Nowadays things are made to break...

[Cameron Poole]

So they say, and I can believe it too.

I have had this MacBook Pro almost 1 year and it crashed and lost everything without warning last November and had to go to three Mac 'hospitals' before it was working again, and this week it's developed a new habit. I'll quit an application, iTunes for example, but the command 'Q' action causes the entire screen to go blue with no trace of a mouse arrow, not even that dreaded rainbow swirly thing so what else can I do except hold down the on/off button, wait a minute and restart.

Can't currently afford a terrabyte drive to Time Machine everything (most stuff is backed up but I should be able to depend on a young model from a legit dealer. Still under warranty I think but I have a pilot to edit and a deadline and this is making me lose confidence.

Whoever made the morally bankrupt decision to deliberately make products fail after a certain amount of time in the name of profit needs a good beating, and I don't say that lightly.

[Les Wilson]

Macbook Pro laptops are pretty reliable as far as laptops go but recognize the fundamental idea of schlepping around all that complicated and sensitive magic umm I mean technology like it were a 3 ring binder is actually pretty amazing.

For the record, the technical term for what you call "dreaded rainbow swirly thing" is "pinwheeling". In the old days when Macintosh screens were black and white and graphics were flat, it was more aptly named "beach balling". Not that it matters much to you at this point.

Your symptoms sound like you have some bad memory. Your laptop came with a diagnostics disk that you can boot from and it will test all the various hardware components including memory.

[Colin McDonald]

Sounds like you have got a lemon there, most unfortunate, and no wonder you are frustrated. In the UK you would be entitled to reject the goods and get your money refunded, even after nearly a year.

I fear I'm about to reject a 5 month old Samsung "Smart" TV myself which neither the retailer nor Samsung seem to be able to fix. However, I do realise that they are not all like that. Certainly yours is not the experience of most Mac owners, me included. (Though sometimes Apple decides to shaft us all at once).

The UK Consumers Association has statistics on the reliability of most of the major brands of goods, and the trend is for increasing reliability, to the extent that it does not recommend ever buying extended warranties.

[Eric Olson]

Originally Posted by Cameron Poole

I have had this MacBook Pro almost 1 year and it crashed and lost everything without warning last November

Sorry you are having such trouble with your computer. I find that computationally intensive tasks which generate significant heat, such as editing and rendering, are best done using a desktop machine with adequate cooling.

The difficulty is that profit and even GDP increase when there is more waste, but in the long run waste damages an economy by making it less efficient. I was going to write that PCs built out of interchangeable parts are easier to maintain and repair, but my PC crashed and rebooted before I could type that message! While significantly slower, my 8 year old computer appears to be more reliable than the newer one.

[Cameron Poole]

^ I find that to be the case with my first MacBook Pro which is now 6 years old. Okay, the keyboard no longer works and in computer years it walks with a Zimmer frame and is prone to bed wetting but it still serves me well as an external hard drive.

I am amazed that Steve Jobs subscribed to the uber greedy idea of making products built to fail when so many decent people around the globe depend on his products for their income and their memories. I would personally write to Mr Jobs explaining that it isn't fair when the lifespan of something that appears to be good is suddenly cut short but he found that out last year himself.

[Lee Mullen]

Obsolescence they call it. Done on purpose by the corporate sector to maintain their greed I heard. Could be wrong though sir.... ;-)

[Steve Game]

Once again, this reminds me that cheapest purchase price is not necessarily the best value. As Colin says, in the EU, (including the UK) we have quite strong consumer protection which has probably had a major influence on the reliability of electronic goods. Even so, when they do fail, we have far better rights against the seller and the manufacturer.

It's true that we pay a bit more up front than some countries because manufacturers have to price in their liability costs. The EU is a massive market that impacts on the activities of any would-be global manufacturer.

[R Geoff Baker]

I feel your pain brother, especially if your circumstance prevented you from using a $100 back-up drive in Timemachine that would allow you to move seamlessly to a new computer ...

But I would politely point out that the failure of your computer is hardly proof, or even evidence, of a commitment to 'planned obsolescence'. I've had computers fail, and drives fail, and memory fail, but in truth the '07 Macbook Pro I still lug around has done none of those things, and all told has probably offered me more hours of service than any computer I've bought in the last twenty-five years. Your mileage may vary.

But to return to my earlier point: If you can't or won't include the price of a $100 back up drive in your arsenal, it will be remarkably hard to feel sympathy for you when your dreams vanish into electronic ether. Years ago a simple back up was hours of effort and scores of floppy discs -- today it is an invisible background task performed automatically every hour. You'll feel less hostility to the good folks that build the hardware you buy if you protect yourself!

Cheers,
GB

[Paul R Johnson]

To Colin - don't forget many dealers now stick to 6 months on the reject for money back!