Apple Just Isn't What It Used To Be

[bound4cupertino]

Admittedly, I am more than a little emotionally charged at the moment, so I may be more level-headed tomorrow, or after I take my computer to the Apple store.

But in saying that Apple did not make the hard drive, you are to some extent proving my point, not disproving it.

There used to be a huge difference between a Mac and a Windows-only PC. Now, the only differences are that Macs are more aesthetically pleasing and of course they have a superior, more ergonomically friendly OS. So can any of you give me a good reason as to why my Mac costs three times as much as my friends' [more or less] comparable HPs or Dells?

Before, Apple had a much smaller customer base, and they needed to charge more to survive, but Apple is doing great; stock is through the roof (which is good for shareholders). But what about the consumer?

I apologize for coming on strong at first. I was prepared to be defensive, because my dad warned me, but really, I am just looking for some sort of explanation.

[slbett]

" I am not an idiot, so don't any of you dare patronize me."

Welcome to the forum, not. Don't let the lid slam on your behind when you leave.

Over the years, I have had three or four hard drives fail on all my machines that I have owned. Most are Apple, but I have had a few PC's also. You said "I was vague intentionally" and in your first post. Hard drives are rated in mean time before failure. Some last a long time, some don't. Deal with it. Name one computer manufacturer that makes it's own hard drives. I even had a brand new MacBook, out of the box, with a dead optical drive. Returned it the next day and they handed me a new one.

If you come here with an attitude, some of us will call you on it.

[cbelt3]

guys, chill. He may be a n00b here, but he's giving his concerns some reasonable thought is reasonably articulate.

Alas, friend Bound, as the Mythbusters guys should tell you, one sample does not make a pattern. Apple has had Quality issues in the past, both with software (OS 7.1 ? :villagers: ?) and hardware (5300 and the flaming batteries of dooom !)

BUT !

Their customer service is still the #1 class of the world. Consumer products tend to have issues. Hey, they're complex gizmos in use by the Great Unwashed Masses. Apple generally comes through. Just TRY getting that kind of customer service from, say Microsoft (Whose XBOX 360 has a documented >50% failure rate under warranty !!!!) or Dell (Whose customer service department is famous for their fake names and lovely Indian accents while claiming to be in Texas. Yeah right, Mumbai, Texas !)

I think you can reasonably expect your problem to be resolved promptly.

[Carnos Jax]

>So can any of you give me a good reason as to why my Mac costs three times as much as my friends' [more or less] comparable HPs or Dells?

It's hard not to take your comments as 'trollish' when you make statements like this. Are you being serious?


>...because my dad warned me...
Is your dad on this forum (just curious)?

[rgG]

bound4cupertino wrote:

I apologize for coming on strong at first. I was prepared to be defensive, because my dad warned me, but really, I am just looking for some sort of explanation.

The explanation is: You got a bad HD. It happens. It is just as simple as that. I really don't understand the drama and hand wringing, unless you really think the update fried your drive. If that is what you think, then tell us why. If not, just get the HD replaced and move on.

If you think you would be happier moving to a Dell, then I'm sure you will save some money, in the short run anyway.

[Black]

Hooray, a 'good' troll, I thought it was a lost art.

If we're talking pre-unishell plastic macbook, the case design was too flimsy to protect the hard drive and it probably got squished when the mac was moved or slightly leaned on while spinning.

Ironically, whenever I point that out 2-3 people rush to poo-poo it.

[lafinfil]

Just to put a little perspective on it, you are someone that is self admittedly young.
Most of the members of this forum are geezers more mature, and have been through much worse.

We've weathered bad case designs that cut our hands, questionable operating systems, and various
other insults - including owning a few road apples and watching as Apple nearly collapsed
under Pepsi management.

A bad hard drive ... not a big deal - we have drawers full of them to keep our dead zip drives company

[richorlin]

bound4cupertino wrote:
But in saying that Apple did not make the hard drive, you are to some extent proving my point, not disproving it.

Newsflash: Apple NEVER made the hard drives for their computers. They just relabeled stock drives.

Jeeze Louise

[bound4cupertino]

Fine...

The problem with this particular laptop...

About a month ago I finally got around to installing Snow Leopard, but when it would restart to load the install, the backlight on the screen would turn off so you couldn't see to click anything, and it would just sit there doing nothing. Resetting the PRAM twice fixed that problem.

Then a couple of days ago, I got a kernel panic. Just one. But since I've always had my dad to be my own, personal technical support, I didn't know what it was. Mac OS started acting glitchy the day after that-- Safari wouldn't respond with only one tab open, no video or anything, the trash wouldn't empty, and the Finder froze. So, I decided to try updating Mac OS, which of course was a bad idea. The update did not install, and when I restarted my computer, it did move past the gray Apple start-up screen.

I tried resetting the PRAM a few times. Nothing.

I reset the SMC or whatever. Nothing.

In verbose mode, I got this error: proc 35: load code signature error 4 for file 'configd' and there was some "don't steal mac os" error

We finally got it to boot from the Snow Leopard disk, and disk utility found some issue and said it couldn't be fixed and that we had to reformat, which didn't work either. But when booted from the install DVD that came with the machine, it couldn't detect a problem with the hard drive, but Mac OS still would not install.

[GGD]

slbett wrote:
Name one computer manufacturer that makes it's own hard drives.

For many decades, IBM did.