Apple stuff - Mac, iPad, iphone

[Bell_Flyer]

Yeah, I know. But here's the weird bit. Why two resets instead of one? I do one and the problem stays. I reset twice, the problem disappears....

I get the feeling that tech support in Apple has little influence over the guys who actually fix bugs.

[Senior Pilot]

I'm glad that I picked this up earlier: I just started a new MB Air, and after transferring all from the old Air the wireless wouldn't connect to the internet. New Network profile, and Robert's your mother's brother

[Bell_Flyer]

Losing Faith in SL and Apple Tech Support

Senior Pilot, here are a few more things you will discover with wireless on your new MBP (or Air) and SL.

1. You will go to different wireless hotspots - sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't - meanwhile you will suffer the indignity of your Windows buddies having theirs work all the time.

2. You will delete and create new dummy locations. The new Automatic will sometimes NOT work at all - even if u restart your new MBP twice, start new dummy locations, force a renew of DHCP lease on TCP/IP and so on.

3. The MOST reliable way is to carry an ethernet cable with you ie you remain tethered to the wall whilst in a different hotspot.

4. You can demo the fault to an Apple expert at a "genius" bar (I did in Sydney and in Singapore) and they will tell you it is a "known fault".

5. If you Google "Snow Leopard and WiFi problem" the most subscribed to thread on the Apple Support forum is the SL/WiFi problem thread - and guess what? Not a squeak from Apple on this.

Unfortunately, and out of desperation, I have reverted to my old G4 laptop running Tiger with absolutely zero problems on WiFi when I absolutely need wireless to file flight plans or get the weather.

I hope Steve Jobs gets better and forces Apple to fix these problems!

BF

[Senior Pilot]

Bell_Flyer,

It's my 3rd MB Air, and I've taken the others all around the world with nary a problem: wireless connections have been fine to date. I understand the issues with Snow Leopard, and only have a problem ATM with scanning (on HP) with my iMac.

But thanks anyway

[SpringHeeledJack]

It's my 3rd MB Air, and I've taken the others all around the world with nary a problem

SP, what have you been doing to have had 3 MB Airs in such a short period ? Are they that fragile ?



SHJ

[Senior Pilot]

Errr, no! My original was left in a cab (never returned, replaced under insurance) and I recently upgraded the replacement to the current 2.13GHz with Solid State drive, giving the old one to No 1 son

[SpringHeeledJack]

Good for you sir! How does the solid state HD compare with the older spinners that we plebs are using ? Is there much of a difference in real life situations performance wise ?



SHJ

[Pitts2112]

Replacement Logic Board - White Macbook

Hello,

I was wondering if the collective knowledge base of Pprune might be able to point me in the direction of an inexpensive source for a replacement logic board for a white Macbook? The Service center here wants a huge amount of dosh to replace it and suggested I might source the part cheaper by buying a damaged Macbook and salvