[padrote]

Hi everybody. I'm hoping you can help me out with the following.

I have a 12" PB with the following specs:

1ghz
10.3.9
256 megs RAM
i forget how big the HD was

I purchased it last February and at the time did not purchase the extended Apple Care (my mistake). Having owned a whole variety of Apple products with a high-degree of reliability I did not think that I had a reason to worry. I mean I had a g4 cube, things couldn't get worse, right?

Here are the problems I've had in chronological order:

1- CD drive fails. Cannot insert a disc, sent back to Apple for repair under warranty.

2- Speakers start to make noise like there's static interference. Then computer starts shutting off by itself, but I manage to turn it on, back up my most important files and get to an apple store. Apple tech says, "wow, I've never seen any problem like this." Can get the problem to repeat by playing a song in iTunes until computer shuts off on its own. Diagnosis was a faulty logic board and repaired under warranty. Audio is still "staticy" when using A/V features on iChat or Skype.

3- This weekend with no warning at all I've got the usual Safari, iChat, iTunes, etc. open and then eveything slows down. Try to force quit things and it tells me finder isn't responding. I shut down the computer, restart it and it won't get past the "spinning gear" and the HD starts making sounds like sand being ground into a metal plate. Tech at Apple store tells me it's probably my HD and then not only manages to recreate the sound (computer never started back up again) but it got wors to the point that other people were looking at my machine in wonderment and she says, "wow, I've never heard one THIS bad before." this obviously lifted my spirits. So it's out of warranty and I'm out $335.97 to have Apple fix it.

My primary question for the forum is what avenue I can pursue to address this issue with Apple. While I was, in fact, out of warranty I've 3 pretty serious and 2 unique hardware failures on a computer that has been stored in a case since day 1, never abused or dropped, kept immaculately clean and never been opened up by anybody than presumably certified techs at Apple. My feeling is that I got a bit of a lemon and in the time that I've owned this computer I have been directly responsible for 3 people buying Power Books and been nothing but a positive PR person for Apple. I feel as though they should stand behind their product to a greater degree in this case but I don't just want to send an email to their generic support department and I'm not trying to get anything for free, but I do feel as though this issue should be addressed in some way.

Any thoughts?

If not, that's fine too. I realize I'm new and asking a lot.

Thanks

[CanadaRAM]

Hindsight -- given your history, you should have bought the Applecare before the 364th day...
Second Hindsight - might have been better on an out of warranty repair to replace the hard drive yourself for $150 and got a 5 year warranty on a Seagate Momentus drive...

Sorry this advice is all too late.

Objectively, your first two problems were not related to the hard drive failure. You can appeal to Apple customer relations with the whole story, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

[ibook_steve]

I second CanadaRAM. It sounds like Apple handled the first two problems for you just as they should. Hard drives fail. It's a fact of life. Boot up in Firewire target disk mode and get what you can off of the drive before it completely dies. Then just replace the drive yourself. It's not that hard. I don't see how Apple is to blame here since it sounds like they took care of the warranty repairs for you with no problem. That seems to me that they stood behind their product.

Steve

[padrote]

*sigh* hindsight is always 20/20. apple has done a good job of standing behind their product. i just think it's also uncharacteristic of them to make something that would be so problematic to the point where their geniuses say, "this is the worst i've ever seen or heard" when there's been no abuse whatsoever.

thanks for the advice and at least for permitting me to vent a little.

[Randman]

You need more ram as well.

[iBorg]

Originally Posted by padrote

I purchased it last February and at the time did not purchase the extended Apple Care (my mistake).

Did you mean that you bought your iBook in February of 2004? Apple includes a 1-year warranty on all of its computers, even its refurbs, so if you bought it "last February," it should still be under warranty, unless you bought a refurb from another Apple seller.



iBorg

[padrote]

I bought it in Feb of '04 so there is no longer a warranty, unfortunately. And yes, I'm very much hurting for more ram which is something that I was planning on taking care of next week however this fantastic repair has eaten up all of my computer modification budget for August.

Thanks for all your responses- much appreciated.

Cheers.