Why Apple rocks!

HyperLiteG4

HyperLiteG4

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Hey guys, I just wanted to say Apple rocks! I had a sent in my Powerbook G4 for repair because the CD-ROM drive was too loud and they couldn't get a part to fix it so they gave me a brand new 667MHz!! Woohoo! I just had a 500 before so I'm stoked. Anyways, just wanted to say that. Later all...
 
I just had a similar experience -- I had the old "pop-dim-zoom" problem with my Apple 17" CRT display for my G4, and contacted Apple about it. They initially tried to charge me $50 for the phone call and then whatever the repair costs were, since my monitor is more than a year out of warranty.

I referred the gentleman to the TIL article on this symptom. He politely put me on hold for about 10 minutes, researched the article, then came back and told me that I'd have to send my monitor in for repair and pay for it, too. I asked him if he had any other calls like this, and he affirmed that he had quite a few. I asked what they did about those other calls, to which he politely put me on hold while he conferred with someone, then came back and told me that a FedEx box was on its way with a shipping label and to send my monitor in.

No mention if I'd have to pay or not -- this was a little over two weeks ago. Today, a nice FedEx gentleman knocked on my door with a rather large package. Inside was a brand-spanking-new Apple 17" CRT -- the old style, exact same model I sent in for repairs. I went looking for dust on the top and scratches I knew I had on the old monitor -- nada. Brand-spanking-new monitor, and it works perfectly. Free of charge. Compliments of this great company called Apple.

I am thoroughly impressed with this experience with Apple. I doubt any other company would willingly replace an out-of-warranty damaged product with a brand-new product, free of charge and free of shipping charges. I am amazed and pleased.
 
Here's another example of how cool Apple is:

http://newforums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=45&t=000637


They will buy Norton utilities for anyone who lost a partition due to the defective iTunes 2 installer. Note that Apple is "covered" by the licence agreement and readmen file that come with the iTunes 2 installer, but they chose to take responsibility for their mistake anyway.

Would Micro$oft do such a thing? I don't know, but I suspect not.
 
I've had this with my monitor (Blue and White 17") for a while now, but it hasn't really constituted a problem yet, other than being annoying. What exactly can happen with this? I haven't heard much about it (and the TIL doesn't say that much, either).
 
Ok, just to reiterate: the "pop-dim-zoom" problem exists only with Apple Studio Display 17" CRT monitors, and if I'm not mistaken, only those with VGA connections -- a la the EARLY G4 computers and B/W G3's. The problem appears later in the life of the monitor, and the symptoms include a "popping" sound coming from the monitor followed by a "zooming" of the screen and "dimming" at the same time, followed by the image on screen brightening and zooming back out.

It gets REALLY annoying. My monitor started, ironically, when I first read about the problem about two months ago. My monitor would do it once a day or so, and always returned to normal. Time went on. My monitor started doing it more and more frequently, until it was doing it several times a minute, sometimes five or ten times in a row. When I would turn the monitor on, I would see an "electrical discharge" in the lower-right-hand corner of the monitor, like sparks behind the screen or something. One day, it did it and went completely black, never to return!

I called Apple, and previously said experience of the whole FedEx shpiel ensued. Long story short, after sending the monitor to Kentucky free of charge, I'm sitting in front of a BRAND NEW (yup, never used! No dust, scratches, etc.) Apple Studio Display 17" CRT-VGA monitor.

Apparently, this affected about half of the graphite colored VGA 17" monitors and about half of the B/W VGA 17" monitors -- something about the Mitsubishi tubes Apple was using. At any rate, if you call the help line at Apple, explain your problem and reference the TIL article (forgot the number, I already got my new monitor!) Apple will send you a FedEx box with a return shipping slip and within a month you'll get a fixed or new monitor. Some B/W monitor owners I've talked to reported receiving a graphite-colored monitor instead, as I think the supply of B/W monitors is pretty much non-existant.

No bodily harm is evident, unless you go mucking around with the cover off the monitor or something. Just call Apple and let them handle it. It's a painless process, although you'll have to do without a monitor for an unspecified length of time. I, erroneously, forgot to include the form they send you with information to fill out like serial number and type of problem, so all Apple received from me was a monitor in a box with my return address on the FedEx slip. I still got a new monitor even though I didn't include any info, but I highly recommend doing so to uncomplicate things... ;)

All-in-all, a good experience.

Red Phoenix: just wait. Use your computer as much as I do and this symptom/problem will eventually kill your monitor. Send it back to Apple and use a cheap-o monitor in the meantime. I did (17" from Sam's Club for $140) and now I'm thinking I'll keep that monitor, buy a Radeon card and have a dual-monitor setup. My problem/symptom was intermittent at first, but escalated to a level so bad it was simply useless to try and get any work done. It may or may not go the way of my monitor, but I'm telling you -- be persistent but kind on the phone with the Apple Rep. and you'll get a perfectly fixed or new monitor out of the deal. It was all well worth the two weeks I spent waiting.
 
