Why Apple Sucks

[OdiN]

Okay...so a customer comes in here and wants two Apple computers fixed. One is a newer iMac. Wanted an air card extreme put in...well..he brought me the wrong air card so I couldn't do that.

The other is a PowerBook G4 Aluminum 12". The CD drive was screwed up (pun..heh you'll get later) and he brought in another one that he ordered from this www.mcetech.com site.

Anyway....this is the most horribly built laptop I have ever worked on. I have done complete teardowns and rebuilds on the following brands:

Acer
Compaq
Dell
Fujitsu
Gateway
HP
IBM
Micron
Notebook (uber generic...it said the model was "Notebook notebook" on the bottom lol)
Sager
Toshiba
WinBook


Anyway...this PowerBook was my first Apple I have worked on....we don't really see many Apple things around here...not many here use them and so I don't typically see them come in for repairs.

So...I get down to it and I am trying to find the "mystery" screw which are on most every laptop - they are semi-hidden so you can't take them apart easily.

These screws on this one happen to be UNDER 4 keys on the keyboard. You have to snap 4 F-keys off of the keyboard to get to them under some stickers in there. This is really really dumb...keyboard keys do not always come off easily or go on easily and they are quite fragile and can break easily.

After finding those...the rest is a snap.

I was hoping that I could get the keyboard off and the top casing off and then unscrew some screws and pop the CD drive out. Wrong. You have to remove everything down to the system board to get it out...and I mean everything.

That is really poor design. It would have been very very simple to make it easier to get out...really all you would need are a couple washers and maybe a rubber grommet or some tape to go between the drive and motherboard.

So...I'm not fond of the design of this book...and then I found the cause of the CD drive not working - one of the screws that holds it in at the front of the drive had come out and fallen back to the back of the drive and jammed, not letting a CD eject. That and it won't seat the CD properly.

Add to this that the drive ordered for replacement doesn't fit. The way it fits in the case you need a faceplate..which doesn't fit on the new drive at all.

So I have an Apple notebook completely torn apart....and there are like...40-50 screws to get it this way....will be fun to put it back together...at least I have a good memory.

So....Apple...you suck!

/rant

 

[Platypus]

PowerBook G4 Aluminum 12

there is your problem.... I work on Macs all the time and this is the worst thing they've ever made hands down.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Not a bad rant, but never seems to break the anger surface. Kind of weak. 3.5/10

 

[Rogue]

I've taken apart a number of laptops myself and that does sound like a nightmare. I suppose Apple isn't nice enough to provide information on it either, are they?

 

[Baked]

What the hell's an air card extreme?

 

[SVT Cobra]

weak rant

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Baked
What the hell's an air card extreme?

AirPort Extreme, aka overpriced 802.11g card.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: CorporateRecreation
PowerBook G4 Aluminum 12

there is your problem.... I work on Macs all the time and this is the worst thing they've ever made hands down.

Yeah...I have some repair manuals for different models and pretty much every other one is 10 times easier to remove a CD drive.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
Not a bad rant, but never seems to break the anger surface. Kind of weak. 3.5/10

What if I doused it in kerosene and lit it up?

 

[suse920]

:thumbsup:/10

 

[helpme]

Yeah, the laptops are the worse things to break down. I have NO idea why they didn't make them easier to take apart, but the PB keyboards are secured to the top plate to make them feel more secure. I just send mine in (warranty) when it requires opening for service.

I have the Apple service manuals if you would like them. Step by step instructions on how to break every machine down in case you are called to open one up again.

 

[RichUK]

OMG .. did you not break any laptop keys **you gota be a pro ).. a previous job i had worked in we had to rebuild laptops, and the keys are sooo fragile, but i had never had to remove laptop keys to dismantle a laptop.

back when i used to work there i had once screwed a longer screw into the underside of a laptop, and ended up leaving a bump next to the mouse pad ..

 

[RGN]

Removing keys on a laptop keyboard is fairly common. But you are right about the PB12"being hard to service. I upgraded the HDD in mine and it was a bear.

 

[thirdlegstump]

Well you did say this is your FIRST Apple that you're dealing with so you're just not used to the design which is far superior might I add. They build them this way so that the novice can't easily break the laptop by attempting to take it apart like a PeeCee for stupid reasons. Just because you had a hard time doesn't mean Apple sucks. Also realize that PeeCees break so often compared to Macs hence you never seeing one before.

