today I am happy, I just ordered The Apple Protection Care plan for my Mac-Book. The one year mark is coming up. I have to admit I bought the Mac-Book refurbished online from the Apple store. The first one arrived D.O.A. so apple sent another one next day to me. That Mac-Book (the one I still have almost a year later now) has been back to tennessee eight or so times, very very aggravating. Anyway they have replaced everything on it except the logic board and the last time it was in, it has been a few months. I am willing to assume it is fine now seeing that everything is new on it. I am serious since I have got it, the hard drive died meaning I got to learn what that folder with a ? mark means when you turn on your Mac (BAD NEWS) they replaced the battery, the internal cooling fan, keyboard and the plate on top because when the lid shuts it snaps to hard on the plate and the plate eventually broke so they replaced that, a few other parts they described that I don’t know what they are got replaced. Anyway I will never ever ever buy anything refurbished from Apple again. I think they just put a new shell on it, polished it and made look like new and sent it on it’s way to me stating they did all these top notch checks that only meet Apples standards and then passed it. Whatever I am just sharing my story so no one else buys their refurbished stuff. Maybe I just got a bad worm who knows. Now my Mac Pro Desk top that was bought brand new in the box along with the 23 inch monitor has been on for over a year now and going strong, yes I bought the Apple care for that on day one to much money at risk on this one.
I am not complaining I just wonder has anyone else bought something refurbished from Apple and had the same problems. I have to give them credit, every time the Mac-Book broke they had a Fed-X overnight box at my door the next day and I always got it back within five business days. So Apple does live up to the promise to back up their warranty and fix their stuff so fast on my end. But I have to say even though my Mac-Book has been fine for about four months now (I don’t really use it much though) I think the engineers did a very poor design engineering the Mac-Book. If you google “Mac-Book problems” you will get allot and I mean allot of mad customers who bought Mac-Books and made websites about how pissed they are at them.
I am in a mood to express my free speech amendment thats is all. Don’t get me wrong I love my Mac-Book but it sure did get off to a bad start and I don’t feel I should have to have payed $250.00 for the Apple care extended protection plan last night online, I feel they owe me one but I know that would be a lost argument on the phone so I just bit the bullet and forked over another $250.00 to Apple this year. I really only bought the Mac-Book for vacations and when I am vegging out on the couch and being lazy, I really don’t use the book much.
I do feel Apple takes, well I speak for myself. I feel Apple takes their fair share in extra money from me. Yes I want to be a .Mac member(and I am) but does it have to be so damn expensive. They have nailed me for three Apple care protection plans so far totaling $750.00 alone in just extended warranty’s. I am not angry but maybe you could say I get a little frustrated at times thats all.
I plan to replace my wimpy Mac-Book (intel 1.8 core processor) with a Mac-Book Pro and yep their will go another $250.00 to Apples extended warranty program. It’s hard to compare any Mac-Book when your used to sitting at a Mac Pro with dual Intel’s running at 3 gigahertz and L4 cache with 16 gigs of ram. It’s like driving a Porsche 911 twin turbo and then going to sit down at a single processor Mac-Book and trying to do something( you just went from that porsche to a riding lawn mover). All I can say is “Porsche their is no comparison! Once you buy a Mac Pro Desk-top and use it for a week their is no turning back.
If you can’t tell, when I get in the mood to type, I TYPE! I had to take a typing class in seventh grade and I hated it and never thought I would learn how to type the write way with out looking but I actually passed the class never thinking I would use the skill and here I am today. Somedays I can’t stop typing maybe I should write a book. By the way I leaned to type on a old fashioned type writer, their where no computers in schools yet. The thought of having to learn on a old fashioned type writer makes me feel so damn old and I am only 34. Can we say mid life crisis? I thought this Mac Pro was my gift to my aging crisis and then I went out last year and bought a brand new sports car that just sits for now (winter) in the garage and I am still bummed on getting old, this sucks. Wonder if the band would borrow me some money for a private jet/LOL.
I just received my Apple Care protection plan for my Mac Book. It’s all Registered and good to go for another two years. I waited till the last minute to get the Protection Plan, My warranty was going to expire this January 8th. I did not want to get it but as much as the book has had to leave and go for rides on the fed-x truck, I figured I better bite the bullet and buy the Warranty. Just felt like telling the world that. Remember now people I don’t know where I posted this, but I bought this Mac Book refurbished from the online Apple store and will never ever buy anything refurbished from them again. So I can’t tell you how a new Mac Book would be.
