just had the processor crap out and I was told it would cost $750 to fix it. I am now using its hard drive as a portable drive.
Allan
on 28 Dec 08I love my MacBook so much but;
Logicboard Died (Apple replaced it free of charge), Power Cable died & just yesterday my HDD died, oh well.
Sigh…
Berlin Brown
on 28 Dec 08I am not a mac person, but got a macbook with my tax rebate. I didn’t use it for a long time and then decided to put Ubuntu on it. Thank god.
I tried to like it, but I didn’t sorry. All I wanted to say is, now I know that Mac is not the end all and be all of software. You have choices people.
Warren Ediger
on 28 Dec 08Sorry ‘bout your bad luck with Macs, David, but our family’s luck has just been the opposite we’ve owned laptops since the titanium PowerBook was introduced years ago, including PowerBooks, iBooks, MacBooks (plastic and my new aluminum) and MacBook Pros, with only one glitch: a bad connection (wire) leading to the screen on my son’s iBook. We’ve probably owned nine or ten laptops as well as a mini and two or three iMacs as well as a couple of the older desktop models with no other problems at all (knock on wood!).
Again, I’m sorry about your bad luck … happily, there is another side to the coin!
Anon
on 28 Dec 0820th century machines do not count … I’d bet a large part of 386, 486 and Pentiums would still work great too, as the trend for shoddy QC coupled with designing self-destructing electronics didn’t take off until 2001 or so.
Apple is notorious for the kind of hardware failures you mention (not necessarily limited to 1st gen products), which makes the robotic ‘quality! quality!’ zealot mantra all the more puzzling/maddening. I witnessed a bizarre male bonding ritual at gathering of media guys once, as they started swapping tales about how many times their iBook logic boards got replaced.
Tom von Schwerdtner
on 28 Dec 08I have a 1st gen intel MBP that is still working fine. The superdrive has trouble burning anything, but I’m generally pretty hard on my laptops so I’m not surprised…. it has lasted longer than my ol ThinkPad X31 did anyway (back when Linux was my primary OS).
I plan on buying a new one within the next half year, though probably a macbook this time, I don’t need the Pro for the price.
T.H.
on 28 Dec 08I (accidentally) drove over a 15’ powerbook G4. it survived without major problems. not bad I guess. I also dragged a 12’ G4 all around the world over a period of 3 years, including all kinds of fun places like Iraq, and never had a problem.
Jochen
on 28 Dec 08@Tom von Schwerdtner: Same goes for my MBP’s burner
Michael Johnston
on 28 Dec 08Since switching from The Dark Side, I’ve owned about 7 Macs in the past 11 years. During that time I’ve also owned 4 different Ipods and 1 iPhone. Of all the Apple equipment, I’ve had one CD drive fail and one mechanical scroll wheel on a 1st gen iPhone come unscrewed. That’s about it. It might help matters that I’ve generally switched computers about once every 18 months or so, so hard drive failure due to wear has not come into play. But I think that’s generally a very strong indication of reliability. In both cases the failures were met with immediate and swift repair turnarounds by Apple.
(I will now knock wood and go do a backup, just in case I’ve jinxed myself.)
Alex
on 28 Dec 08Over the past 3 1/2 years: 1. 17” iMac G5 – multiple logic board failures (logic board was replaced twice) 2. 20” iMac G5 – no problems! 3. 12” iBook G4 – no problems! 4. 13” MacBook 1G – hard drive failure (total loss), dvd drive failure, battery failure (stopped detecting it), wifi card failure 5. 13” MacBook 2G – no problems!
Matt H
on 28 Dec 0817” MacBook Pro purchased 2.5 years ago:
- Hard drive failed
- Battery bulged, warped my case and interfered with my trackpad, and had to be replaced
- AC adapter cord melted down and had to be replaced
- DVD burner fried, had to be replaced
Needless to say, the 3 year warranty was worth it, and once it expires I will NEED to have a backup computer on hand.
But, I can’t think of any other 17” laptop that I’d have wanted to be carrying with me all this time, so I can’t really regret the decision to buy it. It’s too damn slick.
dan
on 28 Dec 08I’ve had good experiences with my Macs, I haven’t had anything break that wouldn’t break on a PC. And I always get AppleCare, it’s so worth it. On one repair (noisy fan) I sent it in and it was back on my doorstep almost exactly 72 hours later.
Alex
on 29 Dec 08I had very positive experience with the first MBPs, 3 years and only one time serviced. They took it for less then a week and replaced almost everything (the AppleCare was about to expire and I decided to complain about as much things as I could, including the scratched keyboard pad – and they’re kind enough to replace the whole pad). I had a few issues with batteries, but I don’t take it personally – first of all, I’ve got one of the pioneer models, so shit happens. And the batteries were replaced right away. Besides, battery is always a headache for heavily used ones, like mine. I had battery problems with HP, Toshiba and IBM, so there is nothing specific about Apple here. I also had a problem with power plug and keys on keyboard, but my 2 years son did his best to make this happen ;) And the AppleCare covered it all (well, just say what’s good for you). I don’t think that Apple is any different then any other brand on the same level of price and quality. Shit happens, nobody’s perfect, especially nowadays, when nobody makes computers to last for too long. Personally, I think 5 years is more then a valid period of time when your laptop will start to be a headache.
Noel Hurtley
on 29 Dec 08I’ve been using Macs on-and-off for over fifteen years and I’ve experienced only one minor issue which was the DVD drive in a iMac G3 making strange noises and occasionally refusing to eject a disc.
My mid-2007 MacBook Pro has been running without a hitch and my family’s antiqued 33Mhz Performa is still ticking (if anyone actually wanted to use it).
Knock on wood!
Recoil
on 29 Dec 08I’ve given up on (full-sized) laptops. I’ve almost never had one that didn’t die on me after a couple of years or less (with one exception: an ancient and heavy Thinkpad, which was stolen). For my portable needs these days I have an Asus eee which is much lighter and still lets me do most of what I need to do when I’m out and about. Crumby keyboard though (I bring an Apple one along if I have room). I guess I don’t have a job that requires me to do all that much work away from home though.
FWIW, Apple computers: my original Bondi Blue iMac was still going strong when I got rid of it earlier this year, my old G5 likewise, and it was about 4 years old. My wife’s four-year-old Mac Mini is also fine. Laptops were a different story: dead, all dead.
Ryan
on 29 Dec 08My Mac Pro (3 years old) at work just failed. Well, the USB connectors in the monitor died. So I had to get a USB extension and run it down under my desk to the tower. Blah.
But my MBP and iMac are doing great (only 1.5 years old).
Even if they fail eventually, I think the experience while it does work surpasses anything else. And that will still make me buy Mac.
However, I agree – it’s definitely a terrible statistic.
Jan
on 29 Dec 08I’m using an 11 months old Macbook Pro – without any problems at all.
My previous Macbook is still alive, too. The mainboard had to be changed because of a little coffee incident and the topcase is kind of broken front-right.
Pierre larochelle
on 29 Dec 08I’ve had my MacBook for over 3 years now and it’s chugging along just fine. Once the hard drive broke, but a quick trip to the apple store and a restore from my backup drive and I was on my way again. And really what can you expect from the only moving part in a portable computer?
Eric Vitiello
on 29 Dec 08My first Mac, a PowerMac G4 Dual 450, still is running with the original hard drive, and everything is stll running wonderfully (althoug it has a total of three drives in it now, and has been upgraded to 1GB of memory)... although one of the USB ports seems to have died in the past couple years. I bought a PCI USB card to alleviate that problem. Otherwise, it’s perfect still.
the_bat
on 29 Dec 08PowerPC 6100 bought 12 years ago still working, although it’s been through a couple of CRT monitors and about 3 power supplies. Currently in use as a little workgroup server and for bookkeeping. G4 tower from about 3 years ago, working fine. iBooks, however. First one, a G3 snow, died from logic board stroke. Second one, a G4 snow has a problem with the wire that connects the inverter to the screen light. Move the screen too far forwards and it goes black. Closing the lid, putting it in “sleep”, and then re-opening it fixes it until you jiggle it a bit too much or move it a bit too far forwards again. I have the cable to fix that (goes from power inverter to screen), but have not yet worked up the courage to take it apart and do it.
Aside from all this, comparing my experiences with Mac as compared and contrasted with the WinTel machines friends and associates use keeps me in the Mac cadre.
o
Marisa
on 29 Dec 08I’ve had terrible luck with Mac hard drives – I assume I’m just cursed.
My iPod HD skipped and made constant whirring and clicking noises (Apple refused to replace it w/o charging a 15% restocking fee, so I’ve just dealt). I also had my HD stop booting on a 2-mo-old PowerMac G5 (warranty replaced) and my work MacbookPro had a problem with frequent freezes/shut-downs that I didn’t bother to diagnose, but think was also HD-related (it made that distinctive “HD is failing” clunking sound, too). I quit that job about 2 months after I got the laptop, so I’m not sure how that one worked out.
All in all, I’ve decided I just have some kind of black magic with ‘em, and have given up. I deal with the iPod’s flakiness, but have a personal Dell laptop and a PC I built myself.
Johannes
on 29 Dec 08Every computer (or one of its components) my family or I owned in the last ten years failed at some point. The only exceptions so far are my 2005 iMac and my father’s 2003/2004 Sony VAIO (and my 2008 MacBook).
Diego
on 29 Dec 08Over the last three years I had a bunch of Apple computers: Powerbook, Macbook Pro, Macbook, iMac, and new revisions of them. Every single one failed at certain point. Apple did responded well to the issues by exchanging the computer or fixing it but still is a pain to have a new computer sent in to tech support so they can fix it. My last MBP replacement had a scratch on it but decided to keep it anyway because it was working.
I really think this is not an Apple only issue but it’s a bit lame that a company that charges a premium for quality deploys so many faulty products.
Brendan
on 29 Dec 08First, I’ve owned nearly countless PCs from various vendors. I’ve also owned many Macs over the years. In short, Apple’s quality is consistently better than the PCs. I spend less time and have less pain on average with my Macs than I’ve had with nearly every PC I’ve owned.
Macs are not flawless – and we’re nuts to expect them to be. On the other hand, the only problems I’ve had in the last 5-8 years were bad memory I bought from someone other than Apple and a LCD problem with my first PowerBook. The rest of the machines, my current PowerBook, my G4/G5, my iMac – including those where I’ve worked over the years – run like champs.
Mike
on 29 Dec 08I also just got the new MBP and I’m still waiting on the Dual-DVI Adapter to arrive. So far, it’s been nothing but problems. Overheating, weird noises, wifi, display, logic board…the list goes on and on. However, I think I finally got a working unit!
Ryan
on 29 Dec 08Haven’t tried a Mac yet. I’ve got a Dell that I bought 4 1/2 years ago for $500 and it’s still running strong.
Paul Campbell
on 29 Dec 08I like the idea that when a mac fails, it fails. There’s no slow boot time, or dodgy window that pops up every now and then …. when it’s dead, it’s dead. That’s how technology should be. It either works, or it doesn’t
Sid
on 29 Dec 08I haven’t read all your comments (just the first 30 or so) so im not sure if anyone’s brought this up, but what is the “Lifetime” of a mac or any other computer? surely it’s not as long as you can stand to see the thing? I mean, as a business, I’m sure Dell/Apple/etc. all have a number in their books stating that ‘for optimal profits, our product needs to last X years’, where X would be a number that strikes the right balance between ‘Wow, this laptop is going strong after X years’ and ‘I need a new computer, I’ve had this one now for X years’ and that balance would obviously tend to favour the result that ended in you buying a new computer. For performance computers like the higher end dells/macbook pros/etc. I think about 2 years is what the companies are shooting for, considering their use and the new rate at which ‘new’ technology gets introduced. I myself have had a MacBook Pro for about a 16 months now that doesn’t have any issues now, except for the DVD ROM refusing to recognize the odd disc, which Is also a firmware issue, I think.
Ralph Haygood
on 29 Dec 08Only one of seven Mac laptops owned by me or my partner has ever failed badly. That was an iBook G3, which died at somewhat over three years old. Our oldest at present is an iBook G4 that will be four years old in February. Its FireWire port occasionally fails to work for no apparent reason, but it’s fine otherwise. We have a problem right now with a four-month-old MacBook Pro whose fan rattles. We’ll probably lose the use of the computer for a week while the fan is replaced.
I’ve had worse luck with Mac Minis. Two of four have had major problems, which were eventually solved by replacing various parts.
MB
on 29 Dec 08Who uses the same hardware for 4 years straight these days? Although, I’ve had a MBP for 2 years now and still can’t justify upgrading. Zero issues with it so far, knock on wood.
Rob Cameron
on 29 Dec 08My first Macbook (which I got the month they came out, back in May of 06 I think) had the harddrive die in the first 6 months and had an issue with the screen flickering for the first couple minutes after booting up. Apple replaced the power inverter and it was okay for a little while, then started back up and still flickers to this day (although it does come and go where it won’t do it for a month or so).
Just got a new unibody Macbook Pro so I’m keeping my fingers crossed! That sucks that everyone says “buy Apple Care.” That means all their products automatically cost an extra $350 just to have them run for three years? That’s horrible! Although I will look into buying it before my default one year coverage is up.
Sunil
on 29 Dec 08I think if someone does a comparison of failure rate between a laptop and desktop, I bet failure rate of laptop would be much higher. This could in part be attributed to the way a laptop is used versus desktop. I’ve seem failure rates on my laptops have gone down considerably when I made the following changes: 1) have a good quality laptop bag(with sufficient padding on all side) – this is really important for person like me who carries the laptop back-and-forth from work to home every day, and 2) have docking station (with monitor) – of course this is good ergonomically also(especially if you spend long hours on laptop).
Mark
on 29 Dec 08Since Fall, 2005:
2 iMac G5s. 1 still doing well (and is always on), the other is starting to show vertical lines on the LCD. The one that is doing fine had the SuperDrive fail its first week, after importing a slew of CDs. Took to Apple Store and they mirrored and swapped it. MacBook from Fall, 2006: Lost the A key, touchpad button started sticking after a year-and-a-half. Otherwise doing fine. Bought a new MacBook last spring (2008) on Amazon – REALLY shoddy case, upturned corners on surface, flawed spacebar, sticky touchpad button. Had to return it to Amazon. Bought one in Apple Store instead. That one, which is my current machine, has had an issue with the camera light turning on until its rebooted. Otherwise OK.Mark
on 29 Dec 08FYI – I used * as bullets with double-line breaks in between in my previous comment. All lines merged into one paragraph. Not what I expected to see.
