Apple Warranties aren't worth the paper they come on!!!
***RANT******
OK, now I have an Apple Cube, not too old but old enough to be out of warranty (not too hard considering Apple's warranties) and now its almost completely kaput!!!! I crashes ALL the time (every day) even in Mac OS X (lastest update), covering the screen with scary UNIX-y black computer blurge saying stuff like cpu0 ... invalid stack .... hanging .... waiting for debugger..... and stuff, its not a pretty sight. I mean, I do know there is something wrong with the computer itself probably with the CPU or something. But what can I do??? Its not like a PC where I could just buy a new processor and upgrade it.....
The annoying thing is that to get it fixed by Apple, it'd cost £450! Also, this computer's being used by my parents and so I can't even help them when it crashes and doesn't boot up or does other wierd things because I'm not at home.... it gets incredibly frustrating telling them to reboot the computer over the phone over and over and over again until it starts working again. They really hate Apple now, I mean I've had a couple of PCs before the Cube, a Dell and a Gateway and some notebooks, but apart from Windows nonsense, they've been absolutely fine. This is the first computer to actually have the CPU fry or something. They were actually impressed and stuff when I showed them how to use it properly and showed them iPhoto and stuff, (in the middle of it crashing), but they just don't think that Apple makes good hardware. They think its was expensive (which is was admittedly), useless (currently it is ....) but looks good, it's just left a bad taste in their mouths.
I'm thinking of selling it on eBay, saying everything about it and saying stuff like, 'ideal for upgrading' as in the dual G4 cube and stuff. Figuring I could get about half the price of an iMac (selling the monitor as well) and then telling them to buy an iMac and just trust me. I mean my iBook is perfect, hasn't crashed ONCE!!!!! So I know Apple do make good computers usually, its just we got a dud. The stooopid warranty doesn't help either, I know we should have got an Applecare plan, but this was our first Apple, how were we to know the limitations of the warranty, I mean 90 days telephone support??? What's that??? I got LIFETIME telephone support with the Gateway??? And ONE year hardware warranty??? Couldn't they make it three??? I don't mind having to send the computer off its just people shouldn't have to buy extended warranties to get a half decent warranty!!!!
Anyway, damnit, rant just about over ..... anyone got any advise on what I should do???
OK, now I have an Apple Cube, not too old but old enough to be out of warranty (not too hard considering Apple's warranties) and now its almost completely kaput!!!! I crashes ALL the time (every day) even in Mac OS X (lastest update), covering the screen with scary UNIX-y black computer blurge saying stuff like cpu0 ... invalid stack .... hanging .... waiting for debugger..... and stuff, its not a pretty sight. I mean, I do know there is something wrong with the computer itself probably with the CPU or something. But what can I do??? Its not like a PC where I could just buy a new processor and upgrade it.....
The annoying thing is that to get it fixed by Apple, it'd cost £450! Also, this computer's being used by my parents and so I can't even help them when it crashes and doesn't boot up or does other wierd things because I'm not at home.... it gets incredibly frustrating telling them to reboot the computer over the phone over and over and over again until it starts working again. They really hate Apple now, I mean I've had a couple of PCs before the Cube, a Dell and a Gateway and some notebooks, but apart from Windows nonsense, they've been absolutely fine. This is the first computer to actually have the CPU fry or something. They were actually impressed and stuff when I showed them how to use it properly and showed them iPhoto and stuff, (in the middle of it crashing), but they just don't think that Apple makes good hardware. They think its was expensive (which is was admittedly), useless (currently it is ....) but looks good, it's just left a bad taste in their mouths.
I'm thinking of selling it on eBay, saying everything about it and saying stuff like, 'ideal for upgrading' as in the dual G4 cube and stuff. Figuring I could get about half the price of an iMac (selling the monitor as well) and then telling them to buy an iMac and just trust me. I mean my iBook is perfect, hasn't crashed ONCE!!!!! So I know Apple do make good computers usually, its just we got a dud. The stooopid warranty doesn't help either, I know we should have got an Applecare plan, but this was our first Apple, how were we to know the limitations of the warranty, I mean 90 days telephone support??? What's that??? I got LIFETIME telephone support with the Gateway??? And ONE year hardware warranty??? Couldn't they make it three??? I don't mind having to send the computer off its just people shouldn't have to buy extended warranties to get a half decent warranty!!!!
