Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > I hate this AluBook

I hate this AluBook (Page 2)
Thread Tools
SunHawk
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jan 2006
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 8, 2006, 05:59 PM
 
Thanks JKT; I was hoping such was the case. : ) I'm keeping fingers crossed that when my replacement PB arrives next week, I'll have only glowing things to say and no "grump, grump, grump" about major problems right out of the box.

I do have a couple of questions though. [Moderators: Please feel free to move this if the following belongs elsewhere]. I've read in some Mac forums that the PB hardware quality seems to be dropping somewhat, and that Apple sometimes tends to be not as responsive to issues/problems as they once were. I'm wondering if that is a trend with Apple, or is it merely a reflection of the fact that *happy campers* generally don't post on tech support or help forums? It's important to me if it is a trend, because I do not have much tech knowledge despite decades of using computers. Thus, I need a stable and reliable system that doesn't require a lot of tinkering, and stuff like DOS commands & "write an Apple script for [...]" scare the bajeebers outta me! Soooo, is the PB a wise choice for a low-tech mind who wants a laptop for SOHO use, web surfing, basic photo editing, and no gaming?

Thanks again.
     
BENJMNS
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Dec 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 8, 2006, 06:46 PM
 
i think it's great for what you're looking for sunhawk.

bottom line, i went thru a new 15, and now 2 17s.

15 had the systemic black lines issue.

first 17 had the delete key not working right

this 17 i'm typing on now has a flashing right side of screen when put into sleep mode.
     
JKT
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: London, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 8, 2006, 07:16 PM
 
First of all, a recent (PC World?) survey of the computing world put Apple at the top of the support tree in terms of people's experience with them... read into that what you will, it's a survey so it will have flaws (and Apple users can be biased toward their platform in a way that blinds them to faults and admitting to those faults). There was another survey (released last week I think, I forget by whom) of 10 000 Apple laptop users which asked them for various responses on a wide range of topics. E.g. some near 20% of people actually admitted to dropping their PowerBook at least once (ouch! hopefully that never happens to me ); the white iBook G3s were extremely prone to logic board failure; the first generation 15" AlBook was prone to screen failure (due to the notorious white spot issue). However, what was apparent was that 1st and 2nd year reliability of the AlBooks has been better than most other PowerBook models... again there could be flaws in that study (the most obvious being that many people won't have had the new model PowerBooks long enough to to experience potential high failure rates).

The long and short of it is that people complaining about Apple's falling standards are possibly blowing gas out of their arses on the basis of anecdotal evidence. Who on earth knows? Only the people doing the figures at Apple will know the answer to that. Occasionally there have been models of PowerBook and iBook etc that have been flawed from the start (e.g. the TiBook is notorious for flaking paint, and the aforementioned white spotting in 1stG 15" Als and failing logic boards in iBookG3s). With this current crop of PowerBooks we are on the third or fourth revision of what is essentially the same machine... in other words many of the problems in the first revision don't exist in the new ones, but the new tech added to the latter revisions makes it possible that other issues may occur.

What you speculate is also true - people who have problems shout about them (and when you have many problems you shout about them a heck of a lot more) which can drown out those that don't. Many computer users will have little to no problems at all with their computer; a significant proportion will have relatively minor problems that are easily solved; another significant proportion will have relatively serious problems that are solvable and done so with no problems; an unfortunate few will have severe problems all the time that can't be solved; a truly unfortunate few will suffer the lemon nightmare of getting successive replacement machines that also prove to be lemons (but that is only going to be a tiny minority).