Steven Chau
on 29 Dec 08Currently using a MBA for all my work. I love the form, but really hate how it slows to a crawl when the system is overloaded from watching video. Still have a working iBook G4 that had its battery replaced after 4 years. The G5 tower is my only disappointment. After upgrading the OS, the fan became extremely loud.
Dean J
on 29 Dec 08Sounds like you’re trying to falsely prop up your faith, not “renew” it.
My iBook died four times before Apple saw fit to just replace it. My iPod 3rd gen, well, five times under warranty, and a sixth final death. Bah.
Josh Santangelo
on 29 Dec 08My 12” Powerbook G4 is still ticking, and I see lots of them in coffee shops out and about.
The 15” dual-core that I’m typing this on survived having an entire cup of tea spilled into it, and worked fine after a couple weeks of drying.
However during those weeks, I bought a new machine, and the keyboard and trackpad promptly went out. And I’ve heard plenty of tales of people having multiple logic board replacements and whatnot. So I feel pretty lucky overall.
I’m getting a new MacBook Pro soon, and I’m hoping the unibody goodness holds up.
Regarding the original post, I think 3-4 years is a reasonable time for a heavily-used piece of hardware to hold up, but probably not much more than that. Consider the number of knocks your laptop gets, even when its in cases and things, and how delicate its parts are, and it’s amazing they last even that long.
Dean
on 29 Dec 08Sounds like these computers were either in a dusty or smokey (ie, cigarette smoke) environment without being cleaned. Sure death.
Kegan
on 29 Dec 08I have bought 5 Macbooks and 1 Macbook Pros since Aug 2007.
5 of them had failed in less than 1 year, in one way or another (hdd failure, memory). The Macbook Pro had failed twice.
But they are still great machines though :)
Bengo
on 29 Dec 08Out of nine Macs and one Laserwriter II (still going strong after 23 years), I would say one failed at middle age and one failed at year 7. We have done some overhaul work on a couple, since we’re handy—for example, installing a heat sink in a Wall Street laptop. We had the CD drive fail in a Blueberry. Others were retired and replaced or are still in service.The G3s and G4s have been great.
I have destroyed a lot of keyboards from hard typing.
We’ve had one top of the line non-Mac PC and it was rubbish.
You are right to compile a lot of data and see what people say. I’m sorry things didn’t go well for you.
Bengo LilNyet.com webcomic
Martin Alderson
on 29 Dec 08Not a great story for me either. Got an iBook G3 a few years ago when I was first dipping my toes in the OS X world which died 3 times in a row with logic board failures.
Got an iBook G4 which hard drive failed. Then sold it and got a MacBook when they first announced the move to Intel. The hard drive in that failed and the battery doesn’t work so it’s more a Mac Mini now with a nice display, keyboard and mouse.
Am looking at an upgrade to a Macbook Pro but really not too sure these days.
Henry Phan
on 29 Dec 08I’m typing this on a Powerbook G4 that’s running perfectly fine despite being used daily since mid-2005 and getting dropped onto asphalt from four feet up several times.
This thing is awesome.
Lucas Rockwell
on 29 Dec 08My PB 5300 was a total pile, but since then (Performa 6360, PMac 9600, B&W G3, Quicksilver G4, two iBook G4s, and now MacBook) I have only had one HD failure, on one iBook after almost 3 years.
Nathaniel Bibler
on 29 Dec 08I’m typing this on a MacBook Pro 15” 2.4GHz, late 2007 model. No issues at all. When I purchased this one, my wife inherited my “old” PowerBook G4, 15” FW800 machine, it’s been solid since the initial purchase in July of 2004. I’ve had no problems at all with either of them. Although, since my wife has inherited the PowerBook, the power cord connection seems to be getting weaker – she likes to walk around the house with the power cord plugged in, dragging the brick on the floor behind her. :-\
I’ve had no problems with either of my iPods (3G and 5.5G). Although, my wife got a 5G iPod that came from the factory with issues. After reporting the list of problems to Apple, they had us drive into the local Apple store where they promptly traded it out for a new one that has been since been perfect.
Phil
on 29 Dec 08I am not sure if compiling anecdotal evidence will get you anywhere. In addition to Consumer Reports rating Apple laptops and desktops as most reliable for 7 years in a row, PC Magazine has been surveying users (a more scientific measure) and Apple for a number of years has been most reliable and “Significantly better than average”. Here is a link to the most recent Notebook ratings.
Apple is also rated by Consumer Reports and PC Magazine as best support and service if something does go wrong.
While it is a bummer when your machine goes bad or if you have a string of bad luck, you are still much better off with an Apple product than the alternatives.
Barry Goldberg
on 29 Dec 08David and I probably have something in common, in that we tend to pick up new machines as they’re released, and then trickle down to family and friends. I too have have had problems with reliability, and I’ve come to the conclusion hat it’s related to early adoption. When a new product comes out, it takes several months to sort out production and firmware and software issues. I’m tired of carrying the burden of bug sorting considering how much I’ve invested into the gear over the last 15 years. I now wait 7 months after a new release to side/upgrade and my problems have decreased considerably. Oh, and AppleCare has been worth its price on every machine I’ve ever bought.
padawan
on 29 Dec 08The only problem I’ve got on desktop macs was once a DOA hard drive. My G5 is 5-year old and runs perfectly well. I keep desktop macs for 4 years on average.
Portable Macs are more prone to HW issues. So far I’ve got: quality issues (notably the titanium PowerBook G4 and its bad coating and non-closing latch), one dead motherboard (same PB G4), several hard drive failures (but all by my fault, dropped on the floor, one survived though), back-lighting issues on late MBP (recognized but unfixed). And last, but not least, absolutely crappy batteries 100% of the time: for the last 3 years I’ve never got a battery that lasted more than 12-16 months and my latest is even DOA (problem is recognized by Apple and they’re replacing them on certain MBP-early 2008).
My feeling is that Apple has always had QA issues, it’s never been stellar at quality especially with first generation products. And those issues may have increased as their machines get more complex and smaller. This said, no other computer manufacturer is any better at that, and Apple does fix things relatively quickly (once you get them to recognize the problem). General tip: always buy an AppleCare contract with a portable (but you can skip it for a desktop machine).
Gaurav Sharma
on 29 Dec 08Occasionally flickering video out on current iMac, Mighty Mouse trackball scrolling often gets “stuck”, Second RAM slot in my brother’s MBP failed Keyboard issues on a friend’s MBP.
Would be nicer if they made the hardware more reliable. They have a failure rate higher than some (Lenovo come to mind) but they’re probably about average for the industry.
What’s good is often they process for fixing the issue is pain free (even better if an Apple store is nearby) if in warranty. However they should get rid of the AppleCare gimmick and make it standard (at least on the Pro line) – 3YR warranties are now standard issue on higher end hardware across the rest of the industry.
Andrey Tarantsov
on 29 Dec 08MacBooks: never any problems both for me and my friends (something like 5 machines in total, both black and white).
MacBook Pro: strange noise causing freezes, graphic card problems (scrolling issues), keyboard and touchpad stopped working, superdrive stopped recognizing DVD-R’s.
Planning to buy another MB Pro regardless of the issues.
Ray Brown
on 29 Dec 08I’ve had my Powerbook for 4 years now, and have been heavily abusing it the whole time. It has carried the burden of rendering animations, stitching together 1.2GB panoramas, and working with 500MB Photoshop files regularly…all with 512MB of ram, with no real problems.
Tim Harding
on 29 Dec 08I’ve had 3 Apple laptops over 7 years. iBook G3, 12” PowerBook G4 and a 1st generation 13” MacBook.
They’ve all failed and been fixed at least twice under AppleCare. All three are still working though my sister just replaced the iBook with a MacBook because it was too slow.
I’ve had no issues with my Mac Mini which must be at least 3 years old.
I figure I just beat the crap out of the laptops by using them as primary computers and carrying them around everywhere with me… I consider AppleCare mandatory with a laptop.
Chad Humphries
on 29 Dec 08I’ve been pretty lucky on all but my most recent machine. I’ve often wondered if the increased rate of failure is a symptom of the fact we practically leave these laptops on 24×7?
A few years ago the laptop was my ‘not at a desktop’ solution, now it’s my only machine.
Ian
on 29 Dec 08Most of mine have help up pretty well (except when I broke them) though I’ll now be living in constant fear since I’ve commented on this thread :-)
I do think it’s unfair to blame them for hard drive failures, you shouldn’t count those. It’s the same Maxtors that are in every other computer and hard drives fail no matter what computer their in.
Merms
on 29 Dec 08Mine has original Imac all in one has been going since 2004.
Michael Clark
on 29 Dec 08My 4.5 year old PowerBook G4 went back under AppleCare at about 2 years old for a dead hard drive. My 4 year old iMac went back for a bad logic board at 3.1 years old, replaced under warranty by Apple. My current iMac is running fine so far at 3 months old.
I always buy refurbished computers from Apple, and for laptops, I always buy AppleCare.
Jiah Mazok
on 29 Dec 08This post is definitely not gonna appear on http://www.apple.com/hotnews/
david in portland
on 29 Dec 08Hi, I hadn’t thought about it until reading your post, but as much as I think I love my Mac hardware, it really isn’t reliable.
1. iMac from 2002 worked fine and was sold for upgrade 2. Powerbook 12” from 2003 worked fine and was sold for upgrade 3. Powerbook 15” had one RAM slot fail and necessitated me buying a backup laptop (repair was covered; 1200 for backup was not) 4. Partner’s 15” PB had display failure 5. Partner’s black Macbook had two major hard drive failures and needed rebuilds both times; no explanation and no offer to replace it. So, we sold it and upgraded 6. My brand new Macbook is working great. My partner’s is having major power supply issues, waking from sleep, and a host of other small, but annoying issues. Geniuses can’t fix it.
So why do we keep buying them … I’m not sure.
Jeremy P
on 29 Dec 08No problems with my G5 Tower, which I used for 3 years. Sold it and bought a Mac Pro. Used it for a little over a year with no problems and needed to be mobile, so I got a MBP. No problems with it for the last year.
I also have had 3 Macbooks over the last several years. I’ve had to have the ac adapter replaced for each one and the battery on one.
Jeremy P
on 29 Dec 08Always buy Applecare for any portable Mac.
Alex B
on 29 Dec 08My PowerBook G4’s bottom DIMM slot burned out, leaving me with only 1GB capacity. Apparently this is a pretty common problem for that line. Another thing I’ve noticed is that the screen hinges start to wear out and the top starts to get a bit “floppy.” This has happened with my PowerBook and MB Air, although I guess it’s tough to avoid that one.
dennis P (Chicago)
on 29 Dec 08MacBook Pro G4 12” only issue dead batteries, IBook G4 dropped it and it still is working fine, MacBook Pro Intel 17” works great only issue is express card doesn’t like my cheap SSD cards I purchased a few years ago to see what the fuss was about, run 2 XServes at work without issue. Use Thinkpad too but Ubuntu runs on that (only run windows in a vm to support the staff that use it at the office) sorry to hear all the Mac issues for everyone else slight bummer for this fan…
Dan
on 29 Dec 08Apple doesn’t make hard drives. Apple doesn’t make DVD or CD drives. If they died on you how is that Apple’s fault?
Doug S.
on 29 Dec 081. 1Ghz G4 Titanium PowerBook: 1 year: Death by fall. I bought this bad-boy to take with me to school. It was a refurb and it ran beautifully. Was stable, fast (for the day) and rather rugged. It took a 4-foot fall onto solid concrete. The case was cracked open and it was still running. It ran for another 4 months before the damage to the logic board caught up with it.
I gave it to a friend, apparently with a bit of work it ran for another half a year before it died.
2. 1.5Ghz G4 PowerBook: 1.5 years: Still alive. This was a quick replace for the old Titanium. It ran beautifully despite much abuse until the intel switch. I was freelancing at the time and felt in need to upgrade. My brother still uses it. It’s almost 4 years old now.
3. 2.33Ghz MacBook Pro: 2.5 years: Still alive. Runs beautifully. The only issue I’ve had was a fan failed. 24-hours later it was repaired. They also gave me a new battery (it had been failing), and fixed the power button (it was pressed in a bit, but still working fine). All under warranty.
Any computer is a computer. All computers have problems. They all fail, eventually. The measure for me is how the company who makes it acts when a problem happens. I’ve done some IT work at a local library. I’ve had to deal with Windows, Dell, HP, eMachine support… They’re never helpful. They’re never very interested. You’re just another person to deal with before the end of the day.
Mac support people always make me feel as if it actually matters to them. I’ve actually spent an hour once on the phone with an operator as we tried to figure out a way to circumvent international trade laws to get me a laptop as soon as possible (the Titanium had bit the dust 4 weeks before my final project was due and I couldn’t go without one for any length of time).
Dan
on 29 Dec 08You think PCs don’t have components that fail? You should take a look at Consumer Reports list of how over 47,000 customers grade their computers and their reliability. Apple is #1. Plus we have use of the superior OS when they ARE working. So pluses all around if you ask me. Always backup everyday, Mac or PC, and you will be sitting pretty.
matt
on 29 Dec 08dual g4 450mhz tower running for 6+ years w/o issue; powerbook g4 1.5ghz running since release w/o issue
charles
on 29 Dec 08a reason to regain the faith? get real. apple is a large corporation and the likelihood of it creating flawless products gets less and less with time. do yourself a favor and start investing elsewhere
norlan
on 29 Dec 08I have 2 macs here, an imac g5 i bought in singapore and a macbook pro, i did experienced problem with my imac g5 wherein it could not do normal boot, it only boots successfully in safe mode. The apple store guy told me to replace the logic board (which would cost me around 800 USD). I opted on removing ATIRadeon9700.kext from my system and It worked again, however I can no longer take advantage 3D acceleration in my graphics card and some apps won’t work without it, but for development it still works fine though.
me
on 29 Dec 08what have you done to maintain them along the way? Macs need maintenance. repair permissions, run macjanitor, leave it on at night so the OS can run its own maintenance between 3-5am… these simple things have given me perfect mac performance for a decade. two laptops and a G5 desktop all running OSX, beat on them daily with design work.
Jeremy McAnally
on 29 Dec 08I actually have had a perfect run with Macs for about 5-6 years now. The only trouble I had was when the Apple Store repair guy broke my MacBook somehow and they had to give me a brand new one. :)
Jeff Mackey
on 29 Dec 08I have been running my 17” PowerBook G4 since May 2005 with no issues at all (still running Tiger). I love it!
