ROAR (Apple rant)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:24 pm

Just a tiny rant.

In early September, I replaced my Mac with a new one. I'm a graphic design major so we had to purchase ours through the school's mandatory laptop program (eyeroll). While I have fallen in love with the interface and general ease of the mac os, it really sucks when it comes to performance and I don't know... craftsmanship?

I replaced the old MBP because it was literally a fire hazard and completely worn down. This new MBP DIDN'T EVEN LAST A MONTH.

It just suddenly stopped working on me today when I came back from work. It was PERFECTLY FINE last night when I shut it down. After running Disk Repair unsuccessfully, it told me to just back up what I can and reformat the disk because it's a goner. But I can't even DO THAT because by some reason or another, IN THE SPAN OF LESS THAN 24 HOURS, SUDDENLY MY STARTUP DISK HAS COMPLETELY FILLED UP. FROM 300GB TO 0KB.

Thanks to its sudden "Less than 0KB available", I can't even reformat the disk. To add insult to injury, the best reservation the genius bar can offer me is on Thursday at 9 PM.

I feel VERY sorry for the poor "genius" that has to see me that day.
I'm almost looking forward to it.

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:09 pm

Oosh, that sucks. I've always firmly believed that Apple makes brilliant software and complete sh*t hardware. Seriously that stuff falls apart if you look at it funny. And yet, I keep buying it because I love the Mac OS and the general interface. So I totally understand where you're coming from. Their tech support is fairly good, though. I'd definitely take it in to the apple store. It should be still covered under warranty, so they'll be willing to bend over backwards to fix their crappy hardware.

Actually, I just got my macbook back from repair today. They have very nice customer service. Rr.

Post by **Dray** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 7:44 am

:x I have a MBP and I hear so many horror stories... I'm knocking on wood hoping that none of this stuff happens to mine at least until I've graduated. So far the only crap that's happened to it is that the place where I rest my hands has these little tiny holes in it, as if my sweat burned little acid-pocks into the surface... and the battery likes to think that anywhere between 25% and 40% left REALLY means 0%, so I have to hook it up far more quickly than I used to...

>_>" That last one is more recent. *chews on nails* It is only a few months after my warranty expired, too....

delyar · Post by **delyar** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:04 pm

My boyfriend's a huge Mac fan whereas I usually get PCs. Our laptops have the exact same specs, except his kicks mine's ass. Like we'll be playing Warcraft side by side on the same connection and he'll get half my latency and twice my FPS. It drives me nuts. That said, his mac's keyboard and touchpad is dead.

I'm in love with the Mac interface and whatnot, but I'm absolutely terrified of getting one and having it break, even though my Dell isn't doing so hot at a year old anyway. (The Airs look so tasty for an on-the-go biology student... but expensive.)

Post by **Dray** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:23 pm

Airs are overpriced for what they are... one USB port and crappy specs! The only thing they're really good for is looking pretty, as far as I'm concerned (and I'm 'a mac person' or whatever so I don't know, maybe that says something. XD)

I was thinking of getting a Dell after this laptop gives up the ghost, just to see how different everything is. I've had mac-brand computers since 1999, I'm losing my bi-computer-lingual touch!

delyar · Post by **delyar** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:54 pm

Oh I know they're totally overpriced. I'm assuming the price will come down eventually, though. The only thing really turning me off otherwise is the teeny tiny harddrive space. I like to do all my stuff on ONE computer, not a ton of EHDs.

My Dell is an Inspiron 1520 which I bought two Christmases ago and while I found it pretty sweet initially, it's such a pain now. It overheats and kills its wireless adapter routinely (which causes the entire system to slow down to the point where the mouse barely moves), so I'm currently LANing it up. The internal fan is not strong enough and rarely kicks in until the vent is burning hot to the touch. It's heavy. It runs slowly in general (though that's most likely Vista). It has trouble playing games like Spore, Sims3, WoW without overheating within the first 10ish minutes. My display driver would routinely crash in raids as well, which eventually forced me to stop raiding :(. That said, it's fairly sturdy. (I dropped it in an airport and it still works though the CD drive is unhappy.)

So I guess there's good and bad on both sides.

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:01 pm

*grin* My poor lil' iBook...all it can do now is sit in a bag and collect dust 'cause it's mommy can't go buy it a new power cord. Of course, that thing is so OLD and SLOW that's darn near worthless. But it has all my graphics programs for graphic design on it (which are on disk but only for a mac...grrr), so I still have it. Just in case.

If I ever go back to school, it's getting replaced. I'm just not sure with what yet.

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:17 pm

If you do get a mac, I can't recommend the AppleCare protection plan enough. It does cost a bit extra, but in terms of the free repairs I've gotten for my laptop it's paid for itself five times over.