Whoa... and a bullshit lawsuit has never been brought about? OJ Simpson. Simple as that.

Maybe Apple's guilty of racial discrimination. I don't care if a white man or a black man took my complaint and fixed my monitor. It got fixed. Many a company has been sued for racial discrimination that WASN'T guilty. And lawsuit abuse? This doesn't happen? People are being "awarded" millions of dollars because they cut their thumb at work out of their own stupidity. Wait until the verdict comes out before condeming a company that'll go out of their way to help you out. Innocent until proven guilty, er, wait... I guess that doesn't apply with you, eh? Just because a lawsuit is brought about means that Apple is guilty, according to you. Nice attitude. You're one of the people in the world that has such high expectations that they'll NEVER be satisfied with anything -- you expect people to go out of their way to make YOU happy for some reason...

Sorry, you just caught be at a bad time. It happens. Get over it.
 
I wish I could put De Niro voice...

in any case, are you talking to me? when you say "you", are you referring to me? I dont' get you bro.

I didn't write my take on the case, so I dunno what you're talking about.

I'm not white, I'm not black, I live in the US now and I've never felt discriminated against... The only reason I know racial discrimination is there is...because media says so, and that's pretty weak. Anyway, so I don't know what it feels like, so I can't speak for either side. And to be honest, I don't really care.

You're right about some stuffs though... Innocent until proven guilty, is only on paper... many people will have negative view on Applejust because it got sued, while others will see.. you know where I'm going. and I guess this really isn't the place to discuss these issues.

About the only feeling I have on this case is.... $40Million????? that's ridiculous... This punitive damage thing is going a bit too far. Maybe the lawer is only looking for settlement, but hell... I thought you were supposed to ask to get your job back, the money you were suppoed to get, whatver else (I guess this is the unclear part) that you lost because of this, and some punishment for the dude that f*cked you up. I mean... if this guy gets even a few million dollars, then I'm gonna try to get a job where a KKK or neo-nazi member will be my sperior...

Maybe I put the link where it doesn't belong. But I found the article while I was reading this thread, talking about how nice Apple is (and I'm not writing that in sarcastic sense, that's just what this thread is about). I thought it'll be interesting, but I guess not.
 
I just went back and re-read my post from last night, and, to say the least, I apologize! Hehe... I was feeling some "negative energy" last night and directed my anger and frustration at you, which was wrong of me. I am sincerely sorry. The "yous" in the post weren't directed at you -- they were generalized "yous."

At any rate, to continue the discussion (on a MUCH less heated note, I promise!) I do think that most multi-million dollar lawsuits nowadays are a load of you-know-what. This is the first time I've heard of Apple being sued for something like this, but there could have been other less-publicized lawsuits that I missed.

Racial discrimination? Hmmm... my verdict's still out on whether or not most of those cases are flaky or not. A company has the right to hire who they want and fire who they want -- and if you work for a company that doesn't want you working there, for whatever reason, race, age, sex, etc... WHY in the world would you WANT your job back? $40 million? That's going to heal this guy's pain? Shit... a significant other I once knew said, upon breakup, that $2450 in losses would help her start healing. Take a wild guess at what I said in response to that.

I think that racial discrimination lawsuits should be handled a bit differently. The plaintiff should be offered their job back, and if they choose NOT to take it, screw them getting anything more than lost wages and a TAD bit of compensation. The courts are there to determine right from wrong and to right those wrongs, not suck money from one party and "award" it to another. $40 million in PENALTIES against said billion-dollar company could be levied, but not AWARDED to the man who lost his $7.50/hr. position working as a phone representative who didn't get his promotion to team leader for a whopping $1/hr. raise.

Whoa. Forget everything I just said. Upon proofing, I realize it makes no sense at all. ;)

I STILL think Apple's a great company, regardless of whether or not they're guilty of racial discrimination. They'll learn their lesson one way or another. We must forgive and move on. Worse things have been done in the world, and if this is the worst thing Apple ever does, we should all be happy. Take a look at the OTHER lawsuit (hint hint) being carried out right now.

As for my experiences with Apple, they haven't ALL been peaches and cream. I've felt jilted, wronged, screwed, whatever in the past, but you get on with life... and then you have a good experience, and makes everything better. My experience with my monitor is a good example -- I got a FREE friggin' monitor! How sweet is that? And it's due to the fact that Apple realized that some of their hardware was fundamentally and operationally flawed, and they fixed it for free. GREAT business practice, if you ask me... but no one did... hehe... ;)
 
well, sometimes I wonder if the rules & laws are there to protect or to punish...

and man... can somebody bring Einstein back please... he can probably figure out the formula for calculating punitive damage... it seems to expand at exponential rate...

man... this isn't related at all... but this morning, I decided to have a decent coffee (not the one I make that looks like the result of some science experiment), so with my drowsy eyes and sleepy head, I went out and started to warlk toward the nearest coffee shop (well, nearest is Starbucks, but f*ck that...) anyway, on the way there, a black dude came out of the back alley (well, this is Ann Arbor, so it's not ghetto, but there's back alley everywhere, I guess), only about 5-6 yds away from me.