To answer your question - no, I’m not angry or upset.
I am a new Mac user—my last computer was a Dell with Windows XP on it. I waited until after 10.5.1 was released before I made the switch, so I have not had some of the bugs that others have had.
So far, I have been very pleased with the experience—there are some bugs, but even when something crashes, the rest of the Mac keeps running, so it’s not so bad.
And it is such a pleasing thing to look at, compared to Windows...that I think I just cut the Mac some slack.
I have also been pleased that I can still run my Windows-only programs under VMWare Fusion (except for a couple of Direct X type games). I think that Apple made a wise decision to switch to Intel because it allowed people like me, who cannot abandon certain programs, to make the switch.
The biggest gripe I have is that the wireless Mighty Mouse gets dirty and stops working—and you have to clean the scroll wheel with a q-tip and rubbing alcohol to get it to work again—I’ve never had another mouse have that problem.
Oh, and the wireless keyboard doesn’t have a full set of keys—that can be a bit annoying too.
From what I understand Apple had to make the switch, Motorola could not keep up with Intel or A.M.D. I think if Steve Jobs would have stayed with Motorola, then Apple would have had to shut down it’s doors. Who would want a Mac that could not go faster than a P.C and sooner or later the Mac would become like a dial up connection. I had been waiting for them to switch and I ran out and spent like thousands at the Apple store on a Mac Pro and love it. I actually took the engagement rind off my old lady’s finger and zipped tied to the grill of the Pro.
Here, this will fix your mighty mouse problem for awhile at least it does for me. take your can of compressed air and turn the bottle upside down and spray the liquid into the mouse for like three seconds, pushing fairly hard on the roller ball so you will get the rollers inside to freeze up then turn the can around and spray the compressed air. That free’s mine up for about three weeks maybe a month. I know it’s gonna die sooner or later so I have my spare sitting on the side ready to go.
Take care.
p.s.
I was with windows for like 15 years and personally I could never go back, I could not even put parallel’s on my Mac to run windows. I just got back from the Apple store at my nearest mall today and bought Battlefield 2142 and good old Doom 3 , I also have Call of Duty 2 , Halo 1, Heroes V, Rise of nations. DON’T BUY PREY, it freezes up on my Mac all the time. I can’t even get off level one. And if it can’t run a Mac Pro with the dual intels then it sure is not the Mac’s fault. All my other games rock. Allot of game makers are getting wise to the Mac and I don’t think it will be long before the Mac has just as many games as the P.C. even Microsoft has unix games, halo is one and call of duty 2 is another. I can online game with P.C. users with these games also. Give it time, you will most likely slowly but surely learn to hate everything about “Microsoft”, it happened to me.
IS ANYBODY HAVING PROBLEMS WITH DEAD PIXELS EVER SINCE THEY INSTALLED LEOPARD? Today I am at my wits as to how much I can take of this anymore. My 23 inch hd cinema monitor has been showing two dead pixels for awhile, blue ones at that, now I have like ten red ones. Well I took my 24 inch Acer monitor off the 5 grand P.C i built that gives me half the hell Apple does lately and hooked it up to my Mac Pro only to find the Acer has the same dead pixels in the same spots as my Apples monitor. Well their goes the theory of calling Apple and telling them to send me a new monitor. So I read up on google and sure enough their are allot of people having pixel issues with Leopard some are new users and some are old as can be Mac users, well one thread led me back to Apples website to get a firmware update for my ATY,RadeonX1900 video card. I installed, held my breath, prayed (this is sh*t you do on p.c.’s whats going on here?) restarted the computer and the firmware update installed fine, and would you know I have all my favorite little red and blue dead pixels still. So i called Apple care and tell them what’s up, since I have the Apple care, they are sending me out a new video care…
Dude, add some bran to your diet. There’s no need to shout and curse. Things happen. Dead pixels are not uncommon on large displays. Chances are good that Leopard is not the cause but it’s easy to check. Plug you display into a different computer. If the dead pixels don’t go away then you’ve narrowed down the problem. As to crashes, it’s either hardware or software. Create a new account, and try using your Mac from that account. If no crashes, then it’s software. Judging from the number of cryptic posts you’ve made recently I can picture the source of the problems right away.