I also own the first gen video iPod, also with no issues (other than a slightly scratched screen).
Chuck Nicholson
on 29 Dec 08Two machines: A 20” iMac G5 from 2004 has been fine with two exceptions: The power supply needed to be swapped out a few years ago(it was part of a recall which they did gratis), and the hard drive became corrupted at some point last year and I needed to reinstall the OS(I was away when it happened and lost some data but still have no idea what caused it—the same HD has been fine ever since). A Macbook from late 2006 needed a hard drive replaced(which it turned out was due to an electrical fault in my apartment’s wiring) and the battery this year started to bubble a little so Apple kindly replaced that for free. Otherwise they have been fine and I have no complaints other than the routine slowness that happens as machines age.
Steve
on 29 Dec 08I can’t say I’ve had a perfect run. My blueberry iMac is still running nicely and it’s something like 7 years old. That’s the kid’s computer now.
My PowerBook G4 lasted 3 years and the display went. No extended AppleCare with that one so that was a write off.
The display on the iBook I bought after that also went after 3 years. Luckily I had the extended warranty and got a new (refurb?) display installed 3 days before the warranty was up. The hard drive failed on that laptop about six months later. I replaced it and, now, six months on, things are fine. Probably not much more than a year left in that one I’d say.
So I guess technically, both those Macs made it to the 3 year mark without issue if only barely.
I’ve had a MacBook for about a year now. No issues yet. Fingers crossed.
I will say that I don’t see this record as much worse than other computer hardware. I beat the crap out of my laptops with travel. Desktops seem to fare better.
Tee Poole
on 29 Dec 08I constantly had that experience with my last four Windows machines (Gateway desktop, Gateway laptop, Sony Vaio laptop, Dell desktop), so in early 2006 I switched to an iMac and a Powerbook. My partner’s got a Mac G5 and a Macbook Pro (upgraded from a G4 and an older Powerbook, which we sold at a decent price in good condition). No failures on any of those four, and the biggest issue in the last three years has been the need for a memory upgrade on the Powerbook.
Happy convert, as have been most of the converts I’ve known over the years, with only a few exceptions. Hang in!
Rio
on 29 Dec 08Why do you still buy Macs if they keep failing? I own a new aluminum MacBook, but not sure how long it is going to last—first time mac User :|
Avdi
on 29 Dec 08I lusted after a MacBook Pro ever since the original TiBook came out. About a year and a half ago I started working at a company that issued MB Pros to developers. In that time I’ve had to have the logic board replaced, and the optical drive has gone decidedly flaky. Looking around at the other MacBooks at the office, the number that have developed problems since I’ve been there – usually display issues – is startling.
After years of wanting a MacBook, the next laptop I purchase will NOT be from Apple. It’ll probably be a Thinkpad which I’ll load with Ubuntu. I still love the physical design of the MBP, but the Apple Tax simply isn’t worth it when life expectancy is this poor.
Oh yeah, and even though we had AppleCare on this machine, when I brought it in and it turned out it needed a new logic board, when I asked the guys at the Apple store to pull the drive and copy some files to a USB disk they demanded more money. So much for the vaunted AppleCare helpfulness.
Michael
on 29 Dec 08My 128k from 1984 still runs although its a little trickier to get 400k floppies now, my SE/30 from around 90 works great as well… no problems with those models ;) I’ve been pretty lucky in general my last macbook just died after 5 years of service.
Jeff Putz
on 29 Dec 08My Mac Pro is two years without any issue, and I rarely turn it off.
My MacBook Pro, which is nearing three years (got it when they first came out) had to be sent in to replace some pieces, potentially from heat issues. But it’s hard to say, because I ripped it open when I got it and did some tricks with the thermal paste. This time around I just use an app to control the fan speed!
But it wouldn’t be fair to blame Apple for any failures, I don’t think. After many years of PC’s that I updated perpetually, they always had parts failing. When they didn’t, it was probably because I’d replace the motherboard, memory and CPU ever 18 months. Rarely would a power supply ever last more than two years. I was always buying new hard drives, about every two years, so who knows what their failure rates would be.
I really think some of the Mac failures come along just because people keep them so much longer, or even resell them.
Richard
on 29 Dec 08Penultimate PowerBook in daily use (over 3 years old, bought used a year ago) running 10.4.11 with no issues except for needing a new battery (500+ cycles on the original one).
1.0 GHz eMac in daily use by a 9- and 11-year-old running 10.4.11 with no issues.
I even have an original Bondi iMac in the garage which saw daily use up until about a year ago: it needed an analog board repair a couple of years ago, but that’s it.
So far, my experience with Apple gear has been great. Ditto with Dell laptops, oddly enough, as this runs contrary to the experience of many others I’ve discussed this with.
Dan Mayer
on 29 Dec 08I have had some issues with my macbook (screen issues). But I have had problems with nearly all laptops i have owned. I never have issues with my desktops really. I think the wear and tear on laptops just gives them a much shorter lifespan. I don’t really expect my macbook to last more than 18 months or so.
I have only known a few people that had laptops that were still alive and kicking strong after a long time… Have you had no issues with other laptops? Did you have a dell laptop or something that worked much longer than your macs have been lasting?
Frank J. Mattia
on 29 Dec 08ive got a dual 2.0 g5 for almost… 8 years now.. a few years back the superdrive started heading downhill (replaced with a generic superdrivealike) and the powersupply has always made this weird chirping noise… aside from that it’s always run like a champion…
my 23” cinema display on the other hand… about 8 months after i bought it the lcd started to separate from the substrate in the top cornerer leaving this darkened patch.. because im lazy i never took it in under warranty. fast forward 2 years – i unplug it one day while on and it never turns back on. the panel apparently went and 500$ later, shes back and running.
cant complain though – for a computer thats almost 8 years old it still runs as fast as anything else i use and can still tear up fcp like nobody’s business. the only reason id ever replace it is if (rather, when) 10.6 snowleopard requires an intel machine.
besides, ive now had to rely on my time machine backups enough to trust them intimately so i no longer really worry about stuff breaking (so long as it isnt my backup drive and harddrive at the same time)(yes it happened)(yes it was my fault)
jankees
on 29 Dec 08Looks like everyone wants to talk about their problems!
My 2 months old MBP’s harddrive started ticking a few days ago. I have a time machine backup luckily.
Joe
on 29 Dec 08Personally the only apple product I own is a ipod nano 3rd gen, which was a gift. Its still going after about a year, but its only put to use about once a month.
I do have a friend (who gave me that nano actually) who converted to apple about a year ago. I have been with him to the ‘genius bar’ 6 times that I can remember, and he constantly is waiting on some replacement part or something. I am nice and don’t rub it in, but I sit in astonishment at the problems he puts up with. Yea, apple is pretty good about replacing stuff, but I would rather have something that works/lasts than a good warranty.
Brian Takita
on 29 Dec 08I’ve had my Dell D820 (with Ubuntu) for almost 3 years and its been working wonderfully. I even dropped it, ruined the hard drive, and Dell simply sent me another one. The only thing was they didn’t send it to me when I was at a conference, but oh well. Dell offers 3+ years of parts replacement, with a fee of course, but whats nice is there is no unreasonable resistance to sending a replacement.
I keep hearing horror stories with the hoops you need to jump through with Apple care.
Soon, I’m going to be upgrade to the Inspiron D4400 quad core.
pwb
on 29 Dec 087 Macs, 3 Dells, 1 Toshiba, 1 VPR Matix.
Broken: 2 Dells, 1 VPR Matrix.
Jakub Pawlowicz
on 29 Dec 08Luckily my 1st gen MacBook Pro is approaching its 3rd birthday next March and beside already replaced dead battery it works just fine.
Reading to all your comments made me think that maybe you stress your macs too much – by dropping them, leaving in inappropriate conditions (humid etc)? At last it’s not a NASA technology which is meant to be survive mission to mars or something.
SomeDude
on 29 Dec 08“Half the problems you posted were hard drive problems; that’s not the fault of any computer manufacturer. Spindle based hard drives are going to fail if handled enough.”
guns said this.
EXACTLY! Why has no one else mentioned this? DHH – you rock. I mean no disrespect, but HD failures are not Apple’s fault. ALL hard drives will fail, it’s just a matter of time.
Raphael Campardou
on 29 Dec 08A post with a title like this… A good way to produce a hhuge quantity of comments…
Well, as far as I’m concerned :
EVERY MAC I’VE OWNED HAS SUCCEDED.
And I’ve owned a lot.
I, also, give the old ones to family and friends: I ran out of family members !
(And yes, HDD failure are not really Apple’s fault, but at least, they’re trying to prevent further loss with time machine…)
Dylan
on 29 Dec 08Apple will repair this under warranty, it’s a faulty Nvidia chip. It hit me twice. After I got a rev2 logic board, no more problems. See http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377
An AAPL and Apple Lover
on 29 Dec 08I had an iBook G4 that died after 1 year and 3 days (if it had been 3 days earlier it would have been under the standard warranty… errr).
I got a MBP in 2006 and it really takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’. I’ve had a whole array of issues but most of it is just the extremely high amount of usage – first it was the magsafe fraying, then a fan died at age 2 years, and this year its been horrific – my HD pauses and makes clicking noises (freezing the computer for 5 min – but I removed some files and now it has stopped [corrupted file maybe?]), and the backlight of the LCD burnt out in November (but it was 3 years old).
I will admit though, that this MBP has been through hell and back – I use it at school every day and it gets a pretty good beating. On average, I would say the MBP runs for at least 12 hours a day, everyday. No joke. I use it ALOT and for EVERYTHING.
Some quick math indicates that my MBP has run at least 13,140 hours since I purchased it in March 2006.
While I guess I have seen a good amount of problems from my mac, at least I have AppleCare and every return I’ve ever had done was a 1-or-2-day turnaround. Even when a part needed to be shipped – the part arrived day 1, the MBP was picked up on day 2. That level of service makes up for any technical difficulties.
Btw – this definitely beats out my Dell 600m purchased in 2003 – that thing was junk and Dell sucked at servicing it (2 week turnaround for under-warranty work, unless I paid something like $150 to rush it to a whopping 4 day turnaround with overnight shipping).
DHH
on 29 Dec 08To the argument that Apple doesn’t make any of the components in the computer and are thus not responsible when they fail: bah. They’re responsible for picking partners and demanding certain quality demands.
My personal experience is just that this didn’t use to be this bad. The first Macs I had, the iBooks, seemed more sturdy and failed less often.
But as Susser mentions, apparently this is par for course and Apple is just in the middle of the pack. Frankly, that’s a bit of a let down for me. I don’t expect Apple to be “middle of the pack”. I expect them to be awesome and better than the rest.
AN@S
on 29 Dec 08Get a VAIO, with Ubuntu installed … perfect for me :)
Thierry Régagnon
on 29 Dec 08It’s been 2 years now that I have my MBP and still no hardware problem (except for the battery which doesn’t last as long). It runs everyday, all day (rarely rebooted), it follows me everywhere I go even when I travel around the world.
Maybe I am lucky, or you are not as careful as I am.
Nils
on 29 Dec 08Not exactly the same type of issues but: I have ordered the new MBP and got four broken ones (Dirt in the display, crooked Trackpad, crashing when under load, crooked lid).
I went from “I don’t really care about Apple” to “I desperately want one” and then to “Stay the hell away from me”
Now I am getting a standard desktop PC with a MSI Wind or similar.
Marijn
on 29 Dec 08Just for the record, my MBP2.4 crashed on me a week ago. No retailer could get it fixed so I’m getting it back the second week in january. Even the fact that it was for a business didnt help in speeding things up. The error is the same, my mac boots but I get a black screen. It seems NVIDIA was responsible for this but I bought a mac and therefore from my perspective my mac died. I can in no way verify that it is just the nvidia chip that dies and I can’t use the entire machine. So all this talk about individual components is nonsense to me. It’s a unique seling point of a mac to have all the hardware picked for you so apple made sure the quality is ok and the whole thing is more durable.
Andrew McCall
on 29 Dec 08I’ve seen similar levels of failure across laptops in general. I’ve worked in a few places where there were lots of laptops and generally they get swapped out every 18 months on average, some more often, some less.
Paul Leader
on 29 Dec 08I’m on my second MacBook. Both have suffered from congenital design flaws and the service has been less than stellar.
The first was one of the cursed G3 MacBooks which suffered three logic board failures in as many years. Each time, the logic board was replaced, but they wouldn’t replace the machine, despite all the evidence being that that model was fundamentally flawed (they gave an extended warranty on that batch).
My current MacBook is a Core 2 (not duo), which had the faulty battery. One day it just stopped working. Took it in for a replacement, but the Mac store couldn’t give me a new battery until the old one had been sent to Apple, leaving me without a battery for about a week, which sucked.
Now the bluetooth adapter is failing and causing the machine to wake from sleep. This also appears to be a design flaw in that class of MacBook, and is heavily documented in the Apple support forums.
These were all systematic flaws in the machines, not normal wear and tear, or the result of being handled roughly.
While Apple support is better than many companies, it still leaves a bad taste in your mouth when they refuse to just replace a faulty unit caused by their design mistake.
Now that the MacBooks have become noticeably more expensive, I can see this one being my last Mac (sadly, I love OS X). I just can’t justify spending that much on a machine that will probably fail within a year.
Ray Drainville
on 29 Dec 08I don’t think you were incredibly unlucky, but there was indeed a patch (it seems) where there were lots of hardware failures, of machines made in the early 2000s.
Based upon my experience, my business partner’s experience & that of lots of other people I know who have Macs, the machines made before this period are quite solid. I have machines that are 9, 13 & 28 years old that still work well. But the 2003 G4 desktop has had no end of problems: logic board in the first year, graphics card failures (twice!) & hard drive failures. A laptop bought in the same year has had lots of problems too.
In our experience, more recent purchases (MBP, Mac Pro) are a lot more solid—by this time already, the the G4 desktop had fried the logic board. Time will tell.
Rachel
on 29 Dec 08I had one of those old bubble eMacs that apart from some occassional screen flicker due to poor shielding, worked really well for 4 years, and I then passed it onto friends and I believe it is still working just fine.
Since then I have a new iMac for a few months now with no problems so fingers crossed it stays that way from what others have said here!
I think the trick is to never buy the latest release technology, but wait for it to get broken in a bit, updates released etc. before investing in it.
MT Heart
on 29 Dec 08My MacBook Air SSD (connected to 23” cinema display) has had zero problems since I bought it in July ‘08 – still loving it.