I was thinking about something (too bad I have trouble remembering what I was thinking about) and like I said, I was sleepy, so I didn't see the guy for awhile, and boom, there's a guy right in front of me all of a sudden. I was thinking "whoa, where did he come from". but anyway, he just stood there to light his cigarrete, but as I walked by, he says

"you just gotta stare at a nig***, huh?"

I was still thinking about whatever I was thinking about, so that didn't register into my head for like... another 5-6 yds... but then I was like "what!@#*&$&%^#&^@#???????" and I turn around, and he's the one staring at me. anyway, he mumbles soemthing else, and I wanted to say something, but with my sleepy head (and even with clear head, I dunno what's really there to say, or am I still sleepy?) couldn't come up with anything. so I just said "man, forget it" and went to get coffee. but hell, I don't think I needed coffee to wake up after that.

Well, I guess racial discrimination's still there... and I dunno what to say to those who do get discriminated.... but I think there's something wrong with the mindset of some people who only claim to be discriminated... I mean... God... stupidity and assholes are like... in every culture, aren't they?:mad:
 
That is awesome HiperLiteG4!! I have to send my 400mhz PbG4 in when I have the time. I have that battery problem. And my CD rom drive often keeps CDs inside until I put pressure on it. It would be awesome if they sent me a new one too :D

What exacly was your CD problem? What did you tell them on the phone befor sending it to them? How log did it take to get it back (or rather get a new one :D) ?
 
Going back to the "pop-zoom-dim" problem, this also happened on the 6200 performas. Remember those? Anyway, my mom has one still. I know it's old. We buy the latest macs, but she just emails her kids and looks at the occasional web site, so it's still a great mac for her. Anyway, she had this problem when she first got the machine. I called Apple about it, and they told me it was just due to powering up. I explained it doesn't happen right after booting, but several minutes later. They still insisted it was from booting up. Years later I found out that Apple had admitted there was a problem - a friend of mine who had a 6200 had gotten theirs replaced with an 8500 provided by Apple! Yay Apple - but they still didn't do anything for my mom's machine :mad: Apple has replaced a bad iMac for me though... very wishy-washy. It's the manic depressive computer company!
 
sorry to go back to the lawsuit, but keep in mind that you can sue anyone for anything. Unless they are talking awards/settlement, there is no real news there.

I just read in a news blurb that a guy from FL filed a lawsuit against osama bin laden asking for $1.1 Trillion dollars in damages because osama scared him!

now there's someone with $250 (costs to file lawsuit - I think) burning a hole in his pocket. =>

PS> Hey lookit there - I just got promoted to "Member" :D
Pretty soon I'll be catching up to AdmiralAK :D :D
 
I think I have had this a few times before with my 17" that I bought with G4 AGP. (the older Studio Display that isn't LCD, the one that doesn't have transparent back).

Anyway, after a few of these, the monitor can't do any refreshing rate over 60Hz.

Now, the thing is old, and it's demoted to 2nd monitor, so I really don't feel the need to send this thing for repair.

what I want to know is... why does this happen?:confused:
Is this a problem with this particular brand of monitor or this can happen to any monitor?
 
This particular problem is VERY common with the older, 17" CRTs like yours and mine. Mine exhibited the same problem -- later in the pop-dim-zoom problem, my monitor seemed extremely dark and wouldn't display an image properly unless I knocked down the refresh rate. This problem stemmed from a batch of the CRTs themselves from Mitsubishi. I don't know exactly WHAT causes this behavior, but from the popping sound and visible electric discharge on the screen, I'm tempted to say that some electrical connection near the actual "ray guns" themselves were arcing against some metal part in the monitor. A reader on Macfixit.com reported that after disassembling his monitor (in order to later successfully repair it himself!) he found that a metal plate used to shield electrical currents in the monitor was bent and was most likely the culprit of the problem.

I'm assuming this can happen to any monitor, but unless there's a fundamental or operational flaw like the ones in our monitors, this problem's likelihood of appearing on another monitor is EXTREMELY small. This one was just due to a design flaw in the 17" Apple CRT monitors.

Send it in for repair! You'll most likely get a brand-new, identical monitor for replacement! For FREE! All it takes is two to three weeks patience!
 
Originally posted by ElDiabloConCaca
Send it in for repair! You'll most likely get a brand-new, identical monitor for replacement! For FREE! All it takes is two to three weeks patience!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice... but you know... like the wise old guy that passed out said, Patience is a virtue... and...
looks like that's a feature missing in the OS running in my brain...:( come to think of it, it's not really a System that's running there...

maybe I'll do it during the holidays when I'm away... and may be by then they run out of this old model and give me a new one :p

I guess I'm pushing my luck a bit too far...
 
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