While my macbook was in the shop I used my old Dell Inspiron that was about 5 years old. At first it was kind of like "Huh? What? Get off my lawn," but with some coaxing it worked quite well. Slow, but as decent as can be expected from a computer that was five years old and hadn't been used in two. However the reason I stopped using and bought the macbook to begin with was because it was insanely heavy. The power adapter alone weighed almost as much as my macbook. I know Dell does make smaller models, so those might be good.

I'd say the mac is like a sleek sports car that runs beautifully but sometimes has engine trouble, and the Dell is like a tank that plods along dutifully but doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles.

dracosinfernoweyr · Post by **dracosinfernoweyr** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:30 pm

I'd recommend Dell to anyone looking for a new computer, I received my Inspiron B130 as a gift in 2004 and have had no problems at all in five years, knock on wood. Nothing other than a worn out power cord that is, which was just the internal wires breaking over time due to wiggling and is easily replaced, even if I did have to sit on the phone with the tech support guy telling me to take out my battery and plug it in and do this and that to test different things when I knew it was the cord. That involved about 30 minutes of going "Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That didn't work. Mm-hmm." while staring at my laptop and flipping through a book. XD

The graphics card does have a heart attack if I play Sims 2 for an extended period of time, but that's probably for the greater good because I'd be procrastinating even harder if I had the Sims to play. XD; It does get hot, but a chillpad stuck to the bottom with some velcro helps immensely with the heat.

Dell is the winrar in my book, but I've heard good things about Toshiba as well.

Post by **StarFyre** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:27 pm

Actually, a Mac Air is good for one more thing... it's thin enough and solid enough to cut a man's throat open if swung right. (Don't ask how I know this.. I associated with strange people one summer...)

I personally prefer my Lenovo thinkpads. Solid as a brick and good at what they're built to do (which depends upon how you spec the thing out).

The one brand I absolutely-positively suggest everyone avoid at all costs is HP. I have now seen three distinct HP branded laptops, all different models and ages, heat-death within one to two years. Boom. Dead. GGNORE. (Wow it's been forever since I used that acronym... takes me back to my StarCraft days on b-net.) And HP tech-support refuses to deal with it because it's not a "known failure".

Keilin Alyr · Post by **Keilin Alyr** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:37 pm

dracosinfernoweyr wrote:Dell is the winrar in my book, but I've heard good things about Toshiba as well.

Can't say I'd personally recommend either company from my personal experience, especially Toshiba, given how often my roommate and his sister had to send in their laptops for repairs. But as much as I loved Miko, my Dell Inspiron, she tended to choke up with routine use. Trying to run anything aggressive was hit or miss, not to mention leaving me with a scalded lap if I was being absent-minded and placing it on my lap. She didn't overheat quite as badly as my ThinkBook (that one left scars on my legs once), but she did suffer performance issues as a result.

Not to mention, as Astra mentioned with hers, that laptop was heavy. Huge too.

I suppose I'll get bricked for this, but I personally adore my husband's MacBook Pro. It's been spoiling us rotten for the past two years, with no hardware or software issues to speak of. It's the primary reason I own an iMac now. I also hear nothing but good things about Mac hardware from friends and my husband's coworkers, so... *shrugs*

I did hear at one point that one of the MBP series were issued with faulty motherboards that had to be recalled, so that may be the cause of a good bit of the MBP hardware agony.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 8:39 pm

Dray wrote: and the battery likes to think that anywhere between 25% and 40% left REALLY means 0%, so I have to hook it up far more quickly than I used to...

Mine did that too. Quite irritating.

Astra wrote: I'd say the mac is like a sleek sports car that runs beautifully but sometimes has engine trouble, and the Dell is like a tank that plods along dutifully but doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles.

That's a pretty good comparison. I always tell my friends that the mac needs to be babied and is extremely high maintenance whereas I can just chuck around my older Asus without any problems. And AppleCare is DEFINITELY a necessity with an apple computer. I don't know what I'd do without it.

Still counting down the days till I can go to the genius bar... I'm hoping I'll be mature enough to hold back my temper and be kind.

Post by **Dray** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 8:04 am

Hold the temper for the managers. As a gatekeeper deskjocky I know that yelling at the underlings is worth piffle (and they usually just shut you out) but if you can politely all up their boss and scream at them, you might get some ">:D" looks from their way...

>_> Well, if they dislike their bosses as much as I disliked mine! XDD

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:21 pm

See..... I have always pretty much assembled my own from parts, with friends helping me. And I've never had more than an overheat issue with my toaster-sized computer...

My laptop has also never given me problems, I did take it in very early on to figure out just exactly how much hard drive space it really had (because it's an HP it allots a considerable amount more for backup than I'd want) but aside from that, over time the only issue has been the battery and that's expected.

