Dead iBook Survey
I'm wondering what proportion of AI iBook owners have been hit by the iBook "Screen Goes Crazy and iBook Dies" motherboard problem. I would guess that qualifying iBooks would be any iBook bought since the last major motherboard revision in Spring '02.
1. (me): Yes, bought 8/02, died at six months of age (2/02).
1. (me): Yes, bought 8/02, died at six months of age (2/02).
Comments
* runs and hides *
<a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid={613D2CD4-57E7-495F-87BD- 9068D0ECA1D4%7D&siteid=mktw" target="_blank">Faulty PCs still widespread, hindering tech advances</a>
funny - it isn't.
Now, 6 months later the Combo drive is dead again and not mounting any media!!!
So my iBook isn't "Dead" but if something does happen to it it is almost as good as without the ability to reinstall the system software or boot from diagnostic CDs.
<strong>1. (me): Yes, bought 8/02, died at six months of age (2/02).</strong><hr></blockquote>
haven't heard of ANY on campus... and I see quite a bit of iBooks on campus...
(most bought 8/02, 12" and 14"ers)
In December I opened the machine and noticed one of the backlight cables had been worn out. Since I could not get hold of a new cable set (not too many of those around here in Finland) I soldered another cable in parallel to the faulty one. The machine has been working fine ever since. I fear that it'll break again though.. To me it looks like the hinge design will wear out the cable eventually.
Some pics and info on my remedy here: <a href="http://www.onda-media.com/jani/ibook/"; target="_blank">http://www.onda-media.com/jani/ibook/</a>;
--
Zeroel
P.s. First post, not a virgin anymore
[ 03-17-2003: Message edited by: zeroel ]</p>
Originally posted by FrostyMMB
People find comfort knowing that they aren't the only ones with a computer defect. I however find comfort knowing that it rarely happens...
I'm just curious how rare it is. Most computer problems are fairly idiosyncratic, and happen more often in older computers - the intersection of random chance and MTBF. This one is odd, because it presents with very consistent symptoms, and seems to happen exclusively in *new* computers. Obviously only Apple has info on the failure rate, but there have been a steady trickle of cases on Apple's boards. Here at AI we have a fairly well-definied Mac community, and it might be possible to make some half-assed estimate of the frequency.
At the low end, 3 of us (crobin, Fellowship, Towel) have reported this problem, out of 7000+ AI members. If they all own iBooks, that's 0.05%.
So far, there's 15 iBooks reported bought and used by AI'ers (including jesperas's gf and alcimedes's 5). 3/15 = way more than reality.
If the truth is, for a half-assed guess, in the 0.5-2.0% range, then, consistent with what's been reported, most people would never experience the problem, and even your average 50-iBook lab probably wouldn't (.99^50 = 0.61). A handful of unlucky souls would get bit twice. But for a single component (NOT the computer as a whole) to have that kind of failure rate *would* be remarkable.
Originally posted by Towel
If the truth is, for a half-assed guess, in the 0.5-2.0% range, then, consistent with what's been reported, most people would never experience the problem, and even your average 50-iBook lab probably wouldn't (.99^50 = 0.61). A handful of unlucky souls would get bit twice. But for a single component (NOT the computer as a whole) to have that kind of failure rate *would* be remarkable.
If it was in the 0.5% range, that works out to be 500 PPM (parts per million), which would be unacceptable in my industry (auto).
For some reason, I would expect a computer to be more reliable than a car. Quick—let's make Car/Computer analogies about this!
Woulda, shoulda, coulda... gotten AppleCare!
Escher
My mother's iBook 500 is fine still
A friend got an iBook 2 weeks ago in Switzerland.. and he supposedly has the same problem - his iBook is now being fixed right now.