I have a first generation 5G iPod from 2002 which still works perfectly, on its original battery.
Frank
on 29 Dec 08That is just an awesome thread. The Apple marketing department just did an incredible job. All of you spend a lot of money to get hardware that is less or the same powerfull then pc stuff for half the price. (Just pick one http://tinyurl.com/6lhweg) Then a lot of you have trouble with the gear and still sticking to stuff that is simply often not reliable. Ahmm, logic where are you? You guys got hooked to a fancy brand marketing, some nice looking design pieces and liquid style interface icons.
Alex
on 29 Dec 08I had a Performa 6400 (sold in perfect working order, nearly 7 years old), a first rev iBook G3 (lasted about 5 years until the screen and battery failed) and my current computer which is a first rev iMac G5 (working fine after 5.5 years but had a logic board replacement about 3 years ago).
I’ve used several Macs at work over the years, none of which have failed.
I’ll be getting a MacBook Pro soon. I have the feeling that reliability has declined since the Intel move, but only to the level of regular PCs. Given enough time, the failure rate of all technology is 100%.
Igor
on 29 Dec 08I’ve had some 12 different Macs over the past 15 years or so. None of them ever had a hardware problem. I can’t say the same about the PCs I’ve owned. My first PC, an IBM, was rock solid. You could throw it off a cliff and it would still run. But after the old IBM, most of my PCs broke down after a while.
When I’m done with a Mac, I just sell it or give it to my kids to play with. But even my kids don’t break it. BTW: used Macs still retain decent value, way much more than old PCs.
Martin
on 29 Dec 08I experienced the same display issue a few months ago with the first MacBook Pro I owned after using several models from Dell in the previous years. Since I managed to break all laptops I owned at some time, the Mac’s reliability so far is on par with my expectations. Most other Macs we use at my company have had no issues at all.
But what I couldn’t believe at first was Apple’s customer service. I bought the computer at a local official Apple dealer (in Germany) and they told me that the computer had to be sent in for a simple logic board exchange. What are they thinking am I doing with the computer? Playing songs on iTunes all day long so that it does not matter if I cannot use for a week or two? It’s MacBook Pro after all and I need it to work. I’m more than willing to pay for an extra level of service if things go wrong. But Apple does not even offer that option.
Compare that to Dell’s next-business-day-on-site-service where a technician shows up the next day to fix the machine. I had to use this service several times and it works.
I solved this particular issue by buying a completely new MacBook Pro on the spot since I could not afford the downtime Apple was expecting from me.
Brian
on 29 Dec 08I can’t believe I’m actually reading this on SvN! This has to be the first illogical, not thought out post I’ve seen since I started reading.
ALL computers fail in some way, and a large percentage of them do so early in their lifetimes. Saying “all my Macs have failed” is unnecessarily specific and implies a bias where none exists: it sounds just as ignorant as someone complaint that “all my GE brand lightbulbs have failed- even some I just installed.”
Just like light bulbs, computers (of all types, including Macs) fail. Unlike lightbulbs, not all “failures” are critical though. The difference though is that hardware component failure is more noticeable in Macs because you can’t easily replace most thing yourself. That doesn’t in any way substantiate a claim that the fail sooner. Go visit a Geek Squad workbench (or better yet a small local outsourced IT company like the one I work for in St. Charles) and ask them what the average timespan for a new compter (ANY computer) is before it’ll need some kind of service.
Let me be clear: I’m being critical here bcause I’m used to expecting better. I’m shocked that anyone from 37s would post something that’s quite so narrow-minded. I, exceptimg this single post, I love all their philosophies and their products.
Brian
on 29 Dec 08(And boy do I love typing out long messages on the iPhone. I apologize for the uncaught typos.)
Al
on 29 Dec 08I think Apple generally doesn’t treat the customer right: http://watirmelon.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/evil-apple/
The problem is when you have really unreliable products and it takes forever to fix them.
David
on 29 Dec 08I’ve got a Powerbook G4 hand-me-down that hasn’t given ME any serious trouble, but over the years it’s had almost everything replaced at least once, and the hard drive has started making unnerving clicking noises so I’m upgrading that myself.
Of all my friends who use exclusively mac products (most of them), I can’t think of one who hasn’t had to get something repaired or replaced. I don’t think it’s that Apple makes bad products or anything. It’s just the nature of the technology involved that some of these components will have a significant failure rate over a period of several years.
I’ve honestly seen much better luck with various HP or Dell-made machines, although my own DIY boxes have had a much higher-than-normal fail rate: I maintained a home-built gaming rig over a period of 7 years till it finally became obviously more cost-effective to just start building an all-new machine from scratch. But during that time, I went through [hardware failures] 5 motherboards, 2 sound cards, several monitors, 8 hard drives (at least), a couple keyboards, 3 high-end mice, several power supplies, and at least a couple optical drives.
Brian here is right: there isn’t any abnormally high rate-of-failure with macs (although anecdotally it might sound like there is). Bottom-line: computer hardware fails after a while. Sometimes it takes a bit longer.
Jonathan Buys
on 29 Dec 08I gave my old iBook G4 that I bought in 2002 to my parents a couple of years ago, and from what they say it still runs like a charm.
My MacBook has not been so smooth, I got a first generation and had several problems with it. Since the last trip to the Apple Store, things seem to be running fine.
Anonymous
on 29 Dec 08I have a PowerBook G4 12’’ that is running fine and a PowerBook G4 15’’ which is fine except a bad battery. It’s out of warranty so I can’t repair it. Never had any major bugs pop up.
Nate Lanier
on 29 Dec 08My Macbook (March 08) has never had a problem – Knock on Wood. I have an 800 MHZ Dell machine that I purchased in 2000 that still runs like the day it was new.
Jeff Rummel
on 29 Dec 08I have a 7.5 year old G4 with maxed out ram and 2 harddrives. It still runs like a champ. Also a 1 year old macbook that has yet to give me any problems.
NotAMacUser
on 29 Dec 08I don’t know about you, but I would be incredibaly pissed to pay $2k for a macbook pro and have these issues. Warranty or not, they can’t replace valuable data lost in a hard drive failure. Guess there really is no value in higher priced gadgets. Its a facade. A $499 laptop works just as well as a $2k one for normal business use. But that’s where Windows has the advantage. You’re not locked into proprietary hardware. Honestly, without the iPod and iPhone, Apple would have been dead and gone a long time ago.
OSX Leopard is seemingly a fine OS, installable on comparable Intel hardware. One wonders why Apple sticks to this archaic propreitary nature when its clear their hardware is not all that more reliable then the next cheap chinese PC. If they positioned OSX as a direct threat to Windows, one must wonder what things may come….
Scott Nedderman
on 29 Dec 08My laptop display stopped working last week after a failed upgrade to 10.5.6. I “fixed” it by connecting it to an external monitor and then clicking “Detect Displays” from the Display control panel.
Daniel Massicotte
on 29 Dec 08My experiences with a Mac are such that when it comes down to the unfixable problems with how Windows and errors, Mac doesn’t do the job either. It’s as though we’re bound to have problems with OS’s all the time. Just have to live with them.
Chris Kalafarski
on 29 Dec 08I have a 2004 G4 12”PB that is still running extremely well, save the battery. Honestly every time I use it I’m amazed at how nicely things like the screen hinge, display, etc still perform. I replaced the HD just to get some more space a while back.
I also have a 2001 G3 iMac that works, well, like a G3 from 2001. Well enough for a net-box in the kitchen or something. Definitely no issues with it failing though, which is impressive for a computer with no fan I think
Jeremy Weathers
on 29 Dec 08I don’t recall having a single lemon Mac in the last 15 years. Most of the Macs I’ve used were passed down at least a couple times to people who could still make use of them.
A couple years ago, I found out a friend was still using the Color Classic that I used in college about 15 years ago.
At the beginning of the year, my grandmother stopped using her PowerMac 7200 (80MB RAM, 500MB HDD) because it was finally too slow for her. That machine is at least 10 years old.
Up until a few months ago, there was a PowerMac G4 still running at the office as a scanning station – we turned it off because we needed the space for other things.
The iBook G3/500 from 2002 is still in use. I used it for a couple years, gave it to my wife, she passed it on to her sister, and now their mother is using it.
The original 17” PowerBook G4 I bought in ‘03 is still in use and seems to have many years of life left, although its battery no longer keeps a charge. That being said, I did have to replace the logic board when the Firewire port failed in early ‘05.
My wife’s Macbook hasn’t had any problems since we bought it almost 2 years ago.
My current iMac has not had any problems since buying it just over a year ago.
Petros Amiridis
on 29 Dec 08OMG! I was persuaded by the Rails community, and especially you guys, and I was really considering the switch from PCs… and now you David… you start having doubts? OMG! :-)
OK, I have been using various computers since 1989: Amstrad CPC 6128 (Drive failed after many years), Amiga 500 (Sold never failed), Amiga 2000 (Still working), 486 (HDD failure), Pentium (Never failed), Pentium 4 (Never failed), Noname local store laptop (Monitor failure), Noname local store laptop (Still working), Asus EEEPC 1000 (Still working but very recently bought).
I am not sure about the rate of failure of Apple products, but I think one of the differences is that if you make your own PC, you can at least go out, buy what you need and replace it, whereas in the case of an Apple product, you have to wait their support to deal with your problem or buy a new Apple if you are in a hurry.
Furthermore, if you live in a strange exotic country, like I do, where Apple’s presence is not very prominent, you start wondering if switching to Apple products is a good idea. Especially after reading this post.
Stefan Seiz
on 29 Dec 08I’ve had various Apple Laptops since the PowerBook 100 and none of them ever died early. All lasted > 2 years easily, except if i dropped them on the floor like my 12” which is nothing Apple can do about. Of course, it is normal, that a HardDisk will fail after a certain time. Maybe i was just lucky.
Chris
on 29 Dec 08I’m not really a Mac fan, but I wouldn’t necessarily hold hard drive or DVD drive failures against Apple. Any hardware with mechanical components will eventually fail, especially with a laptop that’s constantly jostled around. That’s simply a limit of the technology.
Joe Clarke
on 29 Dec 08My last MacBook Pro failed three days after a kitten spilled coffee on it. So it wasn’t totally the MacBook’s fault.
Paul
on 29 Dec 08This is definitely one of those things that can be obscured by marketing and/or remedied by good service.
My Macs:
G4 Cube: Had the infamous power switch gasket problem which eventually took the stock HD with it. This was my first Mac and this happened on the very first day, but I was able to fix it myself. 20” iMac G5: Random freezes. Sometimes didn’t want to sleep. Not terrible, but not great. MacBook: Dead pixels (replaced under warranty.) SuperDrive got finicky (replaced under warranty.) Doesn’t want to sleep sometimes. Plastic edge near the sleep light is broken. Sometimes wonky USB. Still love the thing to pieces. iBook G4 (wife’s): Spilled water in keyboard. Still works. But the battery was recalled and replaced, the monitor sometimes just dies, and the new battery lasts less than an hour without being plugged in at this point.iPods:
2nd gen 20GB: Headphone jack started to deteriorate and eventually became unusable unless the jack itself was held down with pressure. 5th gen 30GB: Random lockups prior to the latest couple of software updates. Occasional battery kaput-ness; will ‘charge’ for 8 hours and then last about, ah, 10 minutes. Going to replace the battery myself. iPod shuffle (wife’s): Simply died about 3 months after the warranty expired. Doesn’t play, doesn’t charge.Funny, but when it’s looked at this way, it sure looks like crap.
Stephan Riess
on 29 Dec 08The quality of MACs seem to drop just the last few years. i.e. the battery of my Macbook Pro went south when it was just 16 month old. My Pismo from 2000 still works fine, even the battery is still not completely flat. We have also an old iBook which my father gave to his sister, which is still running nicely. I had many issues with G5 Towers, which was sad because I promoted these machines in the office. Now we use iMacs, and they are doing fine (Knock on wood…)
Nate Burgos
on 29 Dec 08I still use my Powerbook G4, an oldie but goodie. It’s the 12-inch version, a size that I miss in the Mac laptop line.
Matt White
on 29 Dec 08Fortunately my MBP is still running strong, and it’s a first-gen 1.83ghz model. I had some battery trouble within the first year, but Apple replaced my battery and I haven’t had trouble since. A co-worker’s MBP lost it’s display after about 2 years, and we had to send it in to get replaced (no AppleCare, so it was out of pocket ). Overall, compared to the PC experiences in my past (current MBP is still my first Mac) I’ve spent a whole lot less money, and more importantly less time, dealing with technical problems on my laptop.
arturo
on 29 Dec 08I’ve owned at least 10 Macs since 1996 and the only Mac I ever had a severe problem with was with a G5 tower. I have to the say the best performing would be the newer iMacs. My MacBook Pro’s battery went before it’s time, but it was replaced under the warranty.
I’d have to say I’ve been more happy than naught with my purchases.
Michael Larkin
on 29 Dec 08I’ve had my MacBook Pro for over a year now, and no issues at all. My wife has had her MacBook going on three years, and it’s survived lawschool, many trips around the country, and hours upon hours of use with no issues. Her previous laptop (a Dell) crapped out after about a year and all she did was surf the net and type papers.
I was hardly able to keep any of my PC’s running for more than a year without having to do some major work to the OS (like wiping it out and starting fresh). And I’m pretty careful about how I run things. For most of my friends and family, running their PC’s is an uncertain adventure at any given moment, and it seems like performance degrades considerably even though they aren’t filling the computer up with games or music or anything like that.
I’ve had a few friends have “bad luck” with Macs, but not nearly as many (99%) who have worse problems with PCs.
Dave Taylor
on 29 Dec 08I work/own an Apple Authorized Dealer and Auth. Service Provider in Cherry Hill, NJ. We’ve dealt with Mac’s since the beginning. They all break somehow, it’s the nature of the device.
Having written that, it is definitely not predictable what will break, or in what way. Hard drives all die, power supplys are frequent, logic boards go; but some machines still continue to run without fail.
I can’t equivocally tell you that Mac’s last longer or break less than various window’s boxes, as 98% of our experience is with Apple product, but I can say that about 9 out of 10 mac’s we see, never see our bench for repairs…just upgrades.
And we have many, many, customers with all generations of Mac’s still running, and doing there job’s (pun :) day in and day out.
And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
mark
on 29 Dec 08PowerMac G3 (1998) has worked since Day 1. Running Tiger via xpostfacto.
