What's the worst mac you have ever owned?

[5683565]

Got this idea from my brother who owns a PowerMac G4 1Ghz Dual (not his current computer).

With his computer, he had virtually every problem that Apple admitted the computer had. Drove him nuts, especially since his job involves a lot of computer work (audio/music design for media). Apparently in the not-so-distant future, he will destroy this machine, as it has caused him so much stress.

Personally for me, my worst would be my old Clamshell 366mhz G3. Simply because it would be prone to frequent kernel panics and also problems with OS9.

So everyone else, admit it... somewhere along your mac-line you must have had a really sore thumb. What is your worst mac ever owned?

 

[thegreatluke]

Got this idea from my brother who owns a PowerMac G4 1Ghz Dual (not his current computer).

With his computer, he had virtually every problem that Apple admitted the computer had. Drove him nuts, especially since his job involves a lot of computer work (audio/music design for media). Apparently in the not-so-distant future, he will destroy this machine, as it has caused him so much stress.

Personally for me, my worst would be my old Clamshell 366mhz G3. Simply because it would be prone to frequent kernel panics and also problems with OS9.

So everyone else, admit it... somewhere along your mac-line you must have had a really sore thumb. What is your worst mac ever owned?

Well, it's a tie.
I have a stock MBP 1.83 right now. The buzzes (both processor buzz and display whine) have been driving me crazy. The processor buzz was going on really loudly this afternoon, but it's not here right now. It gets really warm too, and the fans blow. It's pretty annoying. However, the computer is really fast and really nice. But the OS is a bit buggy, as I'm basically a tester for Apple of Intel Mac OS X. And it's kind of annoying having not too many Universal programs. Come on, Sims 2, Office and Firefox, be made Universal already!

I used to have a 400 MHz Sawtooth with 1.3 GB of RAM that I bought off of eBay. It was a bit slow at first, but it chugged along nicely. I bought a 1.8 GHz upgrade from Giga Designs, and it was FAST. Very nice. However, the fans were VERY noisy, but this wasn't too bad. The MBP, though a lot quieter, bugs me with its warmth and its buzzes.

 

[dmw007]

I love all of my Macs, no problems (knocks on wood) so far...

Although, I do have an old PowerBook 165c that no longer powers up (but the things is 13 years old. )

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says...I have owned an LCIII, LC630, Motorola clone, Beige G3, Quicksilver G4, Dual G5, Blueberry iBook, Powerbook G4-867 and now a MacBook Pro 2 Ghz...I have never been unhappy with any of them...never had a problem. Many of those haver been "rev A" stuff too - just what all you lot seem to be so afraid of. My MacBook has no whine, the power supply has not caught on fire and the OS is fine - don't call the IOS buggy because M$, Adobe and others have not updated the software....oh yeah!

 

[Doctor Q]

Sorry, I'm just a Mac fanboi. All my Macs have been great. In fact, each one was better than all the rest of them.

 

[yankeefan24]

out of them all (not very many), i would have to say 933 MHz Rev A iBook G4. too slow. my tibook is faster and is a year older. also, 256 MB RAM, VRAM, etc. are too low. it will be a long time until i buy another ibook after that experience.

 

[dmw007]

In fact, each one was better than all the rest of them.

.........now my brain hurts, thanks!

 

[plinkoman]

well, seeing as this powerbook is the only mac i've ever owned, technically, that would make it the worst mac i've ever owned.

seriously though, i love this thing, it's perfect.

oh, and if he is just going to destroy the thing anyway, i'd be more then happy to take it off his hands.

 

[Malfoy]

17" Power book 1.5 ghz w/ 1 gb of ram. Sold it after a month because it just didn't deliver what I wanted.

 

[elisha cuthbert]

Worst one i ever owned

An old performa 250 because it never worked right

 

[Lord Blackadder]

My 266MHz G3 iMac blew its power supply and high-voltage board, fragging the CRT and causing some collateral damage to the logic board (it still worked, but had weird problems intermittently). This happened in the days well before the Mini, so shelling out $400 for repairs was my only option. Plus the CD-ROM eventually failed due to the ribbon cable getting pinched when the drawer was closed.

Despite that big headache, I can't call the computer a lemon because I used it for 7 years (OS 8.1 through 10.3 ), got through college with it and it was the first Mac I bought myself new. So it earned its retirement as a bittorrent client.

 

[5683565]

Actually, now that I think of it, I would say that my old iBook G3 800mhz would be my worst.

Not only were the stock specs way too crap for the time, but also:

I had to get the logic board replaced twice (thanks to apple for shouting the bill on that one)

Also, the CD Rom tray randomly felt like never closing again. It just stayed open, and I had to use tape to hold it shut.

