Thursday my iBook died. And by 'died,' I mean the hard drive made a noise that no geek wants to hear. So, thanks to HCPS, I returned it to Apple,and got it back today, Monday. (5 days... not bad.)

Anyways, the repair log stated that the following things had been replaced (not repaired... replaced):

�CD-ROM drive
�Latch
�Ethernet port
�Hard Drive
�Motherboard
�and of course, the little rubber feet.

Anyone had something equally bad (or worse) happen to them? Let's hear it!

An old 286 with a 20 Meg hard drive went crtical (the dreded 8 beeps) on my mother BF at the time (an electrical engineer) when I was little. He tore the thing apart looking for the problem, when he found none, and pluged it back in...... nothing. His final solution.... DROP IT. I thought he was nuts, but the system never had a problem after that, and to my knowledge is still buzzing away some where.

The rubber feet? OH NO.... sorry, couldn't help but through that in there. Did you ever findout why or what hapened... I know Macs are hermetically sealed, espeically laptops, but they had to say something.

my poerbook g3 bronze's case cracked, ruber feet fell off, cd drive quite often made a duck like noise, and a few keys wouldn't work (the computer didn't register that the keys were being pressed)

GameMaster: I know Macs are hermetically sealed, espeically laptops...
What, the cases? (just read this topic from the top) I don't think Mac desktop and tower cases have all been sealed; when the first curvy PowerBooks came out, you were encouraged to take them apart and fit RAM upgrades yourself and, while I've never tried it for real, Apple's swing-down side door case design for G3/G4 towers looks really cunning. My old LCs have lids that just unclip by pulling on two tabs at the back, and all internal components just unclip - I don't know when (and if) Apple stopped that idea (I run a Mac clone now), but a screw-less design really pleased me, as it's so effortless to work on (just need a better way to get SCSI cables plugs to come out...)

There are some that you aren't supposed to open, for example, early PowerBooks had those silly start-slot screw heads, but a Philips screwdriver sorts them out well enough.

The only thing hermetical I know of is Apple's nature, and love for secrecy. Perhaps it is to that that you were referring?

So I called Dell. "My hard disk makes this click-click-click-click sound when I power up the laptop." I held the phone up to the disk.

Dell Technician: "I can hear that; that sounds bad. I'm shipping you a replacement drive today by Airborne Express. When you get the drive, drop your old drive in the box and attach the prepaid shipping label."

Me: "Uh ... ok!"

What I'm not saying: "where's all the hassle?"

What the Dell Technician isn't saying: "that's why we charge a lot more money than a DIY special!"

Pulling the drive took about 15 seconds with a screwdriver. I don't know about other laptops, but this Inspiron drive is meant to be customer-upgradeable. It slides into the case like a removeable drive, but with one Phillips screw holding the drive. Happy me.

-Oz