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Apple Issues Power Supply Exchange

Posted by pudge on from the back-in-my-day-computers-made-us-go-deaf dept.

mpath_lamp writes "Today Apple issued an exchange program for all owners of the Mirrored Drive Doors Power Mac G4. It's meant to resolve the incredibly loud fan noise in the current power supplies of Power Mac models that began to ship in August 2002. The program requires a $20 shipping charge and the return of the old power supply. Apple will begin shipping the kits on March 10 in limited quantities and the kit consists of a 360-watt power supply, system fan, allen key, and installation instructions. A big thank you can be directed to the guys over at G4noise.com for the continuous support in trying to get an official response from Apple."

8 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Great... by Junta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Offtopic rant...

    Now if they would just repair the cheap-ass plastic lid latch release button and headphone jack in my iBook.

    Apple's engineering quality has declined. It seems they are trying to see what they can get away with now. The noisy power supplies are one example. Anyone else have the lid latch retainer thing break for no good reason?

    And why in the latest iBook revision have they changed the metal holding a headphone plug in place to cheap plastic, and just to make *sure* it breaks, leave empty space between the plug and the more solid case. The iBook is the only device I have ever seen that saw it fit to use plastic there, and now I see why. Even a 5 dollar walkman uses metal there.

    I can see why they could think that a plastic headphone jack would be sufficient without much testing, but what genious had the idea of a thin, relatively sharp lid latch fastening into rather flimsy plastic?

    This recall is good, but on the whole, service is not that great nowadays. What is the price premium for if they try to weasel their way out of what they view as expensive repairs? I already drained my account to buy the damn system in the first place, don't demand 700+ dollars to fix two pieces of plastic just so I can use headphones again... I know the quote probably includes the motherboard, but still.

    The battery life. temperature, and display are all top notch, but the cheap manufacturing on the outside can severely impact important functionality..

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    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    1. Re:Great... by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Speaking as someone who has had to make that call, it is tough knowing where to draw the line. I agree--being consistent is almost as important as simply giving you the answer that you want to hear. Sometimes, it's better just to know that if you're denied on the first attempt, you'll be denied forevermore--so there's no need for kabuki on your part with subsequent techs.

      Although, I've never tried to return another consumer good worth a few thousand dollars to know how big brands treat it--but I guess I would expect less resistance from Best Buy than from the Apple Store; when your margins are in the billions of dollars a year, a little more can be spent on Customer Satisfaction. Then again, ever try to have a car still in warranty replaced instead of repaired, even for a serious defect?

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      $tar -xvf .sig.tar
  2. Even Apple can't tell the difference! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Apple seems to have their example machines mixed up on their Exchange Program website:

    I have a 'Quicksilver' at home, and a 'Windtunnel' at work, so I'm pretty sure they've got it wrong here.

    But I agree, they should just make the codenames offical, and maybe add the year onto the name. Updates could get a letter or an additional digit... Apple usually has cool codenames anyway- but now that I think about it, even that would become a marketing decision...

    Update: while previewing my submission, they fixed it! Honest!

  3. Re:A testament to their fan base by pmz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can you think of another computer maker who could say the same?

    Perhaps some of the UNIX workstation vendors. For example, none of them really release products with lots of fanfare...the people who need to know will know. For example, only the really big-deal stuff, such as some of flag-ship Sun Fire servers or StarOffice get tons of press out of Sun. Other product releases, such as the Blade 150 seemed to simply happen with just a blurb at their web site. Yet it didn't seem to take long for lots of people to know all about the Blade 150 and its strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps I'm incorrect; this is just my take on it.

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    Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
  4. Nice victory for wronged consumers by Zhe+Mappel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    G4noise.com demonstrates where you can get if you put a company's feet to the fire publicly and humorously. Thumbs up for them. Thumbs down for Apple for shipping those noise boxes in the first place and then stonewalling owners.

  5. Re:Great but... by redwood2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple is getting cheap?

    Looks like, for $20, they're going to send me a new power supply to fix a problem that really didn't affect the performance of the box in the first place and that 20 includes the shipping of the new one to oyu and the old one back to them?

    I got no complaints.

  6. Re:Great but... by usr122122121 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    is the average mac user savvy enough to replce their fan and powersupply
    It comes with instructions. Anyone who owns a mac has enough intelligence to follow instructions, thus "tech savvy" has nothing to do with it.

    Heck, even a moron can launch a nuke given the proper manuals...

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    -braxton
  7. Re:Great but... by mbbac · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you bought a PowerMac, you bought it for a reason: expandability. Anyone with a PowerMac either can handle this themselves or has someone staffed that can.

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    mbbac