MacBook Pro 17"

Hardware problems? felt those during the time when my family still had computer shop as a family business. From network to crashing HD or memory problems etc.

Although i am thankful for those situations for because of it i was able to expand my knowledge on hardware and software.

"Knowledge is Power!"

I want to get one once I'm in college. I'm going to fully maximize all the specs just to have some fun 3_3... Yea saw you facebook post... Feel sorry for you, I hate waiting for a computer to load and stuff...

my PC is custom made i only have some software issues every once in a while, all i now is never skimp on the motherboard

In the past I had very often hardware problems. For example, I bought a new PC and when I tried power it nothing worked. Searched for the problem and look, my brand new power supply unit was defect...

Bought the PC on a saturday evening, so everything was perfect! New monster right in front of me and no chance to change the power supply unit. Yeah!

Wow 10 hours? Quite a long time. That laptop is ridiculous in price...$2700USD. Does it make pancakes and waffles too at least? ^^

I've had a few hardware problems over the last 23 years. First one was actually setting the PC on fire by installing the Oregon trail (not joking here) when I was 6 and destroying my Dad's $5000 computer.

I've seen hundreds of thousands of hardware problems though over the years from other people that I've had to fix. If only hardware never failed XD

PC or Mac, they all have their hardware failures. ; ;

All computers have their own shortcomings. So far for me, my Macs have had less shortcomings ^^;. So far the only hardware problems I have had, have been hard drives dying though usually from old age.

Only hardware issue in all my years as a Mac user was a Logic Board failure - and Apple fixed it free of charge, out of warranty, the very same day I brought it in to the store. ^_^

I got the Unibody 15" for a little bit more portability, but that 1920x1200 res on the 17" is going to be nice.

All I can say is this. I have an iMac G4, which I had since 2004. And due to the fact it does not have the process speed I need, I use it for backups, iPod usage, and the occasional torrent or Megaupload. (^_^;; Strange as it may sound, but that thing is pretty stable.

However, I had this Sony Vaio since 2007. The mousepad is faulty at times, but I currently have not seen any issues with it lately... Some of the pixels in one spot of the screen are dying or dead... And before getting it a cleaning, the thing would become hotter than holy Hell. That, and there are lag-based issues, which is more trash related and the fact the battery life is not as supreme-o as I hoped. (-_-;;

But yeah... I might just do the Apple/Sony bit again in the future, unless they correct some of the issues you brought up (briefly), Danny. Mostly because one Mac will be for work and the other is for casual stuff. And I'd like to have a brand that I can rely on. (^_^

i am a dual platform user and truth be told, i have less problem with the mac than the pc. but then with that said, because i build my own pc rigs, i have less trouble than many of my colleagues/friends who buys the branded ones.

my crappy laptop of 5 years died recently. it had way too many issues. I may buy a macbook or a dell laptop soon

Eh, my PC's on the blink at the moment... defs getting in need of a rebuild.

I think Macs actually have less issues overall than PCs though, but then again I also guess a PC's easier to fix? (don't know, not really a computer person). That said, the only problem my Mac using friends ever seem to have had was a mac-mini overheating and dying.

wants a new macbook too! ^^
isn't lan faster than usb? or u mean wireless lan?

well, at least your MBP didn't catch fire. Heard of that happening to a few of the unibody ones

in the next few weeks, the (pirate Windows) laptop I'm using right now probably will be replace by new laptop/Mac or new desktop.

I'm lucky not to have any laptops die on me yet. But as for my desktop computer... must have happened at least a few times. Since we didn't replace our current dead desktop yet, we're living off of laptops in the house. ^^;

LOL! when i first read the title y tought u had bought another mac and was counting how many computers u had in your home/office XD i thought! omg! where the hell does danny get the money and space for more and more computers! LOL

i had some problems with cooling on Fujitsu Siemens and Acer laptops but it was easy to fix. Now totally happy with 17" HP laptop.

Desktop is custom build and is going to last me a few more years before I go hunting for new parts ^^

Had plenty of hardware issues in the past month. Most of them were pretty minor and goes away after a reboot. I guess it's the price to pay for using a Vista..

I believe you can fix up that laptop if you had one of dem Matrix Keys.. ^^'

Basically no hardware problems for me. I built my own PC but so far the only thing I've had go wrong was an old power supply blew up on me and one of my hard drives died. Those are still easy to replace though.

havent had hardware issues in 4 years - same machine; on everyday

both the desktops I use at home and at work are custom-built.

so far, the last massive hardware problem we encountered was the hard drive crash some two years ago. we still have the damaged drive, and we might try to resuscitate it at some future point.

I wish I had the ability to buy a laptop or a netbook at need. we're really looking into getting me an Asus Eee, preferably the 1000HE or the 1005HA - then I'll have the retailer do some custom upgrades for me.

(I should probably post about that, haha.)

Your previous MBP 17 had served you well over years, it's time for an upgrade ^_^

For hardware failure, my 3years old media server which always online 24/7 for the past 4 years had only have the PSU burn out & replaced.

Now I'm wondering when will be the shortcoming of my Miku mobile workstation.