PowerMac G4 (2002) has had two problems – hard drive died but knew it was coming; power supply died the day the whole house lost power. All hard drives die; I’m not sure I’d blame that on Apple. Found power supply (free!) so running again with Tiger.
TiPowerbook screen came off its hinge after 5 years of solid uptime.
MBP perfect for 2 months.
Marcos
on 29 Dec 08My Mac laptops have had problems. Desktops have all been fine – my G4/400 Sawtooth is still going strong, albeit slowly.
My iBook G3/600 had a backlight problem, which I managed to get fixed – then the hard drive died and I didn’t want to deal with replacing it so I sold it for parts (it was at that point relegated to an iTunes machine for the stereo, a role that the AppleTV took over anyway.)
My iBook G4/1.2 GHz had several combo-drive problems (fixed under Applecare) before it started freezing up upon connect an ethernet cable. I requested a replacement at that point (last summer), and got the Macbook I have now. Which, is running fine but I’m getting the cracked plastic problem in a few places which I haven’t dealt with yet. Oh, I guess the HD died too on the Macbook but it was 1 day before a bigger HD upgrade arrived from OWC so I didn’t bother with contacting Applecare.
Anyway, for these reasons, I always suggest Applecare with laptops. I don’t know if it’s the rough and tumble or what, but they seem a bit fragile sometimes. I’m going to get an iMac at some point … and since the display is built in I’m strongly considering Applecare on it too. Oh, for the Mythical Mid-Range Mac Minitower.
Nathan Fitzsimmons
on 29 Dec 08Similar experiences for me. If it wasn’t for OS X, I would’ve switched long ago. My brother also has similar problems but is more of a fanboy so won’t admit it. I do have other friends and relatives that haven’t had problems, though, so maybe we’re just unlucky.
Paul K
on 29 Dec 08Not going to bolster your desire for apple hardware to be reliable. I’ve owned an (white) iBook, a MacBook (1st gen) and now a new MBP and have had hard drive failures on all three, usually within the first few months. Thankfully after the loss of some rather important data the 1st time, I’ve made backing up everything a requirement.
Mmmm
on 29 Dec 08Mmmm …. so have they become less reliable since the big switch? I have an old G4 Powerbook here that has not so much as hiccuped. Must be at least five years old now
Ernie Franic
on 29 Dec 08You know, all of you folks complaining about hard drive failures ought to note that APPLE DOESN’T MAKE HARD DRIVES.
I know people that have had Apple-bundled drives fail… those were Seagate and Hitachi laptop drives.
But personally – I’ve purchased a number of drives and had them fail. At least 4 Samsung Spinpoints, 2 Seagate 500GB drives, 2 Quantum SCSI drives, 2 Seagate 73GB 10K SCSI drives…. the bottom line is that hard drives in general suck. Can’t blame that on Apple.
You can go buy a Dell tomorrow, and it’ll have the same crappy drive brands that are in your Mac today. And sooner or later, the drive will fail.
Backup backup backup.
Justin H
on 29 Dec 08I’ve never actually had a mac fail on me …
My main computer is a G4 Macbook, purchased in 2003. It has a large dent from hitting a CTA turnstile and is missing the (“) key ala my illustrious cat. The computer sits in my kitchen (where I do all my blogging/cooking) and is on 24 hours a day. It’s never had a problem.
I’ve also purchased a Mac Mini for my parents. It, too, has been on 24 hours a day since 2004. Never a problem.
I even had a Mac TV—apple’s only black desktop produced months before they came out with the PowerPC (I believe I purchased it in 1994). I used it as a Linux box for years before finally reinstalling the original OS and shipping it off to a museum (for a whopping $350) last summer.
Now, (excluding my poor cat-damaged laptop) I try to take excellent care of my computers. And I’ve been extremely happy with the results. In the same time-frame I’ve had to replace at least 4 PCs.
Justin H
on 29 Dec 08I’ve never actually had a mac fail on me …
My main computer is a G4 Macbook, purchased in 2003. It has a large dent from hitting a CTA turnstile and is missing the (“) key ala my illustrious cat. The computer sits in my kitchen (where I do all my blogging/cooking) and is on 24 hours a day. It’s never had a problem.
I’ve also purchased a Mac Mini for my parents. It, too, has been on 24 hours a day since 2004. Never a problem.
I even had a Mac TV—apple’s only black desktop produced months before they came out with the PowerPC (I believe I purchased it in 1994). I used it as a Linux box for years before finally reinstalling the original OS and shipping it off to a museum (for a whopping $350) last summer.
Now, (excluding my poor cat-damaged laptop) I try to take excellent care of my computers. And I’ve been extremely happy with the results. In the same time-frame I’ve had to replace at least 4 PCs.
Jason Medeiros
on 29 Dec 08My (positive) track record so far.
iBook G4 12’’ (5 years) – In use and works fine. G4 Mac mini (4 years) – In use and works fine. Macbook (2 years) – In use and works fine (even survived a spill). Macbook Air (1 year) – In use and works fine.
Donald Andrew Agarrat
on 29 Dec 08First of all, I’m sorry for your loss. I know it can be pretty frustrating when your computer fails, especially when it fails unexpectedly.
I have yet to own an Intel-based Mac. I’m still running my PowerBook G4 (12-inch) and my PowerMac G4 (AGP Graphics) with 10.4.10 pretty smoothly (maxed the RAM out in both), but I’m still very selective about what I run on them. I tend to avoid software with Leopard-only upgrades, if I upgrade at all. Usually, the feature set just isn’t worth it. I’m also pretty good at regularly getting rid of stuff I don’t use and archiving stuff so that I’m running the leanest System possible.
I’m also not the Apple fanboy that I used to be, having an inside view of their programmed obsolescence – but hey, I guess they have to keep makin’ that dough. (And it does seem to have worsened.) Still, I wouldn’t rule out an Intel-based Mac or two in my future … who knows? When I compare operating systems, there’s still no comparison.
sfenerule
on 29 Dec 08David,
It had to happen to somebody. I expect I’ll sing the Mac Blues at some point, but this has been my experience (NB – all units have been run plugged into a UPS):
1) TAM purchased on close-out, 1997. Ran with issues I’d associate with System 9 (9.1). Power supply burned out after EOL Apple repairs were discontinued. Surge containment failure at the UPS – white smoke from the outlets on the UPS told the tale. No joy from the UPS company. No longer in service, conversation piece value only.
2) Indigo G3 ‘9/11’ iMac 400 – still going strong with its current owner. Panther OS.
3) Sawtooth Gig Ethernet dual G4 450 – no issues. FCP training wheels machine with upgraded boot drive. HD failure after 4 years near-constant uptime. Panther OS.
4) Two PPC, one x86 interim Mac minis, all since either sold or donated – all still reported running with no problems. Bluetooth mouse with x86 mini running early Leopard would get ‘lost’ switching users – issue resolved with system update. PPC – Tiger, x86 – Leopard.
5) white MacBook 2.1GHz – current machine – bought for FW availability, & on price; November 2008. No issues thus far. Most pleasant surprise – runs cooler than I thought it would.
Scott Schuckert
on 29 Dec 08I’ve probably had 30+ Macs go through the house since 1984; I’ve never had a failure that I couldn’t put down to wear and tear or misuse. Hard drives die eventually; I see it in other people’s computers. I guess I upgrade to larger ones frequently enough to avoid this. Current champs in the house are a Blue-and-White that’s been running as a file server since 1999, and a Titanium G4 laptop I’ve carried around since 2002.
Oh, and a 1983 Lisa that’s still starts up from it’s original 5 MB ProFile HD.
Ryan
on 29 Dec 08I bought my first laptop over two years ago. It was a Compaq Pressario 1330v. The integrated video card ceased functioning after about a year and a half. Previously, I had had difficulties with an HP (which owns compaq) desktop. As a result, I desided to leave the pc for a Mac. I bought the macbook 2.4 ghz with 160 gig HD. So far so good.
I have to admit that I’m surprised about all of your troubles with macs. The primary reason I made the switch was because I had heard that macs are very reliable.
I hope your bad luck isn’t widespread.
Randall L
on 29 Dec 08As a pro photographer I have used Macs for over 15 years and have never had a true failure. In the studio I now have a MacPro, a G5, a Macbook pro and a iMac all still doing the job. The imac’s (white lamp head) dvd burner does not work but it is 8 years old is used for checking in customer and sales only. I have 2 G4 towers and 2 blue and white G3 they were working fine when retired.I did have to have a screen replaced on a iBook but it was 2 years and under AppleCare.
Girma Moges
on 29 Dec 08I’ve had a 12” Aluminum Powerbook kicking around for something like six years by now? The most reliable computer I’ve ever bought, to be quite honest, but a single data point is just that.
vinnie
on 29 Dec 08Powerbook G3 – Ran great from 1999-2004 when we got rid of it.
Core Duo Macbook (2006) – Ran just fine until I spilled water on it. Sold it for parts, and the guy I sold it to got it running again.
Core 2 Duo Macbook (late 07) – Still running great, typing on it now.
iPhone first gen – Still going strong after a year.
iPhone 3G – My wife had to get hers replaced because of software issues about 2 months into owning it.
Time capsule – huge piece of shit. My backups started consistently failing about 3 weeks ago. Apple’s response? Delete all the backups and start over. Exactly the thing you DON’T want to hear. 9 months of backups gone, like that. OK as a router, but I had less trouble with my old Linksys 802.11g router.
Every PC I’ve owned or worked with has failed within 2-3 years. I don’t expect macs to be that much better honestly. So far macs have been good to me, but Apple’s other hardware and some of its software could use fine-tuning.
Ken C
on 29 Dec 08Basically is if anything on a Mac will fail it’ll be the hard drive, same for any computer, IMHO it’s a miracle of engineering that they work at all. Next would be the display and Logic board. I’m willing to bet that as a percentage of production the failure rate is very low, but not low enough to have it happen to you.
Currently I’m running a Mini-Mac, a iMac 24”, a Mac Pro and a MacBook, with a couple of older ones laying around. Worse thing I ever had to do on any of them was do a clean system install on two of them, other than that zero problems over the recent years of owning many many many Macs.
Jason
on 29 Dec 08Same here. Got a MacBook last Feb. and the DVD drive is dead, screen flickers sometimes, and the plastic is separating around the edges.
Strange too, because Apple seems to put so much thought and effort into the small details, you’d think they’d be on top of stuff like this.
Jeff
on 29 Dec 08I had a bad memory chip in one! New chip, no more problem. That’s the only issue I can remember.
I’ve been using macs at home exclusively since about 1984, and I have owned 4 all together. That’s about a 6 years per mac average, and every upgrade I’ve done has been for features, not because of problems. My most current is a powerbook G4 Titanium that is now going on its 7th year. It has an upgraded processor courtesy of XLR8, and it still runs like a champ. I’m lusting after the new unibody MacBook Pros though. My problem is rationalizing the purchase when my TiBook is cruising along just fine. sigh
Guess my Apple luck has just been different than yours.
JB
dude
on 29 Dec 08Hard drives and DVD drives failing isn’t a problem with “the Mac”, it’s an inevitability with mechanical components. I used to work at a PC repair/retail shop and this story you and other people have posted is NOTHING compared to the stuff that goes through a place like that.
In short, you dont know how good you have it :)
If you always back up your data you’ll find you’ve really got nothing to complain about. Dead DVD drive… how often do you use that thing? It happens, replace it or just use another computer to burn stuff, better yet, switch to usb sticks. Dead harddrive, pfft, 200gb for pennies, just replace it.
Dead logic board, different story, but it seems that statistically speaking this is the minority. Just be glad you dont get swollen capacitors on there which will cause agony while you try to even track down the problem.
sigh, we Mac users really don’t realize the sad state of the PC world.
Todd Little
on 29 Dec 08I just sold a PowerPC Dual Processor 2.0 G5 that had been my workhorse for roughly 5 years. The only issue I ever had was a power supply that burned out. And admittedly, our apartment was rather dusty as the complex was constantly under construction.
giz
on 29 Dec 08I’ve owned over 15 Macs over the years since 1986.
The biggest issue I’ve had from all those machines? A faulty RAM chip on a first-gen iMac.
Other than that, my Macs have been sweet as. I have a 2003 17” Powerbook G4 – not a thing wrong with it; batteries still hold 2hrs worth of charge.
Quite a feat, particularly ‘cos I’m rough with all my tools. Macs just go and go…
David Svensson
on 29 Dec 08I have been lucky. All 6 macs I’ve bought the last decade is still running. I only had to replace one hard drive in my iMac from ‘99.
... but they will of course all break now that I just told you how lucky I have been.
winston
on 29 Dec 08Besides batteries, every Mac I have ever owned has had to be beaten to death… I still have an old Pismo Powerbook that I use as a Photo server and a friend borrowed it for a few days when his daughter was in town.. she thought it was some sort of cool new Apple laptop ;) I consider these machines to simply be tools and as such I tend to abuse them a bit. I have [accidentally] dropped mine off table tops and barstools, traveled around the world with mine, oh 5 or 6 times and literally NEVER had an issue. My old Titanium slid out of my computer bag from a shelf I put it on (my fault), fell about 5 feet onto a concrete floor, and the screen hinges sheered off… but the connecting cable didn’t break. It still worked perfectly and I used it that way for a week (with the screen propped up by some books) till I got back home and had it fixed… So I am incredibly impressed with Apple and its products, needless to say
Kalle Paulsson
on 29 Dec 08Me and lots of other MBP (late 2008, aluminium, unibody) owners have had problems with the “Black Screen of Death” when gaming, both in OSX and Boot Camp/Windows.
It seems to be connected to the NVidia 9600M GT GPU overheating, or similar. The screen just turns black and the machine crashes. It’s gotten a bit better after the firmware updates and 10.5.6, but it’s still there for many of us.
There’s a massive (27k views, 380 replies) thread on Apple Support forums, but I think there might be a large amount of MBP owners that has these faulty machines without even knowing about it, since they might not stress the GPU enough to make it crash.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1767221&tstart=0
Brian Jones
on 29 Dec 08I’ve had a hard drive die in my 5 year old PowerBook a few months ago, but I ended up ordering a new drive and installed myself, not hard, just a lot of tiny screws. I’m much happier now with a 250GB drive compared to 80GB. Luckily, Time Machine saved my files, and made restoring my old system on the new drive VERY easy.
But on the other hand, it’s always in Apple’s best interest to make products that will break, or at least products that are hard to fix by replacing individual components yourself.
