[Ryu]

Okay... this is not my story and I really feel sorry for the owner of this Ti.





Apprentely, while holding the two bottom corners near the hinge, he replaced his Ti 500 with its screen open and it was done very very gently. No Probelmo. He was putting it down with no violent impact on it and "crack", the hinge broke. If you look at the broken hinge part, as you can see, is very clearly cut except a 1/3 of the inner end. Supposedly, this means that there was a defected hinge installed and a little impact made it detached from the bottom part (CPU??).



The best part is that the guy is getting married tomorrow and he will be leaving for honeymoon on Tuesday then directly to his new job in India with his bride. Now Apple Korea (yeap, the guy is Korean) refuses to replace his machine or repare it for free. They are saying that it will take at least until next week to see if it can be covered by AppleCare and if not, he will end up paying about $400 to repare the thing.

Anyway, isn't this part supposed to be made out of Titanium which is "lighter than aluminum and stronger than steel"? How can this break? And why isn't Apple taking responsable for their defected produce?

If you feel sorry for the guy, you should send few words to Apple Korea but I couldn't find its e-mail address yet so I will be posting it soon.

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[This message has been edited by Ryu (edited 05-11-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Ryu (edited 05-11-2001).]

[Cipher13]

Wow... that really sucks... if Apple doesn't fix that... or replace it... there will be trouble.

And of course, there just had to be a hinge defect. The way it was designed was asking for trouble. I imagine the iBook will be just as bad.


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AIM: Cipher1387
ICQ: 48111606
mail: [email protected]

[This message has been edited by Cipher13 (edited 05-11-2001).]

[Misha]

I'd hazard to question the guy's claim of "no violent impact," frankly...

This is the first such case I've heard with the Ti. I, personally, have never had any problems with the physical durability of Apple's cases, ever... not in ten years...

I even dropped my PowerBook G3 down the stairs from the top (some of you probably remember that story) and it suffered virtually NO damage. The bottom clip in the bottom left corner that held the top of the case to the bottom broke (so there was a bit of play there) but that was it.

[Ryu]

I agree, Misha,that I have never heard of such problems from any Ti users. In fact, that is the problem. Since it is not a generalized issue, Apple is refusing to accept as a manufacturing defect. As I said beofre, you can see that the Powerbook is not damamged at all and logically, assuming that the hinge is made out of Titanium, the guys should have pulled really hard the screen off the main unit to get such effet. Furthermore, I don't think it is possible to have such a clean cut if there was a violent impact on the spot.


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[This message has been edited by Ryu (edited 05-11-2001).]

[Ryu]

Good news. Apparently, the person in question is reporting that he could talk to an Apple authority and scheduled a meeting on Mon. (because it's closed in the weekend). Since this story appeared on the Korea's most popular website on Powerbook, Apple Korea may reconsider reparing this machine (or replacing it) to defend its reputation. Anyway, we will see what happens on Monday.

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[Kestral]

Originally posted by Ryu:
Good news. Apparently, the person in question is reporting that he could talk to an Apple authority and scheduled a meeting on Mon. (because it's closed in the weekend). Since this story appeared on the Korea's most popular website on Powerbook, Apple Korea may reconsider reparing this machine (or replacing it) to defend its reputation. Anyway, we will see what happens on Monday.

I think Apple should repair it. Simply put, if it was a Dell, it would have been repaired/replaced without question. The premium we pay for Apple machines should mean something other than an OS they are abandoning (9.1) and an OS that is still for all intents and purposes, a beta. A $1000 license fee for Apple system software is ridiculous.

First off, there are many types of titanium. There are several alloys (alpha, alpha-beta, and beta). Alpha is VERY heat resistant and not very weldable. Beta is significantly STRONGER, but not as heat resistant. Alpha-beta is in the middle.

Regarding the claim "titanium is supposed to be lighter than aluminum, stronger than steel..."

Aluminum is LIGHTER than titanium. DO NOT let anyone tell you any differently. The density of the most common aluminum alloy is 2.0 g/cm3. The density of titanium alloys ranges from 4.4-4.5 g/cm3. SO, consider a cube 1cm x 1cm x 1cm. An aluminum cube this size will have a mass of 2.0 g, while a titanium cube will have a mass of 4.4-4.5g.

Regarding strength, the above claim refers to strength/weight ratio. In other words, how strong is the metal relative to how much it weighs. The strength weight ratio of stainless steel alloys ranges from 25-70, while titanium alloys range from 60-190.

So in conclusion, Titanium is NOT lighter than aluminum, and has a higher strength to weight ratio than stainless steel. However, you will NEVER see a support beam for a building made of titanium because the cost ratio is way too high.

PS. I don't know if the hinge and lighter colored part of the Ti Book is actually titanium. From the way that hinge broke, it is probably polycarbonate or some other plastic. Titanium would probably bend A LOT before it broke. That breaking pattern is characteristic of a polymer.

[MadMacs]

I wonder if he had weakend it by accidentaly closing his lid with a wire between the base and the lcd. I know that was one mistake I made a couple times on my Pismo. It didn't do any harm, but it made me concerned.

The gap between the Ti base and LCD are narrower, but if you just caught the edge of a usb mouse wire or some other wire it might have weakend it, eventually causing the condition he now has.

Apple should still repair it for free. I was under the impression that the hinges were made of metal until I read this thread.