(I still have this laptop, so if anyone can think of a way to fix this bloody drive, I would appreciate the info.)

 

[IJ Reilly]

Of all the Macs I've owned, probably the only one that drove me a bit crazy was the PowerMac 9600. The box was absolutely huge, and not only did it take up an obscene amount of office real estate, the big plastic access panel on the side picked up sympathetic vibrations from the fans, and buzzed.

 

[yippy]

That would be easy for me. My PowerMac 6500. Opening up its case was a pain in the neck. For being a tower I have never seen such horribly designed internals.

To be fair, it was only my worst computer because I started getting frustrated with it after 5 years because it was getting slow and I couldn't upgrade it. Had it not been my only machine at that point and had I not decided to use it to learn how to play with the insides of computers, then it would have been fine.

 

[bousozoku]

My WallStreet PowerBook G3/233. I don't think I've ever considered throwing another Mac up against the wall. I pretty much ended up using it as an Ethernet connection tester at work because it was too slow and too pathetic to do much of anything else. However, it was expensive.


Next, I guess, would be my Quicksilver dual G4/800. When it worked, it was fine, but for a top-of-the-line machine, it wasn't very good. Cheap parts, poor motherboard design. It made me wonder why Apple was still in business.

 

[Neil4512]

My 1.33 Ghz pb is the only mac I've ever owned, but I really like it.

The only problem I have had with it was that the hard drive died after about a year, I called apple and they wanted some rediculous amount of money to replace since it was out of warranty by about 2 weeks. So I bought a new HD at future shop, and replaced it myself. No problems since.

 

[Nermal]

The worst I owned would've been my 800 MHz iBook. It was a very good system, and I'm only giving it the "worst" rating because it was affected by the widespread logic board problem.

If you count Macs owned by other family members, then I'll have to say my brother's Performa 5260 is the worst. Low End Mac gave it a road apple "award".

 

[Darwin]

The worst I owned would've been my 800 MHz iBook. It was a very good system, and I'm only giving it the "worst" rating because it was affected by the widespread logic board problem.

Yeah, I too had a 800Mhz G3 iBook but once I started having these logic board problems I got frustrated

Apart from that I've not had any serious problems with a computer since, however I have seen I few hard drive failures as well

 

[turbopants]

I had a Power Macintosh 7200/75 that I got from school back in the mid 90's. It was my first Mac, but it was awfully slow by the time OS 9 rolled around. Got a G4 tower later and haven't looked back.

 

[bookofjames]

I have 3 Macs currently - a Rev B 12" Al PB and 2 G3 Indigo iMacs that I revived. All 3 are working superbly.

The worst has to be one of the iMacs I revived (picked up from the trash), cos it worked so good that I tried playing "Incredibles" on it from an external HD. The sound boom blew out my iMac internal speakers and now they are slightly "detached" and jiggles when you play sound from them. I switched to external speakers and it has been fine ever since.

Reminder to iMac G3 owners - DO NOT play movies with a lot of bass thru the internal speakers.

 

[Cinematographer]

Macintosh II (way back in the 90s, running OS 3 - 7.5 )
iMac G3 (Tangerine, running OS 8 - 9.2; now running Tiger on the desk of a friends son)
iMac G4 (running Jaguar, Panther and Tiger)

Three great machines. No problems whatsoever, except minor ones.

RIP, Mac II.

 

[UKnjb]

Sorry - I've owned several Macs over the years and not one of them has been a problem (except for user errors). It was only a few months ago that my first, an LC475, was finally disposed of - still in working condition. The second, a PowerBook G3 had the screen casing split, because a 'friend' tried to open the computer the wrong way. Apple repaired it FOC on an extended warranty.
Love 'em.

 

[caveman_uk]

Got this idea from my brother who owns a PowerMac G4 1Ghz Dual (not his current computer).

I've still got one of those. Apart from being a bit loud and the wierd distortion on the headphone jacks that only goes away after you pull the jack out and put it back in - it's fine. I can't see why he hates it so much.

Now, my G3 800Mhz iBook. That was fine until the logic board died. Luckily I've only had one replacement.

Currently my powerbook hasn't had it's lower RAM slot die so I'm quite happy about that!

 

[Shaun.P]

The eMac - the fans in it are far too noisy!

 

[macdon401]

...well, I would have to say my "Powerbook" 100 I think it was...can't remember the year I got it, but it cost like $3000 or some obscene price...there was no "INTERNET" to speak of, just some bad porn sites and leftover ARPNET
...LOL...I had to haul a huge modem and more cables than the cable guy to hook up in a hotel, and I got it for travel....can't really blame the machine but it was a nightmare!
The worst performing piece of muck was the first "NEWTON" over $1000 to draw little circles and no hand recognition whatsoever...LOL!

Still love Mac's though!
R