How Reliable is your Mac??

[iShizzle]

Intel Tiger does have its hiccups



I've recently replaced my old iMac G4 (2003) with an Intel iMac 24".

I haven't experienced any crashes, I'm very impressed with the performance of my Mac, although Tiger for intel do act strangely at times.

I do agree with the fact that Mac crashes are very rare. If they do happen frequently and a fresh system install can't solve the problem then it's probably a hardware issue.

There will always be a number of machines that contain flaws no matter who the manufacturer is.

I recommend never to purchase revision A products (wait for the "casualties" ie. people's experience with the product), and if there's nothing a system restore can't do, consult the respective dealer. It's within your right to get a machine that works!

 

[spencecb]

For those who say the intel systems are unstable now, just hang in there until Leopard comes out. 10.4 for Intel was pretty rushed, and there are a lot of holes to be fixed, which (i believe) is the reason 10.5 has been held out for so long. I reckon it will fly on the Intel machines like you won't believe.

This is simply not true. Steve Jobs said himself that OS X has been in development for Intel alongside PowerPC since OS X 10.0. So, every change they made for the PowerPC editions, the exact same thing was done for the Intel version. And that means if changes caused problems, then the development team began debugging and sorting the problem.

OS X 10.4 for Intel was not rushed out.

 

[SBik2]

My first macbook CD was really reliable compared to the Sony Vaio i had before it. Then i broke my first macbook and the new C2D macbook is faster(of course) but for some reason, whenevr i boot, i just hang on a grey screen with no apple. Most of the time it works if i hold the power button just until to the point when it makes that very loud tone noise(not the startup chime) but other than that, everything is better with my macs. I even amazed my 10 year old brother with my mac and now hes getting one when he starts 6th grade.(the same time when i got my vaio)

 

[brad.c]

The only Mac I ever had a problem with was a 1.25 gHz Mirror-door G4 that was DOA on arriival. Replacement machine worked like a dream.

Last year, I bought one of the first MBPs that came in the store against my better judgment. "Never buy Rev A!", I thought, but couldn't help myself. You know what? It has been every bit as solid and dependable as the other 9 of my previous 10 Macs. I did need to bring it into the Apple Store yesterday, after phone support failed to fix a battery problem. My Genius guy was very good--and very appreciative of the fact I was polite and in a good mood. I feel sorry for these guys.

 

[CptnJustc]

FWIW, my Mac history:

First one, 20" iMac G5: Worked great for a while, then started getting random heat-related shutdowns (turns out it was dust in non-user-serviceable areas). HD died and was replaced under warranty. A while ago, the power supply died (and it wasn't one of the ones with a known PS problem), and was replaced under Applecare. Since then, has worked pretty well, but doesn't see much action these days....

12" G4 PowerBook for the SO: Has been pretty flawless since the day it was purchased, as far as I can tell. Not a single issue of any type, by far the most reliable of my Macs. And it was a refurb. ^_-

15" Core Duo MBP: First one was DOA - random gray screens of death. Replaced with a unit that's worked pretty flawlessly, except for the distorted right speaker (sent in to fix, they said they re-set it, sounds the same). Got some bad memory from Crucial, had it replaced and all's well. Very rarely the video will completely freak out while I'm playing WoW (heat-related?), can usually reset it by going in/out of full-screen, but once had to put it to sleep and wake it back up to get video back.

1.66 Core Duo Mini: Had a strange problem in the beginning, where occasionally net services would randomly stop responding, though it would continue accepting connections. After a reinstall, this has been working flawlessly as a server/HTPC. Its current uptime is 61 days, though I guess I'll have to reboot for that darned Daylight Savings Time update.

Overall, from my experience, I have to admit Apple's reliability has been shaky. But I'd consider the Mini and the PB success stories, so far. The MBP has also been doing very well, except of course for the DOA one.

 

[bbergie]

I know the original poster was inquiring about other mac users' experiences particularly relative to the intoduction of intel processors into the Mac line up, but, I wanted to quickly add that my PowerBook G4, which is nearing 5 years, continues to be reliable in its provision of good, stable service. I've only had to replace the Hard Disk and I've recently puchased a new battery, but otherwise the machine continues to be a great, speedy performer. Those PPC chips aren't so bad.