My computer... has had a gajillion problems in its lifespan of almost a year. Multiple freezes and blue screen of death. Probably because I used to play MMORPGs while I had tons of tabs open xD

me have almost no problems with my apples. just a hard disk crash on my old powerbook. it was already 2 years old by then. replaced it and viola. still in active duty. ^^. have a friend who is constantly plagued with computer problems. windows and mac. ^^. some people just don't have any luck with machines.

i have a custom built PC, not laptop... yet? always have multiple video cards fail on me due to heavy gaming sessions XD had 2 HDD, 1 PSU, 1 CPU fail over many years. maybe more, i forget ^^;

i see Reika figma!

Sry about the computer trouble Danny. Love how you used to the Transformers' quote.

Macs sure look pretty though, plus I've heard the OS is easy to use... sadly I've been sucking on Microsoft's teat since DOS 6.22.

10 HOURS!! (T.T) I was going to suggest Norton Ghost but, I looked and it didn't look apple friendly.....that's kind weird...

Doesn't feel like it Danny, although I had my Dual-proc 2.7 GHz (liquid cooled) G5 go dead. One of the processors in the 'proc-module' is dead and replacing it is essentially the cost of a brand new iMac (entry level) and I already have a 24" 2.8 GHz iMac as well.

With regards to taking care of my data this is my setup:

<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2431/3666571079_266523ba0f_o.jpg">

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2431/3666571079_266523ba0f_o.jpg[/img]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2431/3666571079_266523ba0f_o.jpg

The drives at the front are sitting on top of my MacPro (Dual-2.8 GHz 8-core) run with the machine 24/7. The two shiny MyBook Studio II units on the right each have 2x 500 GB HDs inside configured as RAID0 to give 1TB accessible, each. The two Studio II units in the background on the left have 2x 1 TB HDs in side and are configured as RAID1 for mirroring. They connect via FW800 and are quite fast, featuring the "Green" drives from WD as well.

I sync them with the system on a weekly basis, thanks to Chronosync. Been using it close to a decade now; I do not use TimeMachine btw.

Just got a brand new 13.3" Unibody MBP in Singapore, which cost S$ 1,988.- (Approx 126k yen)

Congrats on our purchase! I'm getting the display of my 15 inch mbp replaced this weekend.

I had a PowerMac 9500 bought in '96 and it died in '03. My iMac G4 was bought in '02 and is still working fine right now. My bro's PowerBook G3 (bought in '98) had two HD death and the battery could only hold less than 30 minutes now, but otherwise is still okay.

I believe most Macs die old, heh...

I've had absolutely no hardware problems with my MBP Rev. E. Other than upgrading the memory to 4 GB myself, have not had to touch any of the hardware. I would say macs are less prone to failure because Apple pretty much chooses and knows what goes inside each product, which gives smaller room for error. I did fiddle around a little too much with file permissions and Apple's ruby (deleted it in fact...), so am having problems setting those back to normal so that I can have my local rubyonrails environment up and running. That did end up turning into a good excuse for me to purchase a new 500 GB HDD though :). Going to put the current 200 GB in an external enclosure, migrate everything over to the new HDD, then turn the 200 GB into a disk clone so that I can get up and running quicker (as Danny has explained).

My PC on the other hand has been causing me problems since year 1. 3rd time I've built a computer from scratch, and each one has managed to have problems. The current one had one memory stick die, replaced it, and now it goes haywire every once in a while and runs out of system resources, freezes with a bogus error message, or just crashes. HDD died too, which happened to have all my photos during my year abroad... I think I'll be sticking with a Mac for a while, but I am worried about Apple's rumored move back to Intel for the graphics card because of the dispute between Intel and Nvidia...

Build my own computers for a long while, and never had any problems with them. Buy only the best, make sure they have good warranties, those two policies have served me well. I've never had to RMA anything yet though. Worst I've done is burn out a memory stick from too much overclocking. All computer problems I've had can be attributed directly to my excessive tinkering, rather than random failure.

Hey danny, its me atmospheric from twitter.

Glad to see you've upgraded to a unibody macbook pro.
Your old 15" might still be covered ;D just last month they extended the extra year warranty to two!

nvidia screwed a lot of laptop manufacturers from that 8000 line, Apple, Dell, HP, even tried to file a class action lawsuit against them.

http://theappleblog.com/2009/06/01/apple-extends-macbook-pro-nvidia-geforce-service-policy-to-three-years/

I've never had any problems with my Mac, but I've only been a Mac user for about a year now. I've never had any hard drives crashing on me either, and I'm very thankful for that^^

Well... let's just say they don't make'em like they use to. We're still using almost 10 year old Macs and they're still functional ^^;;

I just realised that the Unibody 17" is 3 kg, wow that is heavy. My MBP 15" pre-Unibody is 2.5 kg and I find it rather heavy to lug about, as I fly quite a bit. The 13.3" MBP Unibody is thankfully only 2 kg and is pretty much feature packed (unlike MacBook Air, which is like on a diet ^^).

Are you going to use yours as a desktop replacement then, or will you be mobile with it? This reminds me, my pre-Unibody MBP has no AppleCare ... wonder how long it will last :p

The only hardware failure I've encounter will be either its time is up or sudden hardware failure which I've only encounter once and it is a D-Link Wireless Router Modem.