PRO~DUAL~INTEL~3/GIGAHERTZ - 09 January 2008 02:46 PM
IS ANYBODY HAVING PROBLEMS WITH DEAD PIXELS EVER SINCE THEY INSTALLED LEOPARD? Today I am at my wits as to how much I can take of this anymore…
It’s ok to take a deep breath and calm down. Looks like the display has the problem. I haven’t read that Leopard causes dead pixels, though stranger things have happened. If you’re suddenly getting crashes then look back to the last changes you made to your Mac. Try using a different account, too, as that helps to isolate problems (user vs. system). I can trace about 90% of any crashes I’ve had on issues with peripherals-- USB printers, Firewire drives, etc. Look at the number of components that make up a Mac that runs perfectly. It’s the same number as a Mac that’s causing problems. OS, motherboard, connectors, hard drives, RAM, applications, utilities, and so on. To immediately blame the company that makes the product is what neophytes do. Step by step narrow down and eliminate what works from what doesn’t. Whatever you do, follow Apple’s advice and don’t dink around in the Library and System folders unless you know what you’re doing.
What’s your backup plan? Do you clone your system hard drive and keep a ‘good’ copy available? That helps.
Oh my god i was so mad, I had to go lay down and walk away from this thing. Apple is overnighting me a video card so we’ll see after that. Nothing new has been added lately. Yes their is forums in the Apple discussion forums of people talking about this happening right after they upgraded to leopard. Now I did not notice it until I started watching movies on Itunes, meaning I just recently started buying and watching movies on Itunes. That is where I first noticed it, watching a movie in full screen mode. The lower part of the black would have one blue dead pixel that went away. It bothered me but what can you do, so I put up with it I mean it was only one, then one more on top of the movie (where the black is) then three then red ones started showing up. This is where I plugged in the the 24 inch acer monitor to the Mac Pro and unplugged the Apple monitor. Sure enough the same dead pixels showed up on the Acer in the same spots and the same colors. Now I am starting to see them on my wall paper ( I am currently using the Mac’s earth wallpaper ) where the black parts are. I am also starting to see that first blue dead pixel on my homepage witch is blue (my homepage is my home town news paper) so that can only mean that it is getting worse. I pray that the new ATY,RadeonX1900 graphics card Apple is sending me is going to fix the problem. I am glad they let me do it myself that was an argument in itself with the Apple Care person but he finally gave in. And my putting the new card in is covered under the warranty, maybe I should go apply for a job at Apple. Come on who can’t properly install a Video Card. Anyway off subject here. If this does not solve my problem and I have a very funny feeling it will not, then I think wait I know I am going back to tiger, I was happy their, it JUST WORKED, Tiger is what really gave me that impression that there is hope for a computer that just works. I understand nothing is perfect but believe me not, it seems that ever since I have put in and installed Leopard, it has been a road straight to hell for me. I am sorry to say but so what, “time machine” have yet to use it and don’t really care about it” here I will make this part slower by saying what I will miss if I go back to tiger, “STACKS, yes that is all STACKS”. I see if I can find that link again in the apple discussion forum’s where people are complaining about this.
Theirs more Ron, just type into google “pixel problems in leopard” and you will get an endless supply of threads and websites that people have posted about the same problem I am having. This is one problem I will not wait for Apple to put out a patch, there are many other little things that have been getting me ready to go back to trusty little tiger but this is boulder that is going to push me over the cliff if after I install the new card and the dead pixels are still their. I can’t even really call them dead pixels when I put a totally different monitor on and they show up in the same spot on the other monitor, that proves it is coming straight from the video card. I’ll let you know.
I am sorry to every one about my post on top of Ron’s thread or post but I was so pissed off I had to go lay down and sleep it off. The Mac almost got thrown through the window. If this is a leopard problem and I’ll know soon enough, then I think Apple should pull all their commercials “ I’m a Mac your a P.C and they should also be very ashamed of what they have developed with Leopard and sold to their customers. I know a few people and this is true that I got them to buy an Iphone when they first came out, every single one of my friends, “p.c. users” returned them with in the return time frame, don’t ask me because they all had different complaints on why they returned the phones but they swore to never make the switch. I wonder how many customers Apple is going to loose over this Highly over rated Leopard deal simply because it’s not ready.