With AppleCare, it is a mixed bag - some people have nothing but good experience with them and then there is the opposite experience where it is all bad... I doubt if the latter forms the majority though given the result of the first survey I mentioned above... Personally, I think the PB I have is a fantastically well made machine and that is despite the fact that I have had problems with it - even though it was a second generation 15" AlBook, it developed the white spot issue. I took it to the Apple Store on Regent Street here in London just before I went on a holiday and it was fixed, ready and waiting for me when I got back a few days later. No problems at all. My only serious complaint about the AlBook design is just how difficult it is to keep it clean... but I suspect that is probably true of other laptops as well (this is my first). Other than that, there are just too many good things about the design that you wouldn't think would make that much of a difference but actually do (the backlit keyboard being just one example). As for Mac OS - it has it's faults, it isn't perfect, and it will feel like an alien when you first use it - no doubt you will experience a degree of frustration using it owing to your Windows background as it requires something of a mind shift to adapt to a different way of doing things, but believe me, Windows is a steaming pile of dog turd in comparison (with the odd exception) once you learn the Mac way.
( Last edited by JKT; Jan 8, 2006 at 07:23 PM. )
     
JKT
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: London, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 8, 2006, 07:26 PM
 
Another thing to realise is that laptops, by their very nature, are going to be more prone to experiencing failures of one kind or another than desktops due to their exposure to potential extremes (it is far easier to drop your laptop than it is to drop your desktop for example). It is one of the compromises you make when buying one. The best made, most prefect laptop ever will still smash to bits if you drop it in the wrong place from the wrong height and it lands in the wrong way...
     
brettcamp
Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: great northwest
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 9, 2006, 12:00 AM
 
The survey JKT mentions was conducted by MacInTouch and is available on their site. Consumer Reports also named Apple's laptops as among the most reliable in the field.
     
mduell
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 9, 2006, 12:35 AM
 
Originally Posted by brettcamp
Consumer Reports also named Apple's laptops as among the most reliable in the field.
In ConsumerReport's 2005 survey on laptop reliability Apple was placed fourth, statistically indifferent from Sony, IBM, Toshiba, HP, Dell, Compaq, and Gateway (in that order) for repairs and serious problems. In desktops Apple is first, by a 3.5% margin.
     
aristobrat
Forum Regular
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Va Beach, VA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 9, 2006, 03:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by christ
I propose to abandon Migration Assistant, and after yet another clean install I will manually copy/ install everything that I need. This may (just may) solve my sleep problem, but it is a significant amount of effort - hardly as easy as it should be (i.e as Apple advertise it).
Any luck with this?

I'm a recent switcher (read: I don't really know what I'm doing half the time but that doesn't stop me from doinking around with OS X) with the new 15" PB and have none of 10.4.3 stability / sleep issues that you're experiencing.

Have the same problem with the front angle of the PB hurting my hands but haven't had any problems carrying it or it feeling like it's wanting to slip out of my hands. Maybe because it's always so humid around here?
     
freakboy2
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 9, 2006, 11:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by christ
Where would I be without you.

My advice remains - Don't buy one of these turkeys.
yeah man, i'm sure other people are pointing this out, but you're either running something weird on your powerbook or else you managed to get two lemons.

it sounds more like they probably sent you back the same one you sent to them without fixing anything.

Send it back. Powerbooks don't have any of the stability problems you're describing.

(either that, our you a just a stupid troll.)

but send it back. get a new one.

btw, i think what people find offensive is saying stuff like "your design sucks" to a guy who used to work at apple. And then bitching simply because you installed crap onto your new computer that you have no idea how to troubleshoot. do a clean install, Put the machine to sleep. Wake it up, if it works, THEN IT'S SOMETHING ELSE YOU INSTALLED ON IT.

as someone said, it's probably that the 2nd ethernet card won't work with it.

I don't think we need to be apple appologists here. I like my powerbook, and i will disagree with people telling others not to buy one because it has a sharp edge and OSX isn't stable. I've never crashed OSX on any macs I've used. (ok that's not true, my 5 year old cube crashed once when i tripped over my usb hub's powercord, while it was trying to pull data off a cardreader.) [once in 5 years x multiple machines.]
( Last edited by freakboy2; Jan 9, 2006 at 11:50 PM. )
     
BENJMNS
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Dec 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 10, 2006, 12:13 AM
 
Originally Posted by freakboy2
yeah man, i'm sure other people are pointing this out, but you're either running something weird on your powerbook or else you managed to get two lemons.

it sounds more like they probably sent you back the same one you sent to them without fixing anything.