Even though you've experience hardware failure with the Macs, I still planning to pick one up when I start to work full time. Need to learn Mac too since Mac users have lots of fun time with it. :)

Mmm… I would call it bad luck.

My iMac G5 is already… 4-5 years? up and runnning like a champ.

At the office we have somewhere around 35 Macs of all kinds and none of them has needed any trip to service repair for about 3-4 years (admittedly one -only- had its HDD died). I do imagine our ratio of issues might be a little to good for the average, but that is the way it is going.

We did have quite a higher ratio of breakdowns about 5 or so years ago (specially with optical drives), but it seems they got used to the environment ^_^

My white Macbook did have a couple of issues, both out of the guarantee period (keyboard plastic had a crack and my battery gently died) and both were fixed by Apple free-of-charge. I do like this kind of brainwash.

for that astronomical price, it better not break

Yeah, my laptop up and died on my earlier this year. Just stopped displaying anything on the LCD or through an external monitor. I can still access files on the HD over the network, however. I really need to get it fixed.

Is nanoha chan holding an ice cream? Kawaii!

I have my PC's custom built with components I specifically choose. I'd never trust pre-built package as I never know what junk they put into them. Glad to say I've only had one gliche which was my own doing. Switched out my video card for a beefy one, and it eventually burned out my old PSU. Popped in a high wattage Cosair, and no problems since. However, my HDD is getting old and although it runs fine I'm getting paranoid, so I have everything backed up on different sources.

Almost no problems with hardware that i own since the 90's. My e6400 C2D PC is working fine for the past 3++ years. My 13" 2.4ghz MB (or should i call it MBPs now?) is still fine w/o problems. The only iffy in my home network is my Linksys WRT54G router which doesn't want to reconnect for DSL line drops from time to time.

Danny are you restoring from Time Machine via WLAN or that estimate is for wired?

i built my own pc. last time i had a problem was power supply was not sufficient to power all disks in my machine, so upgraded the psu. no probs since then.

just had a major hdd problem on my PC. X_X! and wow! nice 17"!

Restoring over LAN should actually be faster than over USB. Even though USB is rated for 480mbps, you will virtually never get more than 35MB/s read. Over gigabit LAN OTOH you should get full speeds only limited by the speed of the disk, rather than the interface.

The only problem was when our my family computer had to be taken to a computer hospital for catching a trojan. We decided to take the computer into Geek Squad. Bad idea.....

That new laptop looks sweet.

Does it come with a camera built in? (not computer savvy)

I have an old Compaq Pentium 2 that I'd like to break so I can upgrade it. ^^; based on my experience, the old stuff are more stable, the new stuff on the other hand breaks down more often. ('~')
regarding Macs, I'm fairly new to Macs so I haven't had the chance to experience any problem with it. I'm hoping I won't have to though. ^^

Where do you store your data? I would reccomend a good nas with Gbit support, nice and faster then USB2 :)

I custom built my PC, had no problems whatsoever with the hardwares so far during this 1 1/2 years of lifetime...

Only occasional OS reinstalls to refresh the system...

Sorry about that, Danny. How old was that 15" MacBook?

(I'm getting worried with my 4 month-old MacBook ... hope it lasts for at least 3-4 years ...)

I haven't had a computer problem since I built my own. I don't think I'll ever buy a pre-built computer again.

I stick to PC, no hardware problems so far ^^

So far i have been incredibly lucky, no hardware fails ever except a burned up pentium II proz like 10 years ago?
Then again, my MacBook Pro has 3 year warranty, support and insurance (against being stolen and so on) service kit from Gravis for 129,- EUR.

Maybe i just switch hardware to fast before it can actually die on me... dunno. ^^;

Aw man. Not a Mac user, so, can those things be salvaged somehow?

As a PC-user, I do not have many hardware problems. Or software problems, for that sake.

My 6-year-old desktop is getting pretty slow, but it's nothing a few small updates won't fix. But the important thing is it's still running and it's still usable by anyones account. Hell, I play World of Warcraft on it every now and again.

My year-and-a-half Gateway laptop is still running beautifully. A little peice of plastic over the hinge came off and I ended up losing it, but that's purely aesthetic.

And when I talk about hardware - am not talking about any hardware attached to your body.

..........

Not a Mac-user, my PC runs fine so far... but if anything happens... i'll... drag my friend for help = = (Complete idiot when it comes to it... >_>)

Wow What a gorgeous machine! I wish I can have one or afford one. lol!
I had tried having hardware problems which was a 160gb hard drive crashing, and I did not have backup, the partition got wiped out I don't know why, I tried recovery softwares to recover 10 years worth of PHP + mysql + web design projects but all files recovered were corrupt. Had no backup on usb or discs =( Good thing the I'm still alive so the source is not yet lost. LOL!

I am a heavy PC user, the only computer that ever died on me was my XPS710 motherboard, and I am going to chalk it up as a RoHS related failure on cold solder joints. I always keep 3 computers running all the time, my oldest operational computer is a Dell Dimension 8100 P4 1.4G, it's been running for 9 years straight without stopping, the only failure I ever had on it was the fan. My 2nd oldest computer is a prescott flamethrower, despite it being hot as hell, I have yet to have a failure for running it 4 years straight.

