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Apple Confirms eMac Display Problem

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I guess those times of superior Apple quality are over...

My personal experiences are not too good anymore since a few years now.

When I bought my PowerBook G3 Wallstreet, the screen was having problems after 10 months already (somehow losing it's contrast in some areas, causing a wavy greyish pattern when displaying dark colors). I was lucky that they replaced it within the guarantee with now additional costs... BUT, the same problem started again after another year. Since there was no guarantee anymore, I am stuck now with a display, that gets worse slowly, month by month. I am not willing to pay more than 1,000.- € for a simple replacement, especially when it is obviously a quality issue of the component. And yes, I always handled my PowerBook like a raw egg...

My G4 Quicksilver has a crack (about 2 centimeters long) in it's enclosure, right beside a screw that is holding the covering of the side-door. I know definetaly that it isn't from me, it just appeared one day while the machine wasn't touched physically since months and always was handled very carefully. Too much tension I guess. Since it didn't affect the usability of the machine, I didn't feel like handing it in to replace some parts for cosmetical reasons, causing maybe days or weeks of not having the workplace available.

I bought an G3 iMac 2 months ago for my wife, since it is the perfect machine for her daily paper-work and net-browsing and has a very small footprint. Not to mention the reasonable price. After 2 weeks there was the color green missing on the CRT. It was covered by the guarantee, but still very annoying...

A friend of mine (music producer) bought a new PowerMac G4 beginning of last year for his studio. After one week of heavy use it literally blew up with a little bang. It didn't boot anymore (it actually didn't do anything anymore) and even screwed the harddrives. The machine was replaced by Apple since it was covered by the guarantee, but the second HD he built in was lost and he had to pay a new one himself. Not to mention that all the data was lost (the work of 2 days, he was right in the middle of a production with a dead-line) and that he couldn't go on with his job until he had the replacement and reinstalled and set up the whole recording environment again.

The same guy has a 2 years old G3 iMac... the HD was replaced 2 times already. First time covered by the guarantee, second time he had to pay the new HD himself. Heat problem?

I could go on on and on...

Quo vadis Apple??? Where has the quality gone?

groovebuster
 
An interesting difference...

A quality issue with an Apple product is news, whereas a quality issue with a PC is status quo.

My personal experience with Apple hardware has been stellar. Both my Mac+ and Mac LC are still effective word processors, and my Performa 6400/180 does steady duty as my iTunes stereo component, after adding a video card with TV out. But I suppose everyone's experience with Apple is different.

RL
 
Re: An interesting difference...

Originally posted by RogueLdr
A quality issue with an Apple product is news, whereas a quality issue with a PC is status quo.

My personal experience with Apple hardware has been stellar. Both my Mac+ and Mac LC are still effective word processors, and my Performa 6400/180 does steady duty as my iTunes stereo component, after adding a video card with TV out. But I suppose everyone's experience with Apple is different.

RL
Click to expand...

I was talking about Apple computers purchased within the last 3 or 4 years.

I also have Macs that are pretty old and I never had a problem with them. My old Mac LC is serving as a "type-writer" on my dad's desk without any problems. My old PowerMac 7500 (with some upgrade hardware of course) is still doing it's duty at a friends place as little home-studio, also causing no problems at all. I have also an old Mac II in storage that works perfectly but just catches dust now.

That's why I wrote: ... where has the quality gone?

It was there before, but not anymore.

groovebuster

P.S.: BTW, the immanent quality issues with PCs are one of those myths. I never experienced any problems with PC hardware (we are not talking about software here) over the years, nor did people in my environment. If you buy a system from a decent PC-Builder, the problems are not more likely than with Macs. Just lately it even seems to be the opposite: Macs are worse than PCs. I talked to a guy at a local mac dealer here the other day and he was confirming that they have way more guarantee cases since a while compared to the old times. In their unofficial statistic the current #1 trouble maker is the PowerBook G4, followed closely by the iMacs (G3 & G4).
 
It had to happen

In the old days apple had a select group of suppliers and many customs parts made specifically to Apple's spec and quality was number 1, if you wanted to stay an apple supplier. those days are long gone for the most part. Anyone with a well behaving old machine consider yourself lucky.
Now to be an apple supplier you simply need to bid low and now that most apple parts are pc world standards expect the quality to keep going down. virtually all the ide hard drive manufactors have just reduced thier warranties to 1 year from 3, how long to 90 days for something as important as a hard drive. as they seek to cut cost more and increase profits. quality has to take a hit.
Go shopping for a vcr lately? talk about crap construction. yea they are cheap! in more ways then one.
 
I have a friend who had problems with his eMac - I just couldn't believe it at first, thinking he just got unlucky. But then on his second required fix from apple, well, I realized that there was a problem. Its good to see they're admitting it, I wonder how it will effect sales?

D
 
Concerning newer macs, my experience is that they are far less prone to hardware problems than current PCs. At work, we routinely have to replace internal components on our Wintel machines, all the way to the level of the motherboard, at which point we break the Wintel down for spare parts for when the next PC starts to die.

By contrast, with one or two rare exceptions, we only decommission our macs when there is money in the budget to purchase new machines, meaning that they usually go into retirement instead of dying. We've not experienced any significant change in the quality of our mac purchases over the last several years. Again, however, that is just the experience that we have had and I do not claim that it is indicative of Apple hardware quality as a whole.

RL
 
Apple emac display problem

Hi guys


having just read your article about the emac having display problems i thought id write and ask if anyone knows of any way of being able to fix it, only ive had an emac now for quite a while with no problems but then the other day the screen decided to continually flicker and be out of proportion to the monitor.? ive tried evyertyin thing i can think of changing the resolution etc etc but to no avail, im guessing i was one of the unlucky customers with the faulty screened emac

oh well if anyone can help woudl be much appreciated!!

cheers

Bill
 
Mr. Anderson said:
I have a friend who had problems with his eMac - I just couldn't believe it at first, thinking he just got unlucky. But then on his second required fix from apple, well, I realized that there was a problem. Its good to see they're admitting it, I wonder how it will effect sales?

D
Click to expand...
I don't think it will effect sales much, considering eMacs aren't even on sale anymore. (with the exception of schools)
 
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