Anyway, damnit, rant just about over ..... anyone got any advise on what I should do???
Comments
reinstall mac os x.
this is a kernel panic issue...
not hardware
I've encountered WAY too many Dells that have lots of problems.
<strong>Or you could buy a dell, where the warranty is fine, but you have to send it back all the time since it always breaks.
I've encountered WAY too many Dells that have lots of problems.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Quite a few of my friends have Dells and they've never once had to get a problem fixed.
I bought my AirPort Base Station (white/second edition) in late November, and in January I was having unbelievably obnoxious (and intermittent) problems with it's port redirection feature. Which I need to do stuff like Apple Remote Desktop (well, I was using Timbuktu at the time--same deal, though) Apache, FTP, AFP (filesharing), SSH, SnapperHead, Hotline server, etc etc, because I'm using DHCP and NAT. So I call them up and they tell me that they don't support any of it, and I was taken aback, I had to get the guy to repeat to me that they don't choose to support a feature of their own damn PRODUCT!
What a worthless POS this base station is, at least for what I was under the FALSE IMPRESSION I could use it for... I still have problems where between 1 and 3 out of 4 connections that people from even in my area try don't get through the base station to the computers I've directed the traffic to. Several of my friends with the same base stations have the exact same problem. But Apple doesn't give a shit.
<strong>Or you could buy a dell, where the warranty is fine, but you have to send it back all the time since it always breaks.
I've encountered WAY too many Dells that have lots of problems.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I have a Dell that is over 3 years old, runs 12 to 15 hours a day, and has never had one problem that required service. I have never even had to call customer support.
<strong>
I have a Dell that is over 3 years old, runs 12 to 15 hours a day, and has never had one problem that required service. I have never even had to call customer support.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Are they Dell notebooks/laptops? As I may have said in the past, I do some side work for Princeton's Office of Information Tech, which involves dealing with student computer issues. I see an awful lot of Lattitudes and Inspirons that have faulty mobos, wiring, etc. Particularly problematic is the wiring to the monitor, which interestingly enough is the only thing Dell really does. The Thinkpads, Toshibas, and Sony's out there seem to have a better record.
Dell desktops don't seem to have too much trouble. My Pops has some in his office that all had bad NIC's, but that's more of a 3Com issue, and perhaps bad QC on Dell's part.
reformat the hard drive.
reinstall mac os x.
this is a kernel panic issue...
not hardware <hr></blockquote>
I originally hoped it was only a hard drive issue or something and so I tested the hard drive using the Install CD (to boot off) and Drive Setup and it came out fine. I also used my iBook (which is fine by the way) as a firewire drive and booted off that for a while but it still crashed in the same way .....
I also used another program ( I forgot which .... I think it was an cpu program which gave the temperature and cache and stuff (mac os 9 program)) to test the RAM which also came out fine and I swapped some modules in and out and still it crashed.
I tried reinstalling and everything before but I didn't try this "write to zero" option which sounds interesting ..... where is it??? Maybe just maybe that would help.....
Sad but most probably true......just feels kinda unjust to waste a perfectly fine computer .... which is more than adequate for my parents .... and having to waste more money just to get a working computer.
Hey cool!!!!!!! You seem to know what you're talking about! Suggest any good ones. I don't mind outlaying a little bit of money for official (ie non-carracho-ed) software if my computer gets fixed!!!!!!!!!!
<strong>
Hey cool!!!!!!! You seem to know what you're talking about! Suggest any good ones. I don't mind outlaying a little bit of money for official (ie non-carracho-ed) software if my computer gets fixed!!!!!!!!!!</strong><hr></blockquote>
The solution to your problem is quite simple.
Reformat the hard drive
Re-install system software
It's not a "Cube" issue.
[ 04-28-2002: Message edited by: Bodhi ]</p>
<strong>
The solution to your problem is quite simple.
Reformat the hard drive
Re-install system software
It's not a "Cube" issue.
[ 04-28-2002: Message edited by: Bodhi ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Perhaps I read it wrong, but I was under the impression (s)he had already done that.
Yeah, I'd tried it before but I'm gonna try it again but looking at my hard disk with Norton and using the 'write to zero' option. Its worth another try, the worst that could happen is my computer is the same afterwards as it was before! One thing though, how come the same thing happened when I was using my iBook as a firewire boot drive ..... was the cube still using files on its own hard disk???