With the absence of lead in solder, I am afraid we will see more electronics failure in tighter time interval than ever before.

i have an HP Pavilion (PC) O_O i have never experienced Hardware problems thankfully, though its my first computer (got it in 2003, i was pretty happy) i try not to over work my computer to much, though its on almost all the time. getting a new computer soon though since the cheapest PC at Bestbuy is like $300 and even that has higher specs than my PC >.>

I really like the Mac OS. And since I got my iMac, I have no need to use Windows at home. It serves to help me separate work from home because we use Windows at work. It is nice to have a machine at home that does not feel running slower over time. My next notebook will also be a Mac :)

NVIDIA faulty chips caused some pain to many notebook owners and macbook is not exception :( Unlike the PC you have to get new machine if that happen and I feel sorry for all those random HW malfunction :(

But nothing is worse than loosing you personal data - therefor backup as often as possible!

well, my headphones broke last week. Otherwise my pc has been working fine for several years.

I'm a PC user and it looks like I suffer from random hardware failures at least once a year...

I use Ubuntu as OS so the only problem i have is when i have to buy a new hardware and have to search if there is a way to make it work for this OS.But rarely i have seriously hardware problems..........two times the power supply died,the second time i bought a new one, came back to home, install it, work for 2-3 hours then this new one died too.....i thinked it was other problem that kill the power supply so i took back the full pc at the computer shop for a revision, but at least they said to me that the power supply defected from factory.
but.....if i'm a lucky one my friedns aren't...........they have always hardware problems with their pc.

Sorry to hear that! Good thing you have backups though. I'm thinking of getting some RAID awesomeness soon..

my old compaq crapped out on me ages ago, that's the only hardware failure I've had. I am not swayed by macs after using them at school ^^ Though I suppose subjected any computer to a bunch of middle and high schoolers isn't any way to keep them running smoothly.

Not harware but mostly software problems here. Yes, still a windows user, cause I don't have the money to get a Mac. Usually switching to a new system after two years though.

hum, amh a very late mac adopter, my first one is a macbook pro 15" bought this year, working pretty well but I do not trust hardware stuff (pc, mac or whatever) then I triple backuping everything ... about the 17", too big fo meh, prefer the 15".

I wouldn't called it is plagued with problems. For me, it's rare and far between. Latest trouble was when I upgraded my computer last Feb, but it was due to my lack of experience (settings in BIOS), a few googling fixed it.

About you, I guess your home is still on 100Mbps network, if your NAS does support 1Gbps you should upgrade your network if possible, or even if it is not the case upgrading it is a good idea then you can get a new NAS later. CAT-5 does work in 1Gbps but I would recommend CAT-5e. Network equipments are dirt cheap these days.

Well in case you need network equipment, Buffalo, Belkin, D-link and Draytek can be trusted, Linksys is too crappy lately, specifically after they are acquired by Cisco, really ironic that is. One main point in buying network equipments is you should go research your targeted products on the interweb for reviews and such before buying. I have no idea about Apple products though beside they're overpriced as I haven't used any.

NAS I don't really know as I built my own, it's actually a small box running Linux with two big HDs that does more work than a NAS actually.

Thankfully no hardware problems for me (*knocks on wood*), although my current HDD is vibrating way too much. Would replace it if I felt like installing Windows and all my progs......not now.

Are macs really notorious for having hardware failure, even in this age of high quality stuffs?

The only time when I have hardware problems; WHEN I BUY INCOMPATIBLE PARTS!!! D:

That's all in the past though... but still software problems happens more than hardware for me.

Hmmm no hardware problems so far, i bought and fix my own computer as well. So far the parts that i buy didn't have any problems. More of a software problem i guess, due to some unstable overclocking, but now it's all good :D

For me the most common failure was HDD and graphic card. I so far have 4 RIP HDD and 2 RIP graphic card. >.< Oh and not to mention 1 RIP USB drive. Other than that, I guess hardware problem was very rare for me. Oh, I also suffered a power unit failure before also. The power unit in my CPU exploded. ^^,

Well Danny, I'm also a Mac person, I still use my PC, but it usually drives me off the wall with Window's issues. My ibook died on me but I haven't had time to get a new one. so now using my iMac.

Love it!

I'm a Mac user, But I still have my PC just so just to drive me off the wall. My dead ibook sometimes resurrects itself. as for my dead Pcs, I buried them at work. Now using a iMac love it!

Sorry, my pc going crazy. Should have used the mac.

I thought Macs where great! For my major, animation I would need something like a mac to work with 3D modeling and fun stuff like that. From my friends, teachers and room mate who works at the Apple store, they all say Macs are good for work.

Usually no, but recently... it's been really bad.

An old HD which has both my OSes on it, was on it's way out. I started to back everything up on my fairly new HD and then I was going to reinstall my OSes back to another drive. Somewhere in the processes that newer HD decided to die a horrible death taking 300GB of data with it. It makes a horrible noise and with it in, my computer won't go past my motherboard logo when booting. If losing the data wasn't bad enough, the drive is OEM so there's no warranty, refund, return, exchange, ect.