 

[slu]

I bought my iMac G5 in Sept of 2004 and have NEVER had a kernel panic. I have had programs quit or freeze, but have never had a complete crash.

 

[Legolamb]

I've had a iiSI (my first computer), 8600, G3, PB5300, TiPB, and currently my C2D MBP. Except for the time my AC adapter for my Ti decided to try to self-immolate, I never had any crashes. What ever "freezes" were software related, or when I decided to do weird things in dashcode or QT. I do fix permissions when I'm updating software, generally don't engage in "unsafe" practices . I feel for members who have the problems I've been reading about, but you're experiences are not the norm.

 

[Eraserhead]

I did not see a need to save it on my iPod or USB stick as I didn't think OS X would do something like this.

It's a computer, you always need to backup, especially before installing a new OS, especially with beta drivers (boot camp )

I know I don't back up enough but it's essential.

 

[wordmunger]

I'd like to see a reliable survey of 10,000-plus computer users asking how often their computer crashes, what OS they use, and how old the computer is. Could be very interesting! But threads like this are only going to attract people with problems.

 

[volvoben]

Overall, Apple makes good hardware that lasts. There have been some annoying problems (white spots on TiBooks come to mind) but most of the time they're replaced, at least for a certain period of time, free of charge. Apple makes rather expensive hardware, but i trust it somewhat more than the average tossed together dell or HP.

My experiences with mac hardware:

Quicksilver G4 - the computer that woke me up from years of windows haze, it was at my first internship at an ad agency. When I got there it had an uptime of over 200 days, being used constantly by the whole crew of interns. We lost power once, and installed the 10.3.9 update, but until the original HDD failed it never had a single crash/panic or other issue. I was almost glad when my dell laptop fried its motherboard with a short near the DC input, because i could get:

Intel 20" imac CD - had it for a little over a year now, 1 panic when i installed a PPC-only program, otherwise flawless.

iMac G3 DV, bought by a friend during college as a refurb, crashed in os9 daily, but since putting on OSX 5 years ago, it's never had a panic or issue. The HDD bearings are very noisy now and it isn't used often, but it works awfully well.

 

[Angrist]

I've never had any serious problems with any of my machines that warrant complaint.

iMac -
Runs just like the day I got it, no crashes or KP's ever.

Powerbook -
Battery died, free replacement from the recall.
Dings and dents from living in a bag, scratches on the handrest from use, expected wear and tear.
About a weeks worth of KPs .. traced to a faulty stick of RAM, it happens.

PowerMac -
This machine has given me the most trouble ... mostly because it's overloaded with scavenged and second hand parts.
Boot problems, either a bad HD or controller card. Replaced with a new ATA card for large drive support and the problem went away.
KP's ... bad RAM, thats what I get for buying no-name from ebay.
Recently, more boot problems, doesn't see startup disk. I think the old HD is finally dying, makes a chirping noise. Could be a power supply issue, 4 HDs, burner, upgraded video, TV card, ATA card ... might be overworked.


All in all, the Macs that I've owned have been very reliable. The only major problems have come from my tinkering with and overworking old hardware. Likewise, all the other macs in my family (iBook, MB, G3 iMac, eMac, and assorted pre-G3 stuff) have been similarly stable.

 

[jzuena]

One quick question, did you install any 3rd party RAM in your Mac? I have an Intel Mini that is just about a year old and have had no problems at all. Not wanting to deal with opening the mini, I got it with 2GB straight from Apple. But if I had gotten an iMac I am sure I would have done the RAM upgrade myself. I have heard from others that the Intel Macs are picky about what RAM they will work with. Incompatible RAM could cause the problems you are seeing.

 

[smwatson]

After a year of owning my first Mac, I can say its very reliable.

Sure, there are software crashes, but as long as its all up to date its fine.

I just dont want to replace it but can feel the days of Intel-only fast approaching me



P.S. On delivery had logic board failure, but was replaced nicely, now works like a charm.

1 stuck pixel.
The almost high pitched grinding noise that these iMacs seem to have.