Brian.
jonathan
on 29 Dec 08do some it work for an organization with 17 employees and 25+ computer – we have computers fail quite a bit…usually after 12-18 months we have to replace them.
Matt
on 29 Dec 08Because I collect and sell old Macs, I’ve had well over 100 come into my possession in the last 10 years. I cannot recall a single Mac dying before about Year 5.
I’ve owned each of my main, primary use Macs – an SE FDHD, Powerbook 180, Power Mac 7300, Powerbook 2400c, iMac G4, iBook G3/500, and iMac G5 – for 3.5 to 5 years each, and every single one was in excellent working condition when I sold it to get the next one. My current Aluminum iMac is doing great too (fingers crossed of course!).
Even poorly treated Macs I’ve gotten from others – old Color Classics kept in garages, a filthy iMac G3 from a smoking environment, IIci’s taken from school settings, etc. – have almost always been brought up to good working condition with the replacement of a hard drive, or even just a good cleaning.
The only bits of Apple kit that I’ve found wonky have been the Mighty Mouse (that little roller ball gets tough to clean after awhile), the Airport Express (overheats over time), and the white square AC adapters for iBooks and Powerbooks (same problem as the AP Express).
Kevin Milden
on 29 Dec 08Twice as bright, half as long? I love my Macs and I sell them off at about 6 months to 1.5 years depending on how much I use them. I have had a ton of mechanical issues with my iPhone 3G. Airport Base Stations seem to die after so many years and every Apple Laptop I have had will start to fall apart after about 2 years. You can have them fixed and they’ll last a few more years but like many cars the wear and tear just begin to break down. I take really good care of all of my hardware. Wiping it down almost everyday, keeping the OS clean and carefully handling them. If your really tough on your hardware it will give out sooner than expected.
Dan P
on 29 Dec 081998 G3 beige Mac still running strong, my mom uses it.
1999 G4 still used daily, no problems.
2003 MBP I use at work still runs 24×7.
Heck my old LC still works. That thing must have 40,000 hours of use. Even the original 40MB(!) SCSI drive still works.
Scott
on 29 Dec 0817” iMac 1GHz (G4) – purchased in 2003 – still being used by my wife – no physical or motherboard problems – runs OS X Tiger
12” iBook 800MHz (G4) – purchased (used) in 2004 – I still use this as my primary notebook – in 2006 I had to repair the combo drive (my fault! I got a piece of electrical tape stuck inside and bent a small peice of metal inside trying to get the tape out!) Runs OS X Leopard (it shouldn’y but I manipulated the Leopard installer so it would think my iBook qualified)
20” iMac 2.4GHz (Core2Duo) – purchased in 2007 – runs newest Mac OS – have had zero problems
Both of my kids are using G4 Cubes – I refurbished them myself in 2006 – both are running OS X Tiger – no problems
Matt Lee
on 29 Dec 08Not a Mac, but Thinkpads running for 6 years and counting now.
Denis
on 29 Dec 08I’ve bought my first Mac two and a half years ago. It’s Macbook (white) with 1Gb RAM.
Last week I’ve bought 2Gb RAM. Everything’s great. No issues.
Before Mac I have Acer laptop and three times usb ports were died. I’ve had fixed it but all the time was the same problem.
Now I’ve bought iPhone 3G. Isn’t good quality, but it still work. I know that the first generation was better but my iPhone is still work.
So I have a good experience with Apple products.
Guy McLimore
on 29 Dec 08I have the following Apple systems, all still operational: Apple II – Apple IIc – Original 128 K Mac – Macintosh Plus – Powerbook 100 – Mac LC II – Mac Quadra 605 – Power Mac 6100/60 (PC compatible) – Powerbook 540 – Original iMac G3/233 (Bondi Blue) – iMac G3/350 (Blueberry) – iBook G3/600 – iBook G4/1.33 14-inch – iMac Core 2 Duo 2.66 20-inch
To be honest, a few of these are no longer in my possession, but all worked when they left me, and in most cases I still know where they are and how they are functioning. The Blueberry iMac, the two iBooks and the iMac core 2 Duo system are all still in continuous use in my home.
In all this time I’ve had to have one repair done - a motherboard replacement on the original Mac 128K. That system is still in my office alongside the Mac Plus as display pieces. They are not in use commonly - but they are still bootable, operational machines.
And all of this is just anecdotal evidence. But in my experience as a computer enthusiast and professional sales and support person, I have found Apple products to be more reliable in operation and to maintain their value as usable systems much longer than any brand of PC on the market.
Tom
on 29 Dec 08None of the Macs I’ve owned has ever failed.
My first Mac, a brand new IIci I got in 1990 is still running – serving as a classic games platform in our study. My second Mac, a brand new PowerMac G3 Tower that I got in 1998 (since upgraded to a G4) runs MacOS X 10.3 and runs 24/7 operating as our webserver. My 3rd Mac, a new TiBook, from Fall 2002, runs the current Mac OS, and serves as steadily used Mac in our living room. My 4th Mac, a new PowerMac Dual G5 from 2005, runs the current Mac OS, and is our workhorse graphics, multimedia and music studio platform. My 5th Mac, a new MacBook Pro from 2007, is my daily work computer – and the only Mac I’ve had that ever needed a repair – a dead #9 key, that caused the keyboard to be replaced under warranty. We also have an AppleTV, 2 first-gen iPhones, and several Airport Extremes/Expresses – none which has every had a failure.
Maybe I’m just lucky, but I believe my experience is rather typical, and shows the quality (and useful longevity) in Apple’s products. There will always be a few ‘lemons’ out there, or machines that have an eventual hardware subcomponent failure (CD/DVD drive, HD, graphic card, etc.) – but overall I believe those cases to be very small percentage-wise.
My 2 cents.
Ed Leafe
on 29 Dec 08I’ve owned over a dozen Macs going back to 1987, and have overseen the purchase of several more for family/friends. In all that time I’ve had one bad mobo that required replacement; this was done for free in less than a week with free overnight shipping. I also had one battery that died prematurely; this was also replaced at no charge.
RAndy Troppmann
on 29 Dec 08iMac G4 (recently sold it) rock solid. Powerbook G4 (since early 2005) rock solid and my wife uses it now. MBP since September 2007 has been Rock Solid. Leopard was a little shaky at first but is rock solid now. Where is some wood I can knock on.
Stephen
on 29 Dec 08My theory is that you wrote this post just to see if it would bring in a record number of comments. Congratulations!
Seriously though, I’m two for three. My old G4 has never even hiccuped. I had to replace the hard drive on my MBP a few months ago and my Mac Pro has never been %100. The firewire worked for a week after I replaced the main board. Two of the other three MBPs in my small company have also had to be replaced or repaired.
All that said, the hardware reliability seems on par with all the PC’s I’ve owned. Computers are complex beasts with many possible (and overtime probable) points of failure. The bottom line is that when they are both working right, the mac wins every time for me in terms of getting things done a little faster and in a much more pleasant way.
LKM
on 29 Dec 08During the last 15 years, I’ve owned probably about a dozen Macs. I’ve passed most of them on, and of them are still operational. There are two broken DVD drives and one failed HD, but other than that, they’re still kicking. Can’t say the same for the Dells I’ve bought; all of them have had some kind of issue, most out of the box or within the first six months. Having said that, my brother has bought three Macs in the last few years, and only the last one didn’t fail in some way.
I guess my point is that individual experience – even aggregated – doesn’t magically turn into a statistic.
Seth Lewin
on 29 Dec 08Various g3 iMacs still running fine though slot-loading drives tend to be balky. 1997 vintage Beige g3 still running when retired in 2007. B&W G3 still running though has been extensively modified for better performance. Original power supply still functioning. TiBook 667 DVI (2002) still with original 27 gig HD in daily use – a little paint wear, nothing worse. I have a 2001 Cube G4/500 running an FTP and FileMaker Pro database and web server 24/7. iMac g4/800 in daily use, requires no attention whatever. iMac g4/1ghz – required replacement of SuperDrive when my misguided attempt to upgrade firmware failed; Apple covered it anyway. AppleLaserWriter II ran for 17 years in fairly light use and required $26 in parts (charcoal ozone filter); replaced it with a smaller faster machine and packed it away – probably still viable. Have a double handful of older PPC and 68K machines that were working when I mothballed them. Have given away many an older machine that are still in use by those families. Some needed new HDs which I installed but that’s hardly radical after 8-10-12 years. Current machine is an 8/2006 MacPro which has had a few OS-related quirks but nothing the couldn’t be managed at home with a little online research and a talk or three with Apple. However the MightyMouse is poorly made – replaced twice so far. Works better than ever with 10.5.6 and it’s running 4 HDs. Oh yeah – my original 10 gig iPod with rotating wheel has been passed on to my granddaughter – still works fine though needed a battery after a few years. All our other iPods of which there are many are still running fine. Certainly no total failures like those my daughter had with the one PC laptop (Toshiba) we ever bought. Needed at various times a new screen, logib board and keyboard. Good thing I had a service contract on that loser. Never again.
Charlie Triplett
on 29 Dec 08No problems here. I still have an old titanium G4 laptop that keeps truckin, despite a fall down stairs , being sat on, being dirty, etc. All of my work machines run without issue.
Mark
on 29 Dec 08Perhaps your expectations are a little high. Let’s not forget what wonderfully complex machines computers can be. It can be easy to forget what goes on under the hood both in terms of hardware and software.
I switched to Mac on the release of the first MacBook Pro and I’ve only had an internal break in the lead of the power adapter from too much rolling/unrolling and a failed battery. To me these are minor issues that can be easily resolved when compared to the benefits of using a Mac.
After all what’s the alternative? Paper and pen? Or worse still, a PC!
anon
on 29 Dec 08Regrettably, some proportion of Macs must fail. None of mine ever have. So the onus evidently has fallen on you. Sincere thanks for being the poor schlubb who balances the statistics for the rest of us. We appreciate it. Really!
Mark
on 29 Dec 08I never had a PowerPC Mac fail. So far in our company not a single MacBook Pro has lasted more than a 14 months… Of course Apple has Nvidia to blame for significant part of the problems, but still, it’s horrible.
As every Powerbook I have bought or used are still in daily use, Apple at least had some kind of quality standards a while back. I’d expect these last two full years before they require operations such as motherboard replacement. With MacBook Pros the average has been nine months (sample size 6, toughest one fought for 14 months before mb swap), which is simply unacceptable.
Without time machine, this would be such a big and frequent problem we just couldn’t go on using these constantly failing pieces of **. Now at least it’s manageable by always making sure there’s new MBP at hand to save the day.
Matt
on 30 Dec 08Of the desktops I’ve owned I’ve only had drives die, (and one had bad Ramjet memory) usually when their MTBF was close or expired. Laptops aren’t quite as good, though to be fair my high-end Windows laptops (Voodoo Envy) have done similarly with the common hard drive and USB ports. Looking at my Powerbook repairs they are most often on ports, id est, Firewire or power adapter port. I have had to replace batteries, but then again I’ve replaced batteries in my cars, tyres, turn signals, brake pads and had warrantee repairs and recall repairs.
All in all however, I have Macs going back to the Powerbook 170 that still boot, run and even take a charge. I do have friends who seem to have constant computer failures, multiple phones etc. However when I observe how they AB/use their devices there’s little doubt as to why. There seems to be a bizarre level of reliability desired from small appliances/devices.
Scott McMillin
on 30 Dec 08I have owned: Mac Plus, Mac IIsi, Quadra 605, Color Classic, PowerBook 150, PowerMac 7600, PowerMac G3 Desktop, PowerMac G4 Cube, iBook G3 (white), PowerMac G5 1.8×2, Mac Mini Core Solo
Problems I have had: Quadra 605: Dead Logic Board out of warranty, iBook G3: Broken CD-ROM tray, PowerMac G5: Dead Logic Board within warranty (still my primary)
My father’s iMac G5 had the well-known bulging capacitor problem but it was fixed for free, out of warranty by Apple
The Mac Mini Core Solo has been my multimedia center with constant use (EyeTV recording, etc) for almost 3 years now without a problem.
Overall I think quality has dropped based on my own anecdotal evidence. And laptops seem to have a lot more problems than desktops. I assume this is based on the move to standard components and the build-to-order process.
Mathieu
on 30 Dec 082 yo macbook, running fine…
About batteries: I’m really taking good care of mine (it is obvious that if you deplete and charge it 2 a day, it won’t last long.): 2 yo, 55 cycles: I charge is everywhere i can. I do the every-month maintenance: empty it until it is 5-10%, then charge it without interruptions. Result: 2yo, 55 cycles, 100% Health, same capacity as when I bought it.
My friend bought the same macbook at the same time: he and his wife did not care much about the battery, even if they were using the macbook only at hom. Result: 2yo, almost 500 cycles, 45% health, last less than 1h browsing internet.
Linda Custer
on 30 Dec 08I’ve not had good luck with Apple products lately either.
iPhone 3G—failed in “re-connect to iTunes” mode so hard that Apple genius replaced on the spot, about 4 months after purchase
iPhone—replaced after 8 months due to stereo jack becoming mono
MacBook Pro Unibody—replaced as dead on arrival due to bad trackpad
Mac Book Air—motherboard and fans replaced after about four months because machine slowed to a crawl after being used for just a few minutes
MacBook Pro (early 2006, first Intel machine)—memory died completely after about six months
New mini display port to dual-link DVI adapter (the one that just started shipping) dead on arrival because it loses link quickly after connecting—being replaced now by Apple
On a positive note, my Time Capsule, Apple TV, and iPods (many, many of those) have worked flawlessly, although the original Nano was a disgrace because its plastic scratched and crazed way too easily (cosmetic only, but SERIOUSly bad cosmetics)
Adriaan Tijsseling
on 30 Dec 08Been using Macs for 20 years. Never had a problem with them. Only once with a failed BootCamp install, but I was able to fix it myself.
Jason E
on 30 Dec 08I’ve had fantastic luck with my Macs. PowerBook G4 was flawless until year 4 when I had to replace hard drive. I backup so no loss. No problems with MacBook after almost 2 years now…and I’m a very heavy user of my laptops…I keep them humming so a worn out hard drive was not surprising. I bet you’ve just had bad luck.
Adam Jury
on 30 Dec 0815” Powerbook: MLB failed, repair place totally horked the repair and broke other stuff, month long drama enused.
2×2 G5: One CPU died after a few months, fixed within a week or so with an in-office visit.
15” MacBook Pro: Just died with what I think is the same thing as David’s. Out of warranty … really have no clue what I should do, if it’s fixable or not.