I lost all my audio projects, tons of anime and music, photos, ect. Really sucks.

I'm going to wait a bit then buy another HD, next time it'll be retail too.

My Commodore 64 never failed on me once in 4 years and it's probably still going strong somewhere!!!!
That was in the good old days!!!
ahhhh, only if.....!

Gratz on the purchase Danny!

My graphics card had heating issues and had to replace the logic board to get it sorted out. Fortunately that expensive repair was taken care of by Apple/Nvidia so that pushed my upgrade time back for a bit. I'm running out of space and I'm too afraid to open my mac up so I guess the upgrade will come soon.

Trying to push it back as much as I can as I probably would prefer to invest in camera gear (lenses :D) at this stage. Maybe if I won the lotto or got freebies like you haha >,<

My WD My Book hard disk was dead with my valuable data inside. T-T

Although it is in warranty but WD only give me the new one, they can't recover my data in it.

I picked up the 13 inch Pro last week because I commute with it everyday. I absolutely love it, and am planning my complete move from Windows when I do a desktop refresh later on.

Fortunatly for me there havnt been any problems on my HP laptop for the two years i've been using it
But i hav had my share of memory crashes and others when i was still using my desktop,those were the days....

How long you had that 15" MBP??
If you have it from less than 3 years, Apple will fix it for free, it's a common problem about some pre-unibody MacBook Pros.

Well i don't had that much time with a PC that has given me problems. My current desktop is an emachines that is three years old and so far nothing has failed me yet and hope it stays that way. Currently saving to get a mac mini since is the cheapest one for now ^^;;

I'm a PC and I haven't had any hardware problems in years. ^.^V

Well i guess it is a bitter sweet experience as an old lappie gets replaced by a newer and better one! Owhhh just think about the great times we had together.... oh well, thats that and lets welcome the '17 inch' big brother xp

Well lets hope that it lives up to its reputation!

Anyways i myself just got myself a 13 inch pro, aka 'little bro' =) last thursday. Have been enjoying its company so far with no problems whatsoever... Thank goodness!

Part of me wants to laugh(cos I'm not a Mac fan...), but cos its your Mac I don't wanna...

How long did you have it anyways?

I thinks Mac users are hypnotised by their shiney-whiteness. All pretty and well designed n whatnot. I couldn't use one to save my life... too used to Windows.

And to answer your question, yes I'm plagued with hardware problems. Its Vista. Which Vista user isn't? lol My laptop is currently Bluscreening everytime I'm using Utorrent. Not straight away, but a little while after I start, sometimes it doesn't at all... but it only ever happens while Utorrent is running and dling.

And that's the reason why I don't really like Apple products, you can't repair it yourself like open it with regular screwdrivers or something like that and replace it with new part or clean it up with something that can be used

I'm a PC user so whenever there's a hardware problem, I just open it or have the repairman do it

Anyways, my nee-san use the Pro 13 inch, and it still have no problems going on... But still, I love they're iPod and iPhone products beside other's

I see all hardware failures as an excuse to upgrade=D

Sorry to hear that, Danny. It always sucks when your computer( PC or Mac) failed on you. Since my computer is a custom build, I rarely have hardware problems. Most hardware problems I encountered usually either faulty RAMs or dying HDDs (they produce clicking sound when they are about to die).

http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/build-a-hackintosh-mac-for-under-800-321913.php

^ ^ Gotta love hackintosh's best of both worlds if you dual boot (plus cheap). I used to run several that required programs from osx and windows so I dual booted a Dell Optiplex GX620 and only had to add another nic card, had sound and everything working fine with leopard. I dont mind the prices because of the time the macs themselves last, but if you just wana toy with osx a virtual machine or full hacintosh is the cheaper way to go much.

Wow do I ever have hardware problems. I recently decided to fix computers on the side. My computers hardware is generally fine. Anyway just yesterday I had three power supplies that were dead, one used that was working like a week ago, and two new. Tried them all in one box to get it working again. I got it working but still 3 power supplies... maybe I have the touch of death.

Since I fix pcs, and still have my old school macs at home that work I love Macintosh. Thinking of picking one up in the near future on newegg. My sister has a Mac Pro that has out lasted all of my computers. I do have OCUD (Over Compulsive Upgrading Disorder). Since I built one computer two years ago only the case has remained the same.

huhuhuhuhu..My clone pc lasted me for about 5 years before deciding that it should "Rust in Peace"...i went through 1 AGP graphic card, 2 floppy drives, 2 CD-ROM drives, 3 power boxes and 3 modems....some of the damage was due to mother nature (Lightning)...

Currently my laptop is just over 3 years old and i had to change the keyboard once recently...guess i was jabbing on the keys a little too hard (A S D and W keys went "kaput")Now my new keyboard is kinda stiff...hmm maybe I need to break them in again.hahahahahha

Recently built a new XP rig with quad-core and 600w PS and recent video card. it's primarily for gaming, so I have it loaded up with fans to keep it cool. I wear a headset when I'm playing so the noise doesn't bother me.