Send it back. Powerbooks don't have any of the stability problems you're describing.

(either that, our you a just a stupid troll.)

but send it back. get a new one.

btw, i think what people find offensive is saying stuff like "your design sucks" to a guy who used to work at apple. And then bitching simply because you installed crap onto your new computer that you have no idea how to troubleshoot. do a clean install, Put the machine to sleep. Wake it up, if it works, THEN IT'S SOMETHING ELSE YOU INSTALLED ON IT.

as someone said, it's probably that the 2nd ethernet card won't work with it.

I don't think we need to be apple appologists here. I like my powerbook, and i will disagree with people telling others not to buy one because it has a sharp edge and OSX isn't stable. I've never crashed OSX on any macs I've used. (ok that's not true, my 5 year old cube crashed once when i tripped over my usb hub's powercord, while it was trying to pull data off a cardreader.) [once in 5 years x multiple machines.]
i'm a new mac user. 17" hi-res.

the OS has given me the beachball and hunge up a few times. nothing special.

overall, i like it a lot. no nonesense. very pretty interface. good integration.
     
Poolin1243
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 10, 2006, 12:35 AM
 
i am also in the same boat as christ here. This is my second AuPowerbook that ive had. The reason it is my second one is because my first one was a lemon, meaning, it had more problems than a rusty old ford festiva does. my second one though, has had so many problems as well. The screen has dead pixels, and dark corners. The logic board, DC in board, and hard drive, all have been replaced. For 2400.00...my powerbook, which is only 9 months old, should definately be in better shape, and should just "run" as everybody says they do. But the thing is, that it doesnt just run, and now, the genius bar people know me by name! I understand your sentiments, and believe there are some serious quality issues. I dont know if it is the parts that apple is using, or it is in the manufacturing, but 2 powerbooks with plenty of issues is enough. the scariest part is that ive used sony machines with less problems....makes you think...is steve looking out for us?

just my 2 cents.
     
aristobrat
Forum Regular
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Va Beach, VA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 10, 2006, 12:05 PM
 
Originally Posted by Poolin1243
i am also in the same boat as christ here.
IMO, I wouldn't say you're in the same boat as christ.

Your PB issues sound 100% hardware related -- dead pixels, dark corners, replaced logic board, hard drives, etc.

Christ's PB issues sound software related -- can't change locations without rebooting, 10.4.3 not being stable, PB won't sleep reliably, PC card ethernet not reliable, etc.

Every laptop manufacturer puts out lemons, including Apple and Sony. Like mduell mentioned in his post, Consumer Reports rated Apple #4 in laptop quality, which is statistically indifferent from the others.
     
freakboy2
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 10, 2006, 12:24 PM
 
Originally Posted by Poolin1243
i am also in the same boat as christ here. This is my second AuPowerbook that ive had. The reason it is my second one is because my first one was a lemon, meaning, it had more problems than a rusty old ford festiva does. my second one though, has had so many problems as well. The screen has dead pixels, and dark corners. The logic board, DC in board, and hard drive, all have been replaced. For 2400.00...my powerbook, which is only 9 months old, should definately be in better shape, and should just "run" as everybody says they do. But the thing is, that it doesnt just run, and now, the genius bar people know me by name! I understand your sentiments, and believe there are some serious quality issues. I dont know if it is the parts that apple is using, or it is in the manufacturing, but 2 powerbooks with plenty of issues is enough. the scariest part is that ive used sony machines with less problems....makes you think...is steve looking out for us?

just my 2 cents.
wow, why did it cost 2400 to fix?!?! Or is that what you paid for it?

i think that the point here is not that apple makes lemon laptops sometimes, but i think it's fair enough to warn people that it can happen, without telling people to avoid them at all costs, etc.

The fact is that most people don't get lemons from apple, and if they do, if they have anything like my experience with apple's support, they leave happy.

and as for sony and how their laptops do under warrantee.. what warrantee? the sony i bought for my wife came with a 30 or 90 day warrantee. After that, i had to buy one from the store. The machine is currently back at the store being fixed, but not by sony.
     
 
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 02:02 PM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,