I know I said I was going back to p.c. and putting this thousands of dollars Mac on E-BAY if the new card does not solve this, but I have way to much invested in Apple. 1 I will be loosing almost a grand in purchased Itunes (witch buying is put on hold for now) 2. Three Apple protection care plans worth almost a grand. 3. My . Mac account worth around $200.00 a year. 4. All the upgrades I have done to the Mac Pro. Apple has got me in a worm hole, I just have way to much invested.
I know if the new card does not fix this, there are just way to many forums and threads in google about other people having this problem, I’ll just go back to Tiger and wait for Apples next OS system. If I do, do this, I will never reinstall Leopard.
I did not proof read for I am still a bit pissed off. When it comes to my Pro messing up, then yes I could blog/write/thread in here for hours. Now I need to walk away from this thing again until I get the new card witch will hopefully be tomorrow. I’ll have it on and if anyone wants to reply to this, I’ll come back to my video card pixel nightmare to see what you wrote. If you want to call me a cry baby, then tell me how it is. I can take it like a man.
It’s not the monitor, I have dismissed that by changing monitors this to a p.c. and fine and the p.c. monitor to this, same thing and getting worse ever day.
PRO~DUAL~INTEL~3/GIGAHERTZ - 09 January 2008 02:46 PM
IS ANYBODY HAVING PROBLEMS WITH DEAD PIXELS EVER SINCE THEY INSTALLED LEOPARD? Today I am at my wits as to how much I can take of this anymore…
It’s ok to take a deep breath and calm down. Looks like the display has the problem. I haven’t read that Leopard causes dead pixels, though stranger things have happened. If you’re suddenly getting crashes then look back to the last changes you made to your Mac. Try using a different account, too, as that helps to isolate problems (user vs. system). I can trace about 90% of any crashes I’ve had on issues with peripherals-- USB printers, Firewire drives, etc. Look at the number of components that make up a Mac that runs perfectly. It’s the same number as a Mac that’s causing problems. OS, motherboard, connectors, hard drives, RAM, applications, utilities, and so on. To immediately blame the company that makes the product is what neophytes do. Step by step narrow down and eliminate what works from what doesn’t. Whatever you do, follow Apple’s advice and don’t dink around in the Library and System folders unless you know what you’re doing.
What’s your backup plan? Do you clone your system hard drive and keep a ‘good’ copy available? That helps.
Yes I have an external hard drive with all my purchased Itunes/documents folder/ so forth. You always loose some stuff if you go backwards but for the most part, yes all my important stuff is back up via using a personal hard drive not “time machine”. I found the link and put it in my last reply, Yes I am sure this is all a leopard problem. I found the thread in Apple forums of people have all the same issues, it seems to be the atiradeon cards only not nvida’s. From what I have read from other users, it won’t be long before I walk into the computer room and have no monitor at all, that has already happened to me four times and I thought nothing of it and just held down the power button and restarted.
I hope Apple comes out with this hudge update soon, my fiancee just talked me out of switching back to Tiger tonight and waiting it out but what if Apples new update does not include the fix for this yet. I just want my Mac’s to work and I am at the point where I don’t care what OS I use.
I am sorry about rude post and I guess I laid into everyone. Well you all know I have a bit of a temper now, but It takes allot to get that lid off. This Leopard thing has been like, shaking up the bottle of pop for me ever since I installed it and the Problem with the Pro made me blow my top. Has every new Mac OS been like this? If so then they are not much better than the other guys.
Funny thing is, this OS has not gave me one problem on my Mac/Book. But I don’t use it much either. Apple finally got that right after five or six (don’t honestly remember) returns for repairs. I will be honest, I bought the Mac/Book refurbished trying to save a buck. (Using it now )
I am not sure where I am going at this point, back to them and call all this a loss or fight it out like a soldier. I thought we did not have to put up with all this B.S. with a Mac. I bought the Pro in December of 07 and tiger gave me like 3 crashes in a year and I honestly got spoiled with it. I was like wow “An Apple is really almost as perfect as a computer can get and now this, “ Leopard-HELP!!”