I do all my web browsing on a Ubunto box routed through a KVM so I can switch back and forth at the push of a button.
No viruses so far with the Linux box. My last windows box got nailed big time with a "drive by install", so now I only use the Linux for web stuff.

Biggest problem I see as a laptop tech is that people don't clean out the heat sinks often enough, and the machine cooks....

I custom build my own pcs so I haven't had hardware issues for a long time. What kinds of hardware issues do macs usually get?

using mine old Dell laptop 17" of almost 5 year old payed more 2000 EUR is still working perfect but only the color on the screen is starting to lost. The VGA card is much better then the crappy 9400M in the MBP.

I used a macbook for awhile in college but I switched back to pc, the resell value on macbooks however is quite amazing, I was surprised to get about 80% of the retail price even though it was almost 2 years old.

I worked on a Company with 50 iMacs...

If I remember in 1 year, 23 died or broke something O_o...

Been a PC user all my life, and I've never had anything really serious happen because of malfunctioning hardware. I got a virus twice since I learned how to handle computers, but I don't trust the Macs. I have no clue why ^^; They look very pretty and amazingly fun, but to stray away from PCs when it's never failed me, it's something I'm not gonna do XD

Otheriwse, I love seeing your daughters all together in one pic like that, they're so cute XD

My laptops a five year old Gateway so yeah I got problems.

my dell XPS and HP Compaq died on me. At the same time.

How sad. I shall conquer my money restrictions and purchase a mac for work *gets shiney -eyed*

ive bournt a couple of gfx and cpu in my time, mostly due to Overclocking.
but all in all never really hardware troubles, on the other hand software trouble
that i have had loads and loads of trouble with.
what i dont get with mac is their warranty, you get 1year or buy 3years warranty.
and with their prices they should give 3year warranty for free.
luckly we have a 2year warranty law, so either way one is secure for 2years.

Sorry that happened to you. Good to hear you got a replacement (but expensive O.O)

I've always stuck with HP Notebooks. Cheap. Under 70,000 yen in most cases and get the job done. Got one blue screen one time but never happened again. Other then that, no major issues.

In my case switched to apple (mac mini) a year ago and now is my main machine. The only thing that keeps me wanting a pc are the games.

lets see, my main laptop has like 3 years, is a ASUS, it came with vista and gave me problems with the ati drivers (i think the PC is one of does thay only make like 500 just to test in the market) until this year i was able to make the Catalist work perfect (After formating it, Vista is in a mmatter of fact a very stable OS with all the updates on it) but that was the only problem i had. O yes also the wireless card gave me problems but i resolve it just upgrading the drivers, the laptop is good as new, i'am thinking about upgrading it with a SSD (Solid State Disk) to try how it works for me.

And for a moment there my heart skipped a beat after looking at the post's title, as I thought you got the 17" MBP from Apple as a gift or something! XD Especially after reading about all those articles lately about you working closely with Apple.. Heh.

That would make it a SAM (Suddenly Acquired Mac) or SAA (Suddenly Acquired Apple). Yowzah!

I've had very few hard ware problems in my time, but that's because I've always nearly always custom built my PC's so what I know and want is in there. Despite that I still get quite a few software problems ._.

It happened to me before, my new HDD died after used for only 2 months! That's right, all thanks to the great technology of Seagate.

More pics of the unisex computer!@

Never skimp on RAM and power supply. Faulty RAM makes the entire system unstable. Faulty PSU can kill your entire computer.

Tried logging in a few hours ago,must have still had server problems,all ok now. I found this while checking e-mails. http://dvice.com/archives/2009/07/transforming-ma.php Also has anyone seen the commercial for buying a pc vs mac? Quite interesting.

The only problem I've had with PC is my hard drive crashing twice on me. I've learned to back up my stuff on externals sense then.

The only problem I ever had with a mac was on an old ibook where the hard drive crapped out. We were able to find another hard drive cheap on the internet, and replaced the old with the new(er) drive. Now it continues to run (OS 9 I think), and haven't had any other trouble with macs.

I hope your server issues have worked themselves out... I don't know how good Apple's warranties are but hopefully you can get the hardware fixed for free.

I have to say though, Macs look a lot better than most PCs on the market. In terms of flexability and the ability for hardware swaps I would prefer a PC.

Only problem I have had with a PC was software and never hardware issues.

That's a pretty nice price for a Macbook Pro 17"! 0_0

For that amount you'll only get the 15" model here.

I seem to have pretty good luck with computers and electronics in general in that they never really have a lot of problems. However many of my family members dont have the same luck so I am always having to repair them haha.

I actually have turned my knowledge of computers into a way to make money though but fixing broken computers. So I do see a lot of messed up computers.

I've managed to stay clear of hardware problems for the most part. My hardware problems usually equate to me not having enough hard drive space on hand ;) Just purchased a 1TB drive though and I'm hoping to throw it in my linux box and install some software to get it running as a timemachine backup drive for my hackintosh ^^

I just got a 17" myself. You'll love it.

17" is massive. You can't take that anywhere as it's so heavy. Well I don't know if that's the case for Macs, but for other laptops it's a hassle.