 

[preslove]

Yeah. I was thinking about buying an iBook, but then learned that if I wanted to upgrade the hard drive I would have to take the whole freaking thing apart. WTF?? Every other notebook brand I know of just requires one screw and cable to be removed and a reattached. Since the only deals for 12" iBook included a 30 gig hd, I bought a dell.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: deathkoba
Well you did say this is your FIRST Apple that you're dealing with so you're just not used to the design which is far superior might I add. They build them this way so that the novice can't easily break the laptop by attempting to take it apart like a PeeCee for stupid reasons. Just because you had a hard time doesn't mean Apple sucks. Also realize that PeeCees break so often compared to Macs hence you never seeing one before.

Where did I say it was hard? I didn't have a hard time...it was easy to take apart...just very time consuming. And no I'm not used to why Apple designed it this way which isn't at all superior I might add. IBM's are buid quite well...and many feel more sturdy than this PowerBook. I could easily improve the design of this Apple...and I'm no engineer.

And as far as needing screws under keys to secure a keyboard...that's ridiculous. They don't have to put screws underneath keys in order to screw down a keyboard...it is easily done with screws on the top of the keyboard.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: preslove
Yeah. I was thinking about buying an iBook, but then learned that if I wanted to upgrade the hard drive I would have to take the whole freaking thing apart. WTF?? Every other notebook brand I know of just requires one screw and cable to be removed and a reattached. Since the only deals for 12" iBook included a 30 gig hd, I bought a dell.

Yeah most only take 1 or 2 screws...and also many have the CD drive removable without cracking the case.

There are some Sony's and Toshibas that you have to take the keyboards and top plastics off, but most of the new ones are all very easy to upgrade compared to this Apple.


I also had to fix one of those stupid iMac's today that were the all in one CRT's....those things suck too. If you need to replace the hard drive in them....it isn't a quick task. Luckily this one was just a loose power connection.

 

[thirdlegstump]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: deathkoba
Well you did say this is your FIRST Apple that you're dealing with so you're just not used to the design which is far superior might I add. They build them this way so that the novice can't easily break the laptop by attempting to take it apart like a PeeCee for stupid reasons. Just because you had a hard time doesn't mean Apple sucks. Also realize that PeeCees break so often compared to Macs hence you never seeing one before.

Where did I say it was hard? I didn't have a hard time...it was easy to take apart...just very time consuming. And no I'm not used to why Apple designed it this way which isn't at all superior I might add. IBM's are buid quite well...and many feel more sturdy than this PowerBook. I could easily improve the design of this Apple...and I'm no engineer.

And as far as needing screws under keys to secure a keyboard...that's ridiculous. They don't have to put screws underneath keys in order to screw down a keyboard...it is easily done with screws on the top of the keyboard.

Well that would make these ugly screws visible wouldn't it? It's in the details that makes Macs so much better and not only aesthetically.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: deathkoba

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: deathkoba
Well you did say this is your FIRST Apple that you're dealing with so you're just not used to the design which is far superior might I add. They build them this way so that the novice can't easily break the laptop by attempting to take it apart like a PeeCee for stupid reasons. Just because you had a hard time doesn't mean Apple sucks. Also realize that PeeCees break so often compared to Macs hence you never seeing one before.

Where did I say it was hard? I didn't have a hard time...it was easy to take apart...just very time consuming. And no I'm not used to why Apple designed it this way which isn't at all superior I might add. IBM's are buid quite well...and many feel more sturdy than this PowerBook. I could easily improve the design of this Apple...and I'm no engineer.

And as far as needing screws under keys to secure a keyboard...that's ridiculous. They don't have to put screws underneath keys in order to screw down a keyboard...it is easily done with screws on the top of the keyboard.

Well that would make these ugly screws visible wouldn't it? It's in the details that makes Macs so much better and not only aesthetically.

Oh noes!!!

No it wouldn't make them visible at all. It would be really easy to use an aluminum plate across the top of the keyboard which looks exactly like the book does now...but hides screws that are screwed in above the keyboard. The plate could be removed with the two hex screws in either corner...everything would look exactly the same.

Don't assume that the only place to put screws is right where Apple put them. I'm no engineer...but you're definitely not.