Are laptops really this fragile?

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toweltowel
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
My RDF is starting to fade. I bought my iBook in August 2002. In the last 14 months, it's gone through three logic boards (just got number 4 two weeks ago) and just today got shipped back for a dead backlight. The battery started progressively losing its capacity after six months, and now holds less than 5 minutes charge.



I treat this machine like my child. In fact, if I had a child I'd treat this machine better. My labmates laugh at how gentle I am with it. As for the battery, even when it worked the machine spend 90+% of the time plugged in.



AppleCare was a no-brainer after the second logic board replacement, so none of this has cost me *extra* money (though I've been given the "batteries are consumables" line so far). But does this seem ridiculous? Am I wrong to expect to *not* lose my machine for a week every few months? Has anyone had an even more voodoo-ridden laptop?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    Yes--something is wrong with that laptop.



    "though I've been given the "batteries are consumables" line so far)."



    Huh. They never say anything to me, and I always replace my batteries under AppleCare as soon as they act low.
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  • Reply 2 of 5
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Towel

    Has anyone had an even more voodoo-ridden laptop?



    a few users here seemed to experience similarly bad iBook mojo.

    search the threads for "dead iBook" and i think you'll discover whom.

    maybe not enough for a support group.
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  • Reply 3 of 5
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Apple recently changed their policy on dead batteries, basically saying that if they die you're SOL. However, since it's an older iBook, they probably still had their old policy when you bought AppleCare. If so, you're in luck - tell them that your warranty clearly states that batteries ARE covered (after actually checking that they are, of course).



    Also, if it gives you problems over and over again, ask for a full replacement, or at least ask them to replace other components that might be causing problems instead of just giving you a new logic board and having it die within a few months again. It's obviously some other problem. I've heard that a lot of iBooks go through multiple logic boards because there's some faulty power line that shorts out the board or something like that. Bring that up and maybe they'll listen.



    Apparently, if you have recurring problems of the same type (i.e. many failing logic boards) you can get a replacement. If you have lots of unrelated problems you can't though.
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  • Reply 4 of 5
    low-filow-fi Posts: 357member
    And if your really lucky, you might be able to throw some extra money at them and get a Powerbook. I have heard of a number of cases of this in the last week, and it makes sense if you can afford it (IMHO!)
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  • Reply 5 of 5
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    I´m on my third logic board and second power adaptor. Bought it November 2002



    It seems like my book goes bad one week after Ihave used external screens (TV and projector) and I plan on using them a lot more. We have two years of warranties here so I figured if they got my book in each month (They have an exellent service here. Less than a week away for repairs each time) sooner or later they say "**** it. We give him a new one".
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