I haven't had my MacBook for very long (about three weeks), but everything is running just fine. I have the same model that you just got, only in a 15 inch. My parents (who bought my computer) said I didn't need 17 inches of computer ^^;

http://www.quazacolt.com/personally-quazacolt/2009/06/pc-death-new-motherboard-and-previously-bought-new-hdd/

^

title says all lol

on the bright side, working around with PC breakdowns are much easier (and cheaper) than MACs XD

Man. I've not experienced any crashes before.
How does a HDD/graphics card die with normal use??

Anyway HDD and graphics are not made by Apple so it's not their fault?

I've been a heavy PC user ever since I used my parents IBM desktop that was installed with Windows 98. I seen my share of software related issues on Windows and as well as some hardware issues. So far the most recent computers I've owned have had hardware issues. One desktop had the motherboard and CPU fail, I had a laptop and another desktop hard drives fail, and recently my newest laptop has a motherboard failure around the WLAN area (where the WLAN Broadcom card went intermittent).

Hopefully, by the end of July I will be a proud owner of a 13" Macbook Pro.

Hardware problems. I've faced one just a week ago when my hard drive failed and had to get it fixed by Seagate. Fortunately my five year warranty was still working and didn't pay a penny for the job to get it fixed. But Nice Macbook Pro. I've always wanted one. The only drawback is the price. (>_<)

This is yet another reason why i despise Mac's. They're fagile and a pain in the ass with breakdowns. PC's have better track record, sure they have the "fatal error" screen's and what not but hey its minot things that can be removed and replaced or you can strip them and build new. Thats what my little HP dou core is. The case is a 4 inch high case and 16" deep and about a foot wide. In that tiny machine I have more memory than most consumer desktop's. and I have plenty of room for more memory should I need it which I do...

Maybe you should get your macbook blessed by a Shinto Priest?

http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-07/st_gadgetshrine

Hmmm... I've been using my Mac Mini more often now than my custom PC. Will be budgeting for my 1st laptop soon. Maybe a 13" Macbook Pro in mid 2010. I've my heydays of hardware and software problems, but not so serious until you cannot solve them. He he he...

d@@b

Make mine a Hackintosh please!

It's hard to know when or if a computer of any make or model will bite the dust. In the case of desktop/workstation machines, it helps to be able to replace parts inexpensively. I the case of laptops/notebooks, a warranty with accidental damage coverage is an absolute must.

Personally, I have little to no need for MacOSX, but I know people who do. And if they want a MBP for business, I have to recommend having a spare because there is no such thing as accidental damage warranty coverage. Dell and HP both have programs for this, however, and will even offer on-site repair next-business-day. Apple simply doesn't offer anything comparable to that level of service and support.

So the reason I start with "Make mine a Hackintosh please" is that for those reasons, I would be more inclined to select a nice Dell laptop for installing MacOSX. The EFI boot hacks make installing MacOSX possible without modifying the install media. The same goes for Desktops and workstation machines. I have been entertaining the idea of getting my wife a newer computer and have been leaning in the direction of a nice performance dual or quad core PC with EFI boot hacks to load MacOSX for her. It should be a lot less expensive and should remain compatible even at 64bit with snow leopard.

Apple hardware would be worth the money if it were more reliable.

I like Macs for their good looks and spiffy interface. Been meaning to get a MacBook Pro but I so don't like the current physical design. Whenever they change that design is when I will be getting one. As of right now, my desktop PC has been so good to me and still is. A little aged but still good. Be good to your computer and it will be good to you.

Always been a PC user, and I have definitely had my share of hardware issues, and far more software issues. That being said, I have found that it was more due to my poor computing than anything else; the past few years I've been more careful about what I have been doing as far as web browsing, registry editing, etc. and it seems to have eliminated most of the problems I hav encountered.

I want to buy one! Just because the Apple computer have a great design!
I think I prefere the Windows system.

I have a mac . . . and a pc
i just love computers, and no matter which kind you choose there are pros & cons
just depends on what you like and what you are willing to put up with!!!
kinda sounds like a new boyfriend "lol"

Between a few PCs and a few laptops I've only had trouble with one power supply. I'm generally very cautious about moving my laptops around when they are on and how I set them up. Also clean out my cases whenever I upgrade.

You know! I have a 15" macbook pro (Unibody, latest one) got the full upgrades & all, and can you believe after only a few months my disc drive failed!! I"M SO IRRITATED now to call apple & they better find a good way to replace my drive quick bc this is totally unacceptable! Sucks that yours failed, I cant believe the board & the HD failed that's just rediculous, hope the new 17" works out better!

Well mine is just lagging a lot...

Danny, What do you think of the super high resolution screen? And for that matter, did you get the glossy or the anti-glare?

Damn, sorry to your computer died.
Yeah I'm plagued with hardware problems all the time.
It sucks when you put good money into a laptop and it fails on you.
Definitely upgraded to 17 inch!!
I can't get use to smaller screens once you have a 17 inch laptop.

