New Mac owner thoughts / experience
Discussion
Well I've had my MacBook for about 3 weeks now and although I love OSX and the laptop in general Im really susprised at how tempermental the Mac (or my MacBook at any rate) is.
After some issues I had with the flashing question mark at start up when the HDD failed to mount so it couldnt see the OSX files a week or so ago, I thought I had it fixed and it had been faultless for the last week (fixed by waiting for it to boot up properly and setting the startup volume again).
Then this morning I woke it from sleep (with iPod still attached which may have been the problem) and it hung - beachball spinning merrily away and although the pointer moved that was all that was happening.
That ceased to be entertaining after a half hour so I shut it down by pressing and holding the power button.
Now, every time I try to start it up I get the damn question mark flashing at me. Disk utility and resetting the startup volume doesnt work as the HDD isnt mounting on start up so neither of those options are available to me.
Its really starting to piss me off, especially as there seems to be nothing I can do.
For this kind of thing Windows seems far more robust in terms of starting in safe mode and I have never had a PC fail to recognise the HDD - which seems to be the issue every time with this Mac.
So, any ideas anyone, am I missing something obvious as a newb to Mac?
Is it a common problem or something brought on by something Ive done?
A faulty HDD / Mac?
Or should I just get rid of it and go back to a PC bearing in mind that it has been not working properly as often as it has been working...
Its starting to piss me off now.
After some issues I had with the flashing question mark at start up when the HDD failed to mount so it couldnt see the OSX files a week or so ago, I thought I had it fixed and it had been faultless for the last week (fixed by waiting for it to boot up properly and setting the startup volume again).
Then this morning I woke it from sleep (with iPod still attached which may have been the problem) and it hung - beachball spinning merrily away and although the pointer moved that was all that was happening.
That ceased to be entertaining after a half hour so I shut it down by pressing and holding the power button.
Now, every time I try to start it up I get the damn question mark flashing at me. Disk utility and resetting the startup volume doesnt work as the HDD isnt mounting on start up so neither of those options are available to me.
Its really starting to piss me off, especially as there seems to be nothing I can do.
For this kind of thing Windows seems far more robust in terms of starting in safe mode and I have never had a PC fail to recognise the HDD - which seems to be the issue every time with this Mac.
So, any ideas anyone, am I missing something obvious as a newb to Mac?
Is it a common problem or something brought on by something Ive done?
A faulty HDD / Mac?
Or should I just get rid of it and go back to a PC bearing in mind that it has been not working properly as often as it has been working...
Its starting to piss me off now.
If you are near an Apple Store, I would make an appointment at the Genius Bar and get them to have a look at it. With all that grief it sounds to me as though you probably have a hardware problem. I've had my Powerbook for well over a year and haven't ever had the startup volume fail to be recognised....(he says touching wood)
Kris.
Kris.
magic torch said:
Sounds like you've been unlucky and got a faulty HDD.
Take it to your nearest Apple Store or AASP, might be worth running the hardware test or Disk Utility in the Utilities folder to verify the drive.
Can't do that as the drive doesnt mount so isnt recognised...
Its only 3 weeks old so I might just contact the retailer (not Apple in this case) and see about getting a replacement.
The crazy thing is that when it was doing this a week ago it would sometimes mount the HDD at startup so it sounds like an intermittent problem
FrootBat said:
magic torch said:
Sounds like you've been unlucky and got a faulty HDD.
Take it to your nearest Apple Store or AASP, might be worth running the hardware test or Disk Utility in the Utilities folder to verify the drive.
Can't do that as the drive doesnt mount so isnt recognised...
Its only 3 weeks old so I might just contact the retailer (not Apple in this case) and see about getting a replacement.
The crazy thing is that when it was doing this a week ago it would sometimes mount the HDD at startup so it sounds like an intermittent problem
Sounds like hardware to me - it *should* just all work!
page3 said:
FrootBat said:
magic torch said:
Sounds like you've been unlucky and got a faulty HDD.
Take it to your nearest Apple Store or AASP, might be worth running the hardware test or Disk Utility in the Utilities folder to verify the drive.
Can't do that as the drive doesnt mount so isnt recognised...
Its only 3 weeks old so I might just contact the retailer (not Apple in this case) and see about getting a replacement.
The crazy thing is that when it was doing this a week ago it would sometimes mount the HDD at startup so it sounds like an intermittent problem
Sounds like hardware to me - it *should* just all work!
It SHOULD
Using the OSX disk is what I have tried to do, but when I get to disk utility the only drive it 'sees' is the CD / DVD drive - thats what I meant when I said that the HDD does not mount - maybe badly phrased
Only time I've ever had that question mark thing is when I've been booting off an external drive and it seems to confuse it for a coupl eof boots after. Never last for long though. Sounds like a hardware issue to me too.
Have a shuftie here to see if there are any obvious similarities. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.j
Have a shuftie here to see if there are any obvious similarities. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.j
agent006 said:
Hang on....
As a non-mac owner, am i right to be surprised that you don't get on-site warranty repairs?
As a non-mac owner, am i right to be surprised that you don't get on-site warranty repairs?
Bit of a grey area. I owned an Apple service provider, we used to get people call us and demand we came which service providers don't do. They said they'd call Apple, and we never heard back from them.
Think if you kick up enough fuss it will happen, but believe it's only Amsys in Surrey that does it. Due to logistics, Apple keep the parts in the Netherlands, can't see many repairs being carried out on-site.
agent006 said:
HP keep their parts in the Netherlands too, but will happily send an engineer to site to diagnose/fix equipment. The idea of having to take a conputer back to the shop to be fixed strikes me as rather retro. I would've thought that Apple would've got on top of things like this.
Agree with you, I'm not defending Apple.
The way their system works is that every component has a code. There may be three of four processors available for one particular model. Even if you could guess at the problem, you'd need to match the components, and take the machine apart to read the relevant code.
When they launched the G5 iMac they tried a LED end-user diagnostic system, the theory being you could replace a part yourself. It didn't take off.
agent006 said:
Hang on....
As a non-mac owner, am i right to be surprised that you don't get on-site warranty repairs?
Usually they come with 1 year back-to-base (although you can take it in to an apple store or repair agent). You can buy a 3 year on-site for a very reasonable sum and this can be done any time within the first year - even after you have a problem. As a non-mac owner, am i right to be surprised that you don't get on-site warranty repairs?
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