I'd never buy an extra service warrantee, for my part because it's not money I have, but also... doesn't it seem more like you've HAD to take the macs in more often? I'd rather just have a piece of equipment that WORKS, than have some extensive bunch of people ready to fix it WHEN it goes wrong.

Now, also I have to say: my laptop has never given me issues but it was like pulling teeth to get me to buy one. My ex had gone through THREE of them in as many years, so I mistrusted them entirely.

My hp is pretty good. I hardly use it now, because my router in the house isn't connected so it's kind of pointless outside of using my very large scanner with it. but still, it's hardly ever given me any trouble, and I remain boggled that so many folks don't just make their own computer with parts. It's best to find out how to build your own, really, because you can make far more educated decisions about it all from start to finish. My only issue there is that I lack the tools to completely disassemble mine, (desktop) so I can't get at the heat sink properly right now. Aside from that issue though, I could and have buy and install new equipment in it with no real hassle. *shrug*

plus: lolmac. I heard they finally got [fill in the blank game] last year.

Post by **Dray** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:11 pm

"I remain boggled that so many folks don't just make their own computer with parts."

Mac products highly discourage this. People eat it up -- we get dumbed down and distracted by shiny things. For example, watch an mac ad in the last few years (regardless of if it's for the airbook, or iPod/phone/whatever) and the primary point of the ad campaign is "Oooh, the colours!" There's nothing about anything of the products parts or capabilities. Because macs are very pretty on the outside and discourage futzing around (even the software to a certain extent) there's a definite push on consumers not to learn... it's more expensive that way and that's what the producers want!

D: It's worked so well on me. Whenever I hear anything about RAM or fixing things my eyes glaze over and I get that sort of scared deer look.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:30 pm

*lol*

Yeah that's partly why I can't take mac's seriously. It's a shame, I know they're good computers, but frankly they just don't do what *I* want out of them, and I *like* opening up my computer and making sure that everything's working right

*glances down at caseless computer sitting there* yup.

Post by **Dray** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:41 pm

I remember Kat dusting out her tower one time and for that I'm grateful to have a for-dumbies computer. XDD The hairballs... ye gads...

delyar · Post by **delyar** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:56 pm

If I had a desktop I would totally build my own (with the help of lots of more tech-savvy guildies). But building your own laptop... yeah unlikely. I just want a laptop that can play my Warcrack and is light/durable enough to bring to class.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:59 pm

Dray wrote:I remember Kat dusting out her tower one time and for that I'm grateful to have a for-dumbies computer. XDD The hairballs... ye gads...

Just because your mac isn't often opened, doesn't mean there are no hairballs in it...

And yeah I'm more talking about assembling a desktop, lappies are great for students and folks who have to be on the move a lot for work, but for people like me, I rely upon my desktop jobber and will continue to do so until I can no longer get it to start.

Eventually I'll be putting windows 7 on it, unless by that time something better comes along (lol) so I'll still be able to play all my old games.

By then, some mac users will be able to play those games ... hahahaha.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 5:31 pm

Dray wrote:Hold the temper for the managers. As a gatekeeper deskjocky I know that yelling at the underlings is worth piffle (and they usually just shut you out) but if you can politely all up their boss and scream at them, you might get some ">:D" looks from their way...

>_> Well, if they dislike their bosses as much as I disliked mine! XDD

XD Too true! I used to work in retail for a brief stint - which I think was a life lesson on its own. So I try to keep that in mind when I have to sort out a problem. Besides everyone at the apple store is usually really smiley and the stores in general have a "ISN'T IT GREAT THAT YOU'RE IN AN APPLE STORE?" kind of atmosphere. It's infectious. And there's no point in screaming at the people who are going to fix the problem anyway (hopefully e__e).

Shard wrote: I'd never buy an extra service warrantee, for my part because it's not money I have, but also... doesn't it seem more like you've HAD to take the macs in more often?

Yes, I definitely agree with you there. The fact that I had to check the box for "extended warranty" at checkout was so irritating, knowing that I was KNOWINGLY purchasing a glass cannon.

In fact, before I finally broke under the laptop program requirement at school, I had been a diehard PC user. But unfortunately the Mac is an industry staple for graphic design and unless the internet geniuses perfect a Hackintosh, I can't really do anything about it nor do I have the motive/money to investigate it on my own.

plus: lolmac. I heard they finally got [fill in the blank game] last year.

LOL - THANK GOD FOR PARTITIONS AND BOOTCAMP. I might go nuts.

I have to admit, I've fallen in love with the "for dummies" part of Mac. xD Unfortunately, when something goes wrong on it, it's srs bsns and I end up freaking out (like now).

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:08 pm

HACKINTOSH!!! lol!!