Just bought a 13” MacBook for my mother [literally 4 days before my MBP died.]. The wifi was totally wonky on initial install + migration, but I did a reinstall with no migration and, knock on wood, seems OK.
Ste
on 30 Dec 08I have a mid-2004 iBook G4 and a late-05 iMac G5 that still work great – the G5 is my main desktop.
I have a late-06 Intel Mini that has had problems with sound and is unable to burn DVD/CDRW’s.
Read into that however you will!
Nick
on 30 Dec 08My first Mac purchase was a real winner. I got an iBook G3 that actually sparked and fried the logic board the first time I powered it up, followed by a replacement with a huge number of busted pixels. The third one had its logic board replaced twice.
Since then however I’ve had nothing but good luck.
There’s an iBook G4 that still runs like a dream, and an iMac G5 that happily serves away in my basement. My gen-1 Intel MacBook Pro had to have fans replaced, but otherwise is working like a charm. I’ve got an octocore Mac Pro that’s never had a problem, and I’m typing this on a new MacBook that’s been an absolute dream so far.
Of course, since my first experience I never walk away without AppleCare. ;)
Mr. M
on 30 Dec 08Been using Macs for 20 years. The last reiliable one was a G3/300mhz minitower that was faster and more responsive with OS9 than ANY current Mac. Since then, I’ve been increasingly disappointed by the performance of Apple hardware and I now find myself considering the purchase of a new Dell. Apple charges a premium for machines that are supposed to be better but simply aren’t. I’m weary of reading posts by people claiming that their Mac is better because “it just works”. Should we not expect more for our money than a product that ‘just works’?
So much for the Think Different party.
Garrett Dimon
on 30 Dec 08I’ve had pretty consistent problems among the Apple products I’ve owned. (PowerBooks, Macbook Pros, and a Cinema Display) However, I wouldn’t say that I’ve had a disproportional amount of problems with Apple products.
It’s definitely frustrating when it happens, but with Apple Care and the service I’ve received when I needed repairs, I can’t complain too much. The key is that when my Apple products fail, they make it easy to get it fixed, and, in my experience, they really do go the extra mile to make things right.
It would be nice if we could expect more from Apple, but I believe it’s the nature of hardware in general. It is a bit disappointing to think of an extended warranty as a virtually mandatory purchase, but when I think about the price, it seems reasonable.
Compared to cars, I’d say that laptops are significantly more reliable. I can’t imagine operating a car for 5 or more hours per day for 1-3 years and not encountering any problems. It’s going to need some repairs. I figure computers are the same. So, as long as the company minimizes the pain when those repairs are needed, that’s good enough for me.
Miles K. Forrest
on 30 Dec 08My Mac’s a MBP 17” has gone thru 3 displays, 2 batteries and a case top that had the aluminum paint strip below the keyboard peel. Thankfully it was all covered under AppleCare, but still, not very impressed with the quality for a high-end machine.
Brent Seehafer
on 30 Dec 08I’ve owned an SE30, PM6100, PM8500, PM9500, 3 Beige G3s, Two B&W G3s, Dual MDD, Pismo, iBook G3, iBook G4, a Mini and a MacBook Pro (1st Gen).
Not a single (hardware) problem except the MacBook Pro. It’s had the logic board replaced twice and shipped with so many dead pixels it looks like the screen got sneezed on. Apple says it’s within ‘acceptible limits’ and won’t replace the screen.
Other Apple hardware that never failed: LaserWriter 360, LaserWriter 8500 (this is apparently a rarity) ColorOne Scanner and an iPod purchased 11/01 is still going strong.
In other words, I’ve had good luck and will continue to buy Apple hardware, although I’m cautious of 1st gen stuff.
JF
on 30 Dec 08My previous generation MacBook Pro has more creaks than an old wood floor, a video card issue (green dot patterns randomly show up at random times), and a dead iSight camera. It also hates waking up from sleep when it’s connected to an external monitor (often requires a hard reset).
Hoping my new unibody doesn’t catch the same cold.
Ben Bennitt
on 30 Dec 08My first (and only) Mac was an iBook G4. I’ve worked on it for over 4 years now and although it’s obviously a bit slower than the newer ones, I’ve never had any real trouble with it. Keep the faith!
Sean
on 30 Dec 08It’s about time somebody brought this up. I love Apple products, however I’ve been through 4 MacBook Pros in 2 years.
The first one had 1 broken key within 4 days of use. It also had a bad logic board that was shipped off to get replaced. That MacBook Pro go replaced with an early 2008 model by the Apple Store after they failed to fix the problems (video artifacts, usb hangups, hard drive noises).
The replacement laptop recently started exhibiting much of the same problems. After the Apple Store tinkered with it for a week and a half, I convinced them to replace it with a Unibody 2008 Macbook Pro.
That brand new, unibody macbook pro has a stuck SuperDrive. About every 3-4 times you insert a cd/dvd into the drive, it gets blocked and you have to wiggle it around to get it to take it.
Aside from the chain of replacement macbook pros, I also purchased another $2,500 unibody ‘08 Macbook Pro for an employee. The first one I bought had a broken key on the keyboard (annoying click noise underneath the key). I took it back and swapped it for a new one. That one doesn’t seem to have any problems.
Overall, I find this completely unacceptable. I now have to take this new unibody macbook pro in for service to get the SuperDrive fixed. The last time the Apple Store disassembled my machine, they forgot to reconnect the right speaker. I’ll probably just live with the SuperDrive problem for a while.
I’ve never had any problems with their desktops, except the DVD drive on one G4 went out after a few years. No problems with their routers, apple TV, or cinema displays.
My iPhone home button is sticky. The “genius” disagrees. I’ll try again later.
My advice: NEVER buy an Apple laptop without AppleCare. You will eventually need it. Even if it’s just to get a new battery after you wear yours out (6 months tops). It will happen.
Last 2 complaints:
The SuperDrive in all their laptops sound TERRIBLE. This shouldn’t have even passed the Steve Jobs test. Wtf? The HEAT coming from Apple’s aluminum case laptops is another major problem that I don’t think should have passed Quality Control.Most people wonder if their SuperDrive is broken when they hear the sound. Most people also wonder if the heat generated by their aluminum laptops is normal. Those two concerns should never be raised for a company with such stringent requirements on customer experience.
Brent Seehafer
on 30 Dec 08@JF
I’d love to hear that it does well, I’d really like one. I’m sad to see the reports plaguing them, however.
http://gizmodo.com/tag/macbook-pro/
Ethan
on 30 Dec 08Every Apple product I have ever own has failed within a year. Mac books, iphones, ipods, all of them. For the price you pay you’d think some more care would be put into long term quality.
Olexiy Prokhorenko
on 30 Dec 08Had PowerBook G4 for more than 3 years, now MacBook Air, my also MacBook in the family for almost 3 years… Cannot complain! But it’s smart to buy AppleCare.
Matt
on 30 Dec 08My first Mac, a G4, bit the dust after 4 years of use (not bad). About a year-and-a-half ago I bought a new MacBook. I absolutely love it, but the hard-drive has crashed twice. One time I went 3 weeks without it while the hard-drive was being replaced.
Ben Lilley
on 30 Dec 08Wow that is a bad run, and I would expect you treat them fairly well?
I’ve only ever had two Macs, 2006 MacBook & the new 08 model, both are running brilliantly and haven’t had a single issue as of yet (touch wood). My iPhone is also doing fine, easily the best piece of tech I’ve ever bought.
One thing I have noticed though after talking to friends, family etc is that iPods tend to die after just over a year of usage or at least start having battery issues.
Hope you have better luck in the future.
William
on 30 Dec 08I’ve had a PowerBook G4 since August, 2002. I had the hard drive replaced just after I bought it and that one is still working—I figure the HD is overdue for failure. I’ve replaced the battery once. I dropped it 2 years ago on a corner – the corner cracked but the damage was only cosmetic. I’ve since bought a desktop but I’m going to keep the laptop until it finally fails. It stills does everything that I want in a portable. What a great machine!
Michael
on 30 Dec 08David, what about your praise to the Macbook Air?
You’re talking about your MBP and what about that MBA you were so raving about before?
I’m currently having my first-gen MBA 1.8 SSD and in the beginning I was disappointed by its performance and by its loud fan noise.
After some tweaking and tunning I managed to get it to work quitely and nicely. Now I’m happy with my MBA + iPhone combo.
Let’s see for how long. My warranty expires in April so I’ll have to buy the AppleCare plan just in case.
David, so what about your MBA? Did you throw it away or what happened there?
g.
on 30 Dec 08every mac I still use is more than 7 years old. The one’s I bought after that (G5, iBook) have gone the way of the dodo.
Whatever happened to “you can use macs longer than their PC equivalents”?
alphageek
on 30 Dec 08Hmmm – I’ve had my ups and downs with Apple hardware, but the current state of affairs is a MacBook Pro with a year on, still going strong. My old MacBook Pro (32-bit Core Duo) is still running happily as my home OS X Server box (although it did go through a free motherboard replacement at one point). A G4 Powerbook that’s been running forever as a surveillance camera despite the broken hinge on the screen after a tumble onto a tile floor. My Cube is still running, although semi-retired since it doesn’t have the horsepower to run Leopard Server (hence the MBP). Plus a Mini media center running 7/24 connected to the TV.
Nicholas Klick
on 30 Dec 08We just had a hard drive on a macbook pro die last week randomly. But so far mine is doing well. I would love to see the statistics on the longevity of mac hardware.
anna m. simmons
on 30 Dec 08I have had the following Macs since 1995 and none have broken, in fact, I still have my old G4 desktop sitting under my desk now, although I don’t use it since my MacBook Pro is amazing + more portable!
- Power Mac 8500 - G3 - G4 - MacBook Pro
Jared
on 30 Dec 08I’ve had my G4 Quicksilver since 2001 and it’s still purring like a kitten. It’s just a file sever now, but it was my video editing machine when I bought it new. It has had one CPU fan replaced (DIY), but otherwise, no real maintenance.
I’m typing this on my PowerBook G4 I bought in 2005. It had fans and hard drive replaced prior to failure at the 3 year mark (noise served as a warning), but otherwise is humming along.
I’ve also got a Quad G5 and two Mac Pros that are so far without trouble.
So, I guess they haven’t been flawless, but I’d say pretty good overall. In the nearly eight years I’ve owned Macs, total downtime for all machines is only about two weeks (mostly due to the PowerBook sitting at Apple awaiting new fans). I’m pretty happy with that.
kevin l
on 30 Dec 08I’m the de facto sysadmin at our small design studio.
All of our web development/testing servers (4) are G4 towers (Mystics) and our Subversion box is a G4 Tower (Quicksilver).
We’ve got an original Titanium PowerBook (9 years old) which we use to run the projector in our conference room.
We’ve got a Graphite G3 iMac that sits in the closet running OS9, in case we need it, and it starts up every time.
We’ve got a G4 iMac (iLamp) which runs our Xerox Print Queuing system.
That’s just the old stuff. We’ve also got a MacBook Air, MacBook Pros, a dozen intel iMacs, 3 Mac Pros, and two Xserves (one G5, one Intel) all of which have run excellently.
We’ve had some hard disk failures, sure (and I dread the day that one of these Aluminum iMacs has a hard disk failure.) But never anything catastrophic. We did have an Airport Extreme (Snow/Spaceship) give up the ghost.
Of all the Macs I’ve owned and managed, the only bad experiences I’ve had was a PowerBook G4 (Aluminum) which had a logic board failure. And my current MacBook (black c2d) which has the screen flickering issue (repaired and recurring.)
I’m always impressed at how long Macs stay functional, compared to the PCs I’ve owned and managed.
joshbrown
on 30 Dec 08I’ve had a Graphite iMac, a PowerMac G4 (2001) with an OS9/OSX dual installation, two iMacs at work, and a Macbook. Over the years I had a couple of software errors that made me reinstall OSX on the G4, but that was expected since it was a new system.
Other than that the G4 has been passed down to a family member and runs great. The original iMac is used as a desk decoration in my parents house and still runs great. The two iMacs I’ve had at work – one PowerPC and one Intel-based have always run pretty good. I do have a lot more hiccups on the Intel-based iMac, though.
And finally, the Macbook. I have had several issues with my Macbook (not a pro) since buying it midway through 2006. All have been hardware issues, though, and not software. I’ve never had to reinstall anything, but closing the computer even lightly eventually caused a strip to peel away on the keypad. And of course my battery went dead within two months of purchasing. Then another time my powerstrip melted! Apple replaced it free though and I’ve never had an issue with it since or with their customer support. In fact, while my battery doesn’t hold a full charge it is well past 18 months and it is still working fine.
In short, I love Apple and if you just take care of the product it will treat you well. Out of all my friends, only one has ever had many issues so my guess is you are in the few percent that encounter several issues.
BamaTrojan
on 30 Dec 08My Mac experience & whether acquired new or used:
Mac SE, 1988 (new)—no problems ever PowerMac 8100AV, 1995 (new)—no problems ever iMac DV G3, 2000 (new)—no problems ever PowerBook G3, 1999 (new)—no problems ever PowerBook G4, 2002 (used)—battery died iMac G4 15”, 2003 (used)—no problems ever PowerBook G4, 2004 (new)—no problems ever iMac G4 17”, 2006 (used, kids use it)—no problems ever MacBook Pro, 2006 (used & current)—battery is dead MacBook, 2006 (used & wife’s)—glitchy when rec’d, Apple replaced power supply (internal components) & now works like a charm
So, all in all, I’ve had 20 excellent years with my Macs!!
Finn
on 30 Dec 08Typing this on a 12” PowerBook I bought used in 2003. It’s lasted through video editing and conversion and typing and typing and many, many plane flights and misguided software experiments, as well as being dropped badly twice. Part of the actual metal band on the body of the computer popped off its weld points when I dropped it on its corner years ago—it still sticks out, and the computer still runs fine. Just a good day on the assembly line when they made this one, I guess. I really hope you have better luck in the future if you decide to stick with Macs.
Jason
on 31 Dec 08I’ve bought hundreds of Mac’s over the years – our company uses laptops for 2-4 years before replacement, depending on the job type and most machines become hand-me-downs or machines that desktop-bound staff can borrow to take home. We’ve gone up-to 6 years between replacement with desktops for jobs that don’t require modern equipment (speciallized servers, basic administrative tasks, etc). And still use many fully functional 1st Gen G4 12” machines.