Done.
I might even delete my profile here, I just feel like a jerk about that last post I put in, I mean that really had to wreck any friends I was making. But when I have something to say, I tell it how it is.
Not doing any proof reading tonight, just not in the mood for it.
I am done. I can only complain so much. I have decided Apple has just as many problems as Microsoft seemingly more problems than the others right now. I just think not everyone is willing to come out to tell it how it is. I back my story up with the links above from Apple discussion threads. If it is the card then the new one coming today will be of no help, I don’t want to go back to tiger simply because of all the stuff Ill loose like passwords in “1password” just simple things like that. So like a windows user would say but instead of “ plug and prey”, “I’ll wait and prey” Apple fixes this problem. According to the Apple threads, everyone with the Pro’s are only having this issue with my card not the nvidia cards. Now I have an idea I don’t want to use but I might just do it, the P.C. sitting across the room from me that I built has a nvidia pci express 512 extreme card in it and yes it would work in the Pro, then I take tomorrows new card and just put it in the P.C. But still why do I have to put up with all this crap? it’s becoming a game for me. Bambi you made the discussion post and I have plenty to put in here. One last time I am sorry if I offended anyone.
Apple got my new “ATY,RadeonX1900” graphics card to me with in 24 hours. I was impressed. It took me longer to unplug all the wires and take everything off the Pro to get the door of. Put the new card in within 15 minutes. I have to admit, I have built p.c.’s and seen some tight spots but Apple designed this cards slot tight! I still started and finished the project off getting the old card out and the new card in with in about 15 minutes.
The old card has been broke for almost six months maybe further back. How do I know? None of my A.S.P.Y.R games have ever worked, mac soft and EA games worked but all my A.S.P.Y.R games always froze up my mac from day one never once worked, man that the made me mad, how was I to know,? everything else was working so I gave all the games a bad review online at Apple store and it was the video card this whole time, the video card just slowly got worse until it started showing sings of malfunction on my monitor only after I phased out possibilities off what was wrong by putting a whole other monitor on the Pro and getting the same so called dead pixels but they were not not dead pixels, it was the card getting worse. I also gave allot of other stuff bad reviews to software because of the card. I have never encountered a physical hardware failure on any of my high performance computers.
SO I AM SORRY TO ALL, IT DROVE ME NEAR INSANITY, I fought a bit with Apple Care the first time I called them, but I was calling them to tell them I had dead pixels showing up on my monitor. They did not want to do much about two dead pixels at the time and technically there never where dead pixels. One video card slowly slowly dying on me and I could not figure it out. About five times I have come to my Pro and tried to wake the monitor only to find the tower going strong but the card would not wake up so I pushed and held the restart button and did a force restart ( I HATE DOING THAT ).
Anyway I put the card in not expecting it to solve the problem and it did. Now I hope it just stays that way. I am scratching my head as to why it died. I open the Pro up at least once every two months and spray compressed air in there and get out all the dust from the many cooling fins and air intakes. I have two APC’s on it, the first being a Line Voltage Regulator and medium surge protector and then a $300.00 APC UPS 1300, so I don’t think a power surge ever got to it.
ATY,RadeonX1900 products are supposed to be the best, even over nvida. It really baffles me why if burned out. the way the factory has it, is that the Card is sitting on the bottom the Pro, plugged in the last pci express slot. I was thinking if I where to have put this machine together and seeing that their is not other cards in their, I would move it up so it has more air ventilation. But I bout it back the way they had it, I have two more year left of warranty. If you knew the Pro you would understand where it’s sitting, on top of the cpu’, the ram, hot stuff right under it. I might move it, but I have a famous saying if it’s not broke don’t work on it.
Anyway, I’ll practice a better attitude in here and for those who put me on ignore, when I gain your respect back can you take me off.
Thanks Jared.
One practice I am going to start is, turning it off when I am done, it always stays on, the computer has a whole year run time.
Apple got my new “ATY,RadeonX1900” graphics card to me with in 24 hours. I was impressed. It took me longer to unplug all the wires and take everything off the Pro to get the door of. Put the new card in within 15 minutes. I have to admit, I have built p.c.’s and seen some tight spots but Apple designed this cards slot tight! I still started and finished the project off getting the old card out and the new card in with in about 15 minutes.
