MacBook errors/faults?

smurfy · Apr 19, 2007

I ordered an iMac on Friday, its the first Mac ill ever use, but thats irrelevant.

My friend is also soon switching to Mac, he was originally planning to get a MacBook, but changed to an iMac after seeing this.

I think that most of the errors on that site are not going to happen in a million years, but my friend doesn't want a MacBook anymore. I just want to know, from someone who has a MacBook, if they've ever had any problems with them, and what they were?

caribiner23 · Apr 19, 2007

That's a really broad question. That's like asking if anyone who owns a VW Jetta has had any problems and what they were.

I suggest you read through the iBook/MacBook section of this site to see what sorts of experiences, good and bad, people have had.

There are sites like appledefects.com for nearly every single consumer product out there. If your friend was scared off by that site, I hope he doesn't search for information on McDonald's, candy bars, or bottled water: he'll never leave the house.

smurfy · Apr 19, 2007

caribiner23 said:
There are sites like appledefects.com for nearly every single consumer product out there. If your friend was scared off by that site, I hope he doesn't search for information on McDonald's, candy bars, or bottled water: he'll never leave the house.

Yeah i know but hes really convinced that his MacBook will explode or something ridiculous like that.

Flic · Apr 19, 2007

Every product is going to have a few faulty ones along the way, that's life. It's a know fact that unhappy customers tell more people of their experience with a product/service than the customers who are happy with something. If we all worried about a few faulty ones no one would ever buy anything.

I say take a chance, bit I'm bias

caribiner23 · Apr 19, 2007

smurfy said:
Yeah i know but hes really convinced that his MacBook will explode or something ridiculous like that.

We can't change the way he's interpreting the information he's reading on a site whose sole purpose is to list complaints about a certain product.

As I said above, his best alternative is to visit a forum like this one and ask real-life, specific questions. The forum I linked to above covers MacBook and iBook issues specifically, and is much more even-handed than a site like the one your friend found.

Best of luck!

cramar · Apr 19, 2007

smurfy said:
My friend is also soon switching to Mac, he was originally planning to get a MacBook, but changed to an iMac after seeing this.

I think that most of the errors on that site are not going to happen in a million years, but my friend doesn't want a MacBook anymore. I just want to know, from someone who has a MacBook, if they've ever had any problems with them, and what they were?

It looks like most of the MacBook problems on that site concern production last year. I really hope that Apple has all these issues solved since I have a black MacBook on order.

jaster · Apr 19, 2007

Nothing is perfect, and apple is far from it. Having said that, do a search on Windows machines, the sheer number of complaint sites for them would dwarf any for macs. All electronics have their issues, think of the number of parst it takes to assemble one of these bad-boys. Think of all the man-hours of programming that goes into it. One tiny loose wire, or one rogue letter in a line of programming can make a system unreliable. Now add onto that the number of malicious spyware programs, viruses, and programs that integrate thenselves in every corner of your system and you have the makings of a computer disatser. The good news is that Macs have less malicious programs out there attacking it, a more steady operating system, and one company manufacturing their computer, and the same manufacturer of the hardware also does the software. Macs are far more stable, elegant yet simple, streamlined, user-friendly, and the Mac community is much more close knit than the pc community. Apple is always innovting their products. Sure, if you buy today, it may be old technology tomorrow, but it won't be obsolete. My 4 year old ibook with a busted screen still keep ut with my wife's vista media center hp notebook, and hers was purchased new, state of the art in February of this year! When I had a problem with her notebook, I had to talk to a service tech overseas with a bad connection. When i had a question about my new macbook, it was a breeze understanding the other end of the line. Now granted, you just can't go into Circuit City and get mac hardware or software, but I kinda like the fact that my laptop and operating system isn't sold in walmart. Go for Mac you won't regret it.
P.S. Just for fun, go onto the internet and look for a website dedicated to defects in the car you drive or travel in, you will never ride in that car again. I've had an xbox explode, a car catalytic converter catch fire, one time I managed to melt jumper cables onto the batery in my car, but i have yet to have my macbook blow-up.

technologist · Apr 19, 2007

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2006499,00.asp

If you download the PDF at the end of the article, you can see the percentage of laptops that needed repair.

Apple was tied with Sony at 16% with the lowest.

Now, consider what 16% means. Apple sells over a million macs a quarter; that's over four million Macs a year. Suppose half of those are laptops; that's two million Apple laptops sold. (I'd actually bet it's much higher than that, but I'm too lazy to get exact numbers.)

16% of 2 million is 320 thousand broken Apple laptops. Meaning that, even though Apple was among the most reliable brands, about a third of a million people will have broken Apple laptops each year. Naturally, there will be a lot of people complaining about Apple.

Pitman67 · Apr 19, 2007

In a recent issue of Consumer Reports they found that there were similar reliability ratings for all laptops and among desktops the iMac was the only one which stood out as more reliable.

gilesjuk · Apr 20, 2007

Apple's failure rate is under the average.

Crack, bulges and other defects do occur. But people do stupid things like leaving a laptop in a hot car or letting their kids use them

There's a lot of stats on older models here, some are better than others.

http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/laptops.html

Ultimately it is how the faults are dealt with that matters.

elakkad · Apr 20, 2007

problem with my mac

My mac (SO X 10.4.6) shuts down every time it goes sleeping. When i press the power button to reopen it, it opens but immidiately shuts down (within 1 second). When I press the power button for 3 seconds or more it boots normally. However if i shut it down later it refuses to boot unless i press the power button for 3 seconds or more. It goes beeeep then boots.
. Is it a problem of hardware? or software? I would appreciate any help