Very very few problems with desktops. More problems with laptops – mostly due to users dropping them, spilling things in them, etc. Some due to flaws in apple design re: iBook keyboards getting ragged at the palm-rest due to plastic that was too thin. Or Titanium PB’s with hinges that were not strong enough and screws that would come loose and need to be re-tightened. A few dead airport cards scattered amoungst the machines – maybe 4 in my 7 years at my current company. I’ve lost 4 or 5 optical drives for no obvious reason. Some desktops, mostly laptops. A couple others needed some “coaxing” to get the internals to accept and eject disks after a glitch but usually could be goten to work again without great effort. Or an internal cable came loose – I would take the bottom case off and re-seat the cable, putting a new piece of tape on it. And a couple of times hard-drive cables have come loose. Again, these have been quick to fix without Apple’s (and, ofter, withouth a reapir shops. Esp. ) help. And a few airport cards that have come loose – All G4 12” machines; Seems to be an issue with some of those… And, once or twice, a RAM chip that needed to be removed and reset – mostly G3 and Titanium PowerBooks.
Overall – I have very few machines that “Die,” outside of harddrives which seem to be far more fragile than they were a in the G3 PB days – but that is not just Apple laptops, but in my external drive cases as well: 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch – I chalk that up to HD technology pushing physical limits and, to a degree, case and laptop manufactuers push the heat envolope of thier enclosures. Esp. since all brands have failed – Toshiba, WD, Seagate, IBM … go figure.
In any case – I manage about 50 machines in 4 states around the US and find hardware problems very low on the list. With HD failures the vast majority of the issues (maybe 30 drive failres of the 200 machines I’ve acuired over the years – only a few in the 1st year). Ethernet ports either failing completely or the plastic tips breaking (happened in maybe 1/3rd of my 12” G4 PB’s and in several of the Titanium ones, all outsde of the 1st year – I use USB ethernet for them vs. having a new port soldered in or replacing the logic boards). Screen cables getting pinched causing video to scramble or backlights to drop out are a close second – but only like 5 machines in the whole pile, with a few repaired in the 1 yr warrenty. And one MacBook air had it’s intenal USB plug detach.
The titanium machines were the biggest junk apple ever shipped – but modern construction shows they learned some steap lessons about building solid yet thin laptops! All mine failed in a seroius way inside of 3 years due to one issue or anouther, usually hinge/screen cable related. A few with USB ports where the plastic tounge would break off under normal use (had a couple G4 towers with the same issue). I could repurpose most of them as desktop repalcement (attach a monitor and lock them to a desk, voila – a great replacement for aged G3 iMac’s) so “died” was a strech as they maintained value to my buisness, in several cases remained in daily use as desktop machines for 5 years, and most “failed” fairly close to the replacement schedule we had for them at the time anyway so repurposing as desktops worked out quite well. Sadly, at that point in time we wanted to strech the replacement schedules and we’re forced to keep it due to the issues those machines had. Yuck.
Overall, it has cost me far less to buy machines and fix them myself/send for out-of-warrenty service, repurpose them or regulate them to my spare-parts bin than to maintain AppleCare on the whole company fleet. Even considering the full-value loss for the occational machine that dies before its time. It is the Titanium machines that even make it worthy of debate – if not for them our average laptop lifespan would be about 4+ years. Outside or Titanium machines, most of our laptops are retired to get newer machines for performance reasons – not maintenance ones.
Compared to the problems my wife has with the Toshiba laptops in her office I’m in no worse shape and ofter better shape as my Mac’s are easier to recover from HD failure via the use of my standard OS image that works on all my iBooks, G4 PB’s, MacBook/MacBook pro/airs, iMacs and G5 towers combined with my data-backup recovery strategy than the wipe/repave/reconfigure required in a Windows environment. And, overall, Apple serivce is much easier to deal with than Toshiba service – when Apple is bad, they are as bad as anyone but more often they are good beyond what Ive experianced from other technology companies…
I’ve had all the problems you’ve described on one machine or anouther. And some users have had multiple problems…while other have had none. Statistically, the machines are pretty damn reliable esp. seeing how they survive some of the spliis and drops that occur to the units my company owns (one gets good at “pounding” the dents out of aluminum cases I can tell you…).
As for my personal: - My mom’s 2Ci still works, though is in storage. It was in daily use for over 5 years. - My Mac Classic (from 1994) is still in use by someone who uses it to write. - My 604e Performa still works, in daily use for 3 years and included a move to and from Hawaii via UPS one way and freigt-forward in a crate of household items the next. - My PB 165 lasted 3 years. Had 2 out of warrenty repairs that cost my like $200 before it was gone for good. - My G3 Beige lasted 5 years before I just gutted it for parts (though, it still worked fine for what it was) – and was rarely powered off. Lost 1 hard drive. It survied a move from Hawaii, too. - My 2 G4 towers have lasted 6 years. Lost 2 HD’s and one lost Internal Firewire; replaced via PCI card that included USB2 upgrade (score!). One was a server for a buiness before I transformed it to a network File server and plugged it into the sterreo to use as an iTunes Jukebox and iPod dock. - My iBook G4 1.33Ghz has a glichy cable that shuts the backlight off when the screen is adjusted – that happened in year 3. - My MacBook has the keyboard palm-rest issue that that model is infamous for. Once replaced in year 1 under warrenty along with a flaky battery. Second lasted a few months before it started cracking again, this time out of warrenty (though the replacement battery works fine). I let it be, covering the rough edge with a clean strip of white electrical tape and all is fine. Apple needs to admit this is a defect in the product – as best as I can tell every MacBook will do this if the user types on the built-in keyboard a lot. - Awaiting a refurbished 24” iMac that is going on the wall as a TV/Media Center Hub and network fileserver. I hope it works as well as my pervious machines. - My mom had nothing but problems with battery and Airport issues with a G3 iBook that, in year 3, suddenly was fine. All issues cleared up. Theory is that software and firmware updates finally resolved the issues but who knows given the lack of detail Apple releases about thier updates. Her G4 tower is in constant use (still, after 5 years) as a work machine and is rarely powered down. And her +1 year MacBook pro has been no problem for her. - My wife dropped her iPhone in the pet water dish…4 months ago. It is still fine, going strong at 14 months young and surprisingly pretty considering she throws it in her purse with her keys… - My iPhone was dropped harshly several times before the glass fisured one day at about the 1 year mark – not sure why it did. In any case – took it into an Apple store a few months later and they handed me one out of a box under my AppleCare (I bought the extened plan for it, I mean 2 years with AT&T … I figured it was worth the extra for a 2 year plan on the phone, too). My glass was nearly perfect before that – even though I didn’t make much effort to keep it nice. And after the crack it sitll worked fine – only asthetic issues. The replacement is like new. - My 4G iPod is still going strong, sans the need for a new battery after 2 years (it has lived in a dock the last 2 years and is about 3 years old now). - My 3 shuffles are perfect. All one to 2 years old. 2 sticks and one chicklet. Get used by my wife and I at the gym and biking – I commute and it holds up under my sweet. the cold air. And sometimes gets wet from rain. I love that little thing. The external 3AA pack for the 1st Gen, however, broke after one drop. It was not well made… - My P2 233 Fujitsu had ongoing issues with a sticky navigation button (sort of like the eraser-nub on IBM laptops) and screws started falling out of it from day one. The only other person I’d met with a fujitsu had the same issue with the screws – they just would not stay in!!
Sounds to me you’re having a rough go of it – better luck has to be coming your way as your experiance is a statistical anomally to my experiances.
CJ Curtis
on 31 Dec 08“So please share your successful run of Apple machines that have been able to last 3-4 years without breaking down. I need to regain some faith.”
Sorry man…don’t have any of those stories.
I’ve had my share of PC trouble with certain machines, but my Mac purchases have always turned out to be a waste of time and money.
The last Mac I bought was simply to burn cross-platform disc-based media projects…that’s ALL. That seemed to be the ONE thing that Mac could do that PCs could not. So, we bought a $3200 G3. Thirty Two Hundred Dollars. And keep in mind, G5s were already available, and a PC with similar hardware was about $2400. Six months later, the DVD drive AND the power supply had went bad. By then our disc-based projects had really slacked off, so I didn’t even bother with it. So I crammed it in the IT closet where it belonged.
cpawl
on 31 Dec 08I know this subject has been commented out already but I did also want to mention here that I have had nothing but great experience with my machines. So much so I had my dual 450 G4 running from 2001 until last year as my main machine for graphic and web work. My wife uses it now and I have never had an issue with it. I have a lamphead imac that serves as a media player in my daughters room, I still have a fully functioning first gen 5GB ipod that I use in the car daily and to back up files on to and from the office. The list goes on. Now I am using a dual core 3GHZ machine that was a refrub and is running like a champ. I plan on using this for another 5 to 7 years as well…. fingers crossed.
the_dude
on 31 Dec 08My MacBook Pro 2.2 is 2 years old this holiday season. It has not had a single problem thankfully.
Also have a 24” iMac and my wife has a MAcBook, both over a year and no problems.
On the flip side, I bought a new high end PC this summer for gaming and I have all sorts of lock up problems. I cant source what the problem is either. Uggg.
Anthony Tyrone Howard
on 31 Dec 08I thought it was just me. I’ve been using Apples since the 6th grade. With the exception of first Black Powerbook. Every Mac Laptop I owed had something wrong with it. I been driven to the thought that this is some sort of conspiracy.
Kent Schnepp
on 31 Dec 08I am on my 6th Mac and I have only had problems with one machine, a G4 PowerBook. Aside from crappy batteries, the other five machines have performed flawlessly.
Nathan Youngman
on 31 Dec 08When my 12” Powerbook failed, Apple did replace it with a 15” MacBook Pro (Core Duo). I
Nathan Youngman
on 31 Dec 08My comment just got truncated due to a <3, oops.
Dan
on 31 Dec 08“The last Mac I bought was simply to burn cross-platform disc-based media projects…that’s ALL . That seemed to be the ONE thing that Mac could do that PCs could not. So, we bought a $3200 G3. Thirty Two Hundred Dollars.”
PCs can do cross-platform disc-based media projects. Not natively in Windows, but you could have saved a couple grand and just bought this software:
http://www.cdeverywhere.com/
Macy
on 31 Dec 08DHH: Absolutely, Apple is responsible for picking vendors. But, what real-world influence over the production of a hard drive does Apple have? Unless Apple is causing component failure due to faulty integration, they are sharing a leaky boat they didn’t design. Yes, Apple can do better, but within the limits of what current technology yields.
Considering the options, Apple has been good about picking vendors. And, looking at their efforts to involve themselves in component design, they’re seemingly unsatisfied also.
A majority (5 of 7) of the failures you experienced were with mechanical disc drives. You’re not so much unlucky when it comes to Apple gear, just the (failure-prone) mechanical things inside it.
We all want Apple to do better. But, is it correct to be discontent with Apple when a hard drive made by Hitachi fails or makes unexpected noises?
JF
on 01 Jan 09How about that… My Apple TV just stopped working. I’ve reset, restored to factory defaults, everything… It just stops responding to input after about 15 minutes of use. Once it goes into screensaver mode, it won’t leave screensaver mode. And then, the next day it’s totally locked up.
Paul Redmond
on 01 Jan 091st time Buyer – I got a MacBook in 2007 (White Intel Core Duo): 1. Screen flickered @ 3 months. 2. Screen flickered repeatedly after getting back from repairs 3. Cracks and peeled away plastic all along the top edges (the insert that covers the trackpad and keyboard)
Toshiba Laptop: 5 years and running strong, no problems ever (except it runs Windows =)
I probably just ordered the wrath of many Mac enthusiasts, but many I know have to send their computer back to the mothership in Cupertino for repairs.
I was on the brink of Converting full-time with the new MBP 15”, but for roughly 1/2 the cost I can get similar specs from PC laptops. Plus I am nervous that I have to invest over $2,000 + 300 for the Apple care. Scarry investment.
Plus, what do ya’ll do while the Mac is @ the mothership getting repaired?
Cole
on 02 Jan 09I had a 12” iBook G4 as my primary computer for 3 1/2 years. Used it daily, never had a problem with any component. Sold it when I got a new macbook.
My parents had an iMac (2001 era I think) for 5 years with no problems.
Jorn
on 02 Jan 09David, I can help you regain some faith. Of the fourteen Macs I’ve owned since 1991, there was actually one that hasn’t broken down: an iMac flatpanel G4.
So do not despair; among every fourteen Macs you buy, there will be one that will not let you down.
Gronk
on 02 Jan 09Apple doesn’t give two flying leaps about Quality Assurance and farms manufacturing out to the lowest bidder… so it’s no surprise that not a single one of my Apple laptops has worked as consistently well as their PC counterparts.
If only Apple would spend 10% of their marketing budget on QA/support… but then again, 14-year-old girls don’t really need their machines to work as much as they need to look pretty.
Brian Puccio
on 03 Jan 09I’ve had issues with two Macs out of seven that I’ve owned. One was a harddrive that died about two weeks after I bought it (BlackBook) and one was a 24” iMac motherboard dying. One that I haven’t had issues with is a G4 PowerBook, so it’s quite old and still going.
Steve R.
on 03 Jan 09I have two Macs running right now. My G3 iBook (‘Tangerine Toilet Seat’) ran until the OS stopped supporting the processor, at which point I switched to LINUX. Still goes great guns with Debian. Had to upgrade HD to 60GB and memory to 324MB. Otherwise, the only problem I had was the battery no longer holds a charge. I also run a G5 iMac, which has had zero hardware problems, although OS X has gotten a little flaky at times since Apple introduced Time Machine – I’ve had a few lockups. The biggest hardware hassle I have is my wife spilling wine on the keyboards. I am sorry you are suffering hardware issues.
CJ Curtis
on 04 Jan 09Dan:
Thanks for the suggestion, but this was 3-4 years ago. We experimented with a couple Windows-based “cross platform” burn programs, but none of them worked. So we bit the bullet and bought the Mac.
Sam
on 04 Jan 09I switched in 2006 (I know….late to the party!). The iMac I bought primarily for my wife recently had a hard drive failure. Thanks to AppleCare, it was take care of. Thanks to Time Machine, she was up and running shortly after we got it back from the Apple Store. I know this has been said before, but I will say it again: The way Apple handles it is 10 times better than other companies I’ve worked with in the past. Don’t get me started about the poor customer service of a company that starts with an “S”...Apple goes above and beyond. I just cannot see myself going back. I’m open minded….maybe someday we’ll all be using Ubuntu or some other open source platform. For now, Apple’s got my loyalty.
This discussion is closed.