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miykael · Mar 10, 2003, 10:17 AM

The scenario:

I have a one-month-old 12" iBook 800 and along with it, a dead battery. Under AppleCare, I'm about to send it to a local Apple store for repairs.

The thing is, I *KNOW* the battery is dead, I've tested it a zillion times. However, the service guys at the store want me to bring in the iBook for them to test it and it may take up to 3 days. Honestly, I just want to bring the dead battery in and get it replaced. I don't want to part with the iBook for up to 3 days. I think it is ridiculous.

So here's my question: What should I do to OS X to make sure that they don't touch a single thing on my iBook except to test that dead battery? What do they need? Admin access? I doubt it. Should I create a Guest account for them to use? How much access do they need to test the battery? I really want to lock everything down.

Help me out if you can, I'm sure people have thought about this. Oh and I hope this is the right forum because this question is independent of what hardware is going to repairs and focuses on the OS. Appreciate it,

kndonlee · Mar 10, 2003, 10:32 AM

If it's not too tedious... and you have an extrenal drive of some sort.. use carbon copy clone tool to make a disk image of your drive... and restore the ibook with the system cds...

they'll do their tests on a fresh system,
then you can restore you ssystem like it was untouched....

it's tedious, but the upside is that you'll have a backup of your drive, and maybe be willing to rebuild your comp.... not that osx needs to be rebuilt as much as windows does...

mitchell_pgh · Mar 10, 2003, 11:11 AM

My first thought was "remove all porn and pirated copies of software"

Not that I have porn or pirated software...

stew · Mar 10, 2003, 01:34 PM

Backup your drive.

Unless you encrypt your stuff, there's no way you can keep the Apple folks from touching your stuff. Playing with permissions and accounts won't give you anything - all they need to do is to boot from a CD to have access to all your data.

If there's any sensible data on your drive, back it up and erase it from the notebook. At least, that's what I'd do with the NDA'd stuff I have on my notebook.

bbt · Mar 10, 2003, 01:37 PM

dell has you remove all drives so they are not responsible for lost data

and you dont have to worry about them messing with your data

sja777 · Mar 10, 2003, 02:18 PM

I think it's great that you have the opportunity to decide what to do about your system configuration or data. When I sent my iMac for repair I had no chance of doing anything to the Hard Drive. It shut itself down without warning while I was surfing the net and I never was able to access any data from that hard drive again. It needed a new hard drive, logic board and RAM.

I hope for your sake it's just the battery ... and if it takes three days to find that out, at least you've lost nothing crucial.

Stephen

Brass · Mar 10, 2003, 03:53 PM

I always have a guest account (no password) that they can use. It minimises the damage they can easily do.

If they do require admin access (which they NEVER do on YOUR OS installation for HARDWARE issues) they can always boot off a CD or an external HD of their own, and get admin access using their own OS installation.

NB: By booting form another disk, they have complete access to all files on your internal HD. So they could do whatever they wanted to your files, however, it's unlikely that they would do anything to them accidentally if they are booted from another HD/CD, and impossible if they are booted from your HD and logged in as a non-admin.

Cipher13 · Mar 11, 2003, 03:00 AM

I take the HD out...

CharlesS · Mar 11, 2003, 03:16 AM

Couldn't you just go pick up a battery at an electronics store and install it yourself? Or are the iBooks that hard to get into?

stew · Mar 11, 2003, 04:44 AM

Originally posted by Brass:
and impossible if they are booted from your HD and logged in as a non-admin.

Unless the boot in single-user mode.

Removing the drive is not an option for iBooks, as that'll void your warranty and is by far not as easy as with a Dell.

My advice remains: Make a backup (you never know) and if you have any data you don't want anyone to see, wipe it.

Gul Banana · Mar 11, 2003, 05:59 AM

Originally posted by CharlesS:
Couldn't you just go pick up a battery at an electronics store and install it yourself? Or are the iBooks that hard to get into?

I think he doesn't want to have to pay for it.

Wickedkitten · Mar 11, 2003, 08:16 AM

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
My first thought was "remove all porn and pirated copies of software"

Not that I have porn or pirated software...

someone should have advised Gary Glitter to do that lol

miykael · Mar 11, 2003, 10:06 AM

Originally posted by Gul Banana:
I think he doesn't want to have to pay for it.

Indeed. The battery is under warranty, I don't think I *should* pay for it. =)

Nevertheless, I appreciate everybody's responses, I think I'll try the backup route with CCC and take it from there.

If there are any more ideas, please do post them as I'm not bringing it in for another couple of days.

Again, much thanks.

Simon · Mar 11, 2003, 11:17 AM

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
My first thought was "remove all porn and pirated copies of software"

I'd remove the pirated software too, especially if it's from Apple. But why should he remove the porn?

BatmanPPC · Mar 11, 2003, 11:28 AM

Originally posted by miykael:
The scenario:

I have a one-month-old 12" iBook 800 and along with it, a dead battery. Under AppleCare, I'm about to send it to a local Apple store for repairs.

The thing is, I *KNOW* the battery is dead, I've tested it a zillion times. However, the service guys at the store want me to bring in the iBook for them to test it and it may take up to 3 days. Honestly, I just want to bring the dead battery in and get it replaced. I don't want to part with the iBook for up to 3 days. I think it is ridiculous.

So here's my question: What should I do to OS X to make sure that they don't touch a single thing on my iBook except to test that dead battery? What do they need? Admin access? I doubt it. Should I create a Guest account for them to use? How much access do they need to test the battery? I really want to lock everything down.

Help me out if you can, I'm sure people have thought about this. Oh and I hope this is the right forum because this question is independent of what hardware is going to repairs and focuses on the OS. Appreciate it,

You're not talking about the internal battery right?

If not, then call applecare and explain to them that you can't send the machine in because you need to use it (you're using it with a power adapter). Tell them you're willing to do a forward replacement. They should ask you for your CC number, ship you out a new battery, and you send back the old battery. Your CC shouldn't be charge unless you don't get the oldbattry back to them in the time given (or is it they charge you and then credit it back, i forget).

miykael · Mar 11, 2003, 06:58 PM

Originally posted by BatmanPPC:
You're not talking about the internal battery right?

If not, then call applecare and explain to them that you can't send the machine in because you need to use it (you're using it with a power adapter). Tell them you're willing to do a forward replacement. They should ask you for your CC number, ship you out a new battery, and you send back the old battery. Your CC shouldn't be charge unless you don't get the oldbattry back to them in the time given (or is it they charge you and then credit it back, i forget).

This is something I never considered or knew existed! Awesome, if this is a tried alternative, then I'm going for it for sure.

Thank you so much, this is definitely my first choice.

I'll see what happens,

SupahCoolX · Mar 11, 2003, 10:02 PM

Originally posted by BatmanPPC:
You're not talking about the internal battery right?

Just a note, FYI: those internal "PRAM" batteries are a thing of the past.

miykael · Mar 12, 2003, 09:09 AM

Well, what do you know? I called in, told them that I needed the iBook every day. Asked for them to forward ship me a new iBook battery and I'll ship the dead one back to them, and it's done!

Awesome. Thanks Batman. =)