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!!! And it looks like they only offer a 3 month warranty on repaired hardware! <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />
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.