[G4] AppleCare

[Charles Turner]

On Jul 19, 2004, at 7:06 AM, Power Macintosh G4 List wrote:

> From: H. David Templeton <hdavidt at mac.com>
> Subject: Re: [G4] AppleCare
> Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 09:33:36 -0500
>
> It's a shame to have to pay a manufacturer to warranty their products,
> but my experience shows that you're going to pay one way or the other.
> I failed to purchase the extended warranty on my G4 Mirrored Door.
> Shortly after the expiration of the free Apple Warranty, I begin to
> experience significant, but intermittent, display issues.

Starting with the original iMac in the summer of '98 I've purchased a 
total of six new Macs of various kinds: iMac, eMac, iBook, Powerbook, 
G4/733 and G4/dual/MDD. Of all these, only the MDD has been 
problematic. Never anything catastrophic, but enough to make me 
consider using the "L" word. ;->

Unfortunately for me, I didn't buy into Applecare for that particular 
machine. My specific unresolved gripe is the lack of a firmware upgrade 
for the CD/DVD "dual" drive. It fumbles when burning audio CDs in DAO 
mode (i.e. using Toast). Phillips has released a firmware update that 
fixes the problem, but their installer is for PCs. Apple needs to make 
a Mac installer for that, but as far as I know they have not done so. I 
tried to get them to do it while this MDD was still under its one year 
warranty, but no luck. If I had Applecare at least I could keep bugging 
them until, maybe, something got done.

For this specific problem, it would be cheaper to just buy a new CD/DVD 
drive than to pay Applecare's cost, and then still not be sure that 
Apple would fix this. Fortunately iTunes, which burns audio CDs using 
TAO mode, has no problems with this CD/DVD "combo" drive, so I'm 
getting by. My interest in DAO is that it is said to me more compatible 
with older audio CD players than is TAO. Occasionally I do some live 
recording. I want the CD I make from that to be as problem free as I 
can make it since I don't know what it may eventually be played back 
on. So I usually burn these audio CDs on the Powerbook using Toast.

Most of my other machines are under Applecare - and naturally, they all 
have been trouble free!

Whey my newest Mac, my Al Powerbook, came out there were many reports 
of some kind of light spot problems on its display. Fortunately I never 
had that problem. However presumably my Applecare will cover that 
should it occur on my machine.

-ct