[X4U] How much can it cost

[Ed Gould]

On May 30, 2008, at 10:28 AM, nk wrote:

>
> On May 30, 2008, at 7:48 AM, Randy B. Singer wrote:
>
>> but often the first sign that the battery is dead is that your Mac  
>> won't startup.
>
>
> kind of a side note, but does this strike anybody else here as a  
> kind of dumb design?
> having to re-set the date by hand bcs of a dead pram battery is one  
> thing, but having a whole computer rendered inoperable by something  
> so small...just seems stoopid to me.
>
> I had 1 pram battery go bad on me in my life...was the DP G4, but I  
> could still fire the thing up at least.
>
> sheesh!
>
>
> n
N:

I guess I differ. It basically comes down to me if the clock doesn't  
work then the system shouldn't "work". I will agree that a message  
should be presented to the user saying the clock is "broken" and to  
have it serviced NOW. A dead $4 battery (or whatever the cost is)  is  
chump change . I will say that Apple should supply a cdrom (or DVD)  
that can run diagnostics and tell you the (for instance) that the  
clock is broken. Diagnostics should be provided by Apple to do this  
and other tests. If for no other reason than taking a desk top  
computer to a service place is a little bit unrealistic in most cases  
unless there is something really major. A dead pram battery is not  
major in my opinion (since APPLE designed it as a user installable  
item). If we are talking mother board or something else is reasonably  
(IMO) not a item that can be undertaken by most users (some maybe).  
Not to stray to far off topic but 15 years ago I had an IBM pc and I  
was able to replace the power supply (and believe me I am clumsy)  
without blinking. I do not know if APPLE is the same or not (as far  
as power supplies) but it reasonably should be, after all if IBM can  
do it there is no reason that APPLE can't. Maybe a portable computer  
is a little different.

Ed