[P1] When to replace iBook?

[David Linker]

Thank you to all who replied, helping me sort this out.

For those of you following this thread: Here is the followup.

I decided to keep the iBook. The analysis was purely economical, and is 
as follows:

Educational pricing
iBook		949
Airport card	89
Applecare	183
512MB RAM	98

Total			1319

Sale of iBook on eBay (with full disclosure, of course!), estimated 
600-700

Total cost of new iBook = 619-719

This is versus the cost of out-of-warranty repair if I keep the iBook, 
which I had overestimated. There is a flat rate of $349. I assume that 
many minor repairs I will be able to do myself, or live with a 
partially functional iBook, so it would only be used for major repairs. 
This means that I would have to have two major repairs within the next 
three years to break even. I think that this is unlikely to occur, so I 
decided to hold on to the iBook.


DTL


On Feb 4, 2004, at 4:28 PM, David Linker wrote:

> I have a practical/philosophical question, and would be interested in 
> the opinions of those on the list.
>
> When should one replace an iBook that is still working?
>
> The question comes up because my iBook is now en-route to Apple for 
> the third time for repairs. It is a dual USB 600MHz that I bought in 
> October 2001. The first repair was when the CD burner suddenly stopped 
> being able to burn CD's after about 9 months of use. The second was 
> when it started to have a problem with the screen-backlight going out 
> at certain screen angles after two years of use. It had been back from 
> that trip for only three months when the screen went blank and it 
> refused to boot, although the chime would come when I pushed the power 
> button.
>
> It is covered by Applecare, so I have not had to pay anything, and 
> have only had the inconvenience of not having it for several days.
>
> My worry is that now I have sent it in for repairs three times in less 
> than 2 1/2 years, and if I had not had Applecare, it would have cost 
> many dollars. In about 8 months, Applecare will expire, and I will 
> have to pay for all repairs.
>
> Should I get a new iBook before the Applecare expires, and sell my old 
> one on eBay?
>
> Complicating the decision is that I would like to be able to boot into 
> OS 9, because there are some applications that work better there. 
> Cro-Mag rally recognizes my joystick only if I am in OS 9, and 
> Nanosaur only shows distant landscape images in OS 9, for example. 
> Clearly, these are not mission-critical, though!
>
> An additional issue is that the severity has increased. The first two 
> times, I was still able to use the machine, if I had to, for 
> presentations and such. This time, it was unusable.
>
> Thank you for your opinions.
>
> David Linker
>
>
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