Easy to live with though.
Love it.

 

[AL2TEACH]

reliable?

also had this cube since 9.x and only had 1 kernel panic in X and had to force a shutdown due to a kink in other software maybe 3x's. I also clean the puter weekly with onyx, applejack, or mainmenu. jzuena mentioned the ram issue which is a major cause of kernel panics, slow downs and hangups may be due to the system needing some cleaning out and repairing permissions.

 

[dopey220]

I find that Intel iMacs can be a bit touchy. The ones in the labs here at school sometimes freeze when I'm logging in. Also, it may be your software; Non-universal apps like Adobe CS2 can be quite "crashy."

 

[dllavaneras]

Very reliable. Sure, it's starting to show it's age, but it's reliable as ever. I've never lost a paper, project or important work. Sure, it's painfully slow sometimes, but I think I just push it too hard

 

[rknabe]

I bought an iMac G3 (Strawberry) on ebay about a year and a half ago ($100). I cleaned it up, and put in a 30GB drive and some memory I had laying around (384MB), and put OS X.4 on. I'm constantly amazed that it keeps purring along. Hardware-wise, it's like new (circa 1999-2000). I've had a couple of application freezes, but that's about it. Never lost any data or anything. My wife and kids use it all the time to surf, email, etc.

I get the feeling from reading in forums like this though, that there has been much less consistent quality on the intel-based notebooks. Understandable, since so much was redesigned at the motherboard level in a short amount of time. Good evidence of this is that there have been several hardware revs in about a year.

It seems the iMacs have maintained a better consistency, though.

 

[wizwaz3]

I had my C2D act weird only once. It froze in the middle of web surfing, I couldn't click anything, but everything else responded (frontrow, dock magnification, etc.). Even after rebooting a few times, nothing. I finally waited long enough and it was fine. I figured out that it had been downloading the updates and that's what was hanging it up. But only once!

 

[Erasmus]

I might add that I find it hard to believe that the quality issues are Apple's fault. It seems to me that Apple make the case, and buy the innards. Apple would probably trust the quality control of whoever they buy parts off.

It seems to me that any problems that cause kernel panics on a regular basis would be a result of slight defects in the hardware. I should think that damage caused in putting the computer together would be far more likely to make the computer not work at all.

So... Not Apple's fault. Every computer manufacturer has this problem, and as Apple is now using more technologically cutting edge parts than the old G4 and G5 were at the time, (this is arguable I suppose) more faults are to be expected.

 

[Zwhaler]

My iMac G5 and Core Duo MacBook are completely reliable.

Same with my current C2D iMac.

 

[iJawn108]

my macbook has been great.

 

[eRondeau]

I have a 1GHz iBook G4 which I purchased new on November 14, 2003. Believe it or not, it has been running *continously* since then -- 3+ years -- without a hiccup! It has only been restarted for software updates (I started with 10.2.2) and a battery replacement about 6-months ago. This is absolutely the most reliable computer I've ever had. In 3+ years of daily "moderate-to-heavy" use I have never seen a system crash, period. Refrigerators should be this reliable!

Having said that -- the new Macbooks do seem a little on the "cheap" side to me. I don't own one, but I've played with them in the stores. The keyboard seems a little chintzy, and the trackpad button especially seems a little flimsy. Of course, my iBook was $2399 (CDN) when I bought it, and now you can get a Macbook that's five times as powerful for half the price. So I guess there's no free ride.

 

[srf4real]

Totally. I have never had to repair / replace anything on any of my macs. I have a 9 year old g3 powerbook and a 9 year old g3 iMac, and a 20 month old g4 mini... never a single virus, hardware failure, nothing. Used to have to repair permissions alot when using sKetchy free apps... that's it. Every one of my macs has been on within the last week and worked fine.

 

[nagromme]

Rock solid. (Intel iMac.) I run a zillion things at once.

No computer maker can offer zero failures, but Apple's failure rates have long been the lowest in the industry. (Consumer Reports, among others, tracks that data.)

If you want to hear the horror stories of my LEAST reliable machine ever, I will tell you about my eMachines