PC user here - I've used macs in the past. In my opinion, they're nice but you're paying a premium for the looks. Macs are ridiculously overpriced. =/

As for your laptop failing, happens to all of us. Unfortunately, it's way more difficult to build your own laptop as opposed to a desktop which results in laptops constructed from parts not of your choosing. @_@

I particularly dont like 17'' notebooks because they are big and not so portatil, but theyre good to watch movies..

One of the reasons why I still prefer desktops over laptops. I can easily switch out the part that died instead of replacing the entire system. My previous pc died countless times and just had enough of it so I ditched that one. Assembled a custom pc last year and I'm happy with it since it barely crashes even after a month of not having to reboot it.

I think you could say the same for all people who prefers one thing over the other. No matter how much problem it gives them they'll still stick to it. heheh! I'm like that with my pcs at home. Although I can't wait to get my hands on the new macbook pro though. Hoping to get one by the end of the year ^^

I had hardware problems when I first got my MBP 15". The Audio was playing up so I went to get that replaced, but the new audio card shorted out my Logicboard. I managed to get a replacement for my laptop, I was without a laptop for about 2 weeks.

I got my new laptop and found that the monitor was giving me this spotlight effect, not all of the screen was being lit up at the same time so there was a spot light effect at the bottom of the screen, so I sent that one back and got a replacement.

I went through 2 MBP's in like 3 months or something. Everything is fine with my MBP at the moment, but the hard drive seems like its going to die so I'm going to get a new 500GB drive =D, my hard drive dying gives me a reason to upgrade =P. I'm definately going to get an extended warranty, before my warranty expires.

Wow, I haven't commented in forever... been way too busy lol. As for computer related problems, I occasionally run into a thing here or there, but I've developed a routine to maintain all of the computers in my house, and when I built the computers I picked hardware that I knew well and that I knew wouldn't have problems or glitches. Thus, I have 3 very reliable rigs running. The only thing left for me to do is create a backup system for all of them, at the moment the backup system isn't very reliable and is a very manual process. I have as of yet to really give OSX a try, but even if I did like it... I also love Win 7, the best OS I've used to date, so I'll be sticking with that one way or another. I can't see not being able to build my own computers, picking out what hardware I want and being able to upgrade it as I see fit, so Macs just don't seem reasonable to me.

So far I've had extremely good luck with Apple products. I've had 4 different machines and the worst that has happened is a few dead HDs. I really hope that the quality hasn't been suffering as they are getting more and more popular these days. I just ditched my HTC G1 for an iPhone and have been loving it lately, just hope it lasts like the rest of my stuff has.

So far as I've been able to determine, each major system has one or two defining traits behind why it's users prefer it (not counting professionals who's needs dictate their choice)

Windows: Software Selection
Mac: Trendy Pretentiousness, Reputation for being Simpler than Windows
Linux: Geeky Pretentiousness, Free(dom)

Mac and Linux both tend to generate a large number of hardcore fanboys that refuse to admit there could possbly be any reason to use any any of the others, and express rage at the idea that windows could possibly be the better choice for many people.

I've never had a HD die on me, but I'm sure I'll jinx it now T_T *backups important files*

have dealt with a tonne of problems in the past most of them were fixed by tinkering with the computer's innerds.

But does it have a removable Battery!!! lol

When my one computer recently wouldn't light up the screen, I threw out the motherboard, processor, ram, and video card and got all new stuff.
Problem solved.
QED

If the computer slows or I get errors, I immediately buy a new hard drive and set up Windows again. This does mean that I re-install everything every 6-15 months, but it's good to avoid potential problems by doing this.

I also have 3 backup PC's so if my main PC dies I'm still alive.

Just Read today that Patriot Memory are offering 10year warranty on their M28 SSD, thats twice as long waranty period as Western Digital are offering with their drives.

just a little side note, i thought people should know.

For me, it's desktop hard drives. They keep spinning out of control.

a 17" macbook pro @-) Lucky XD though I have to say.. if your old macbook pro died because of old age, it has served it's purpose ;)

I really like the "Thinkpad" range of laptops.

They are often criticized for looking plain, sometimes ugly, but their no bull-shit black aesthetic is what draws me to them.

The build quality of them is stellar (with the exception of the budget "R" range).

They are high end stuff though, on the same level as Macbooks.

I think a large issue people have with "PCs" is that they buy poorly built ones and stick with whatever bum-humped version of Windows the manufacturer has installed (Dell anyone?)

Only had a few issues with hardware and those were when I was younger and I was learning the ins and outs of computers and I got bored one day and decided to see the effects of taking powerful magnets to your hard drive. That was a good long 10 years ago though.

Now a days I have no troubles with hardware as I build my own computers and set them up exactly to my specifications. Closest I came to hardware problems was when I got my laptop which was my own fault and I was trying to install a dif OS I had it all installed then one of the three blue screen possibilities comes up. At first I made a RAGE face at it but when I read what it said I realized it was because I didn't switch a setting back in the BIOS. Once I did that it was all good.

How long was the life span of your old mac? I thought Apple products never dies :p

Apple getting greedy again?

I never had hardware problems but always software problems. Now I know what to do in a situation like that. You have to Google it and then do it yourself.

err Hard Drive dying... I thinks its time for me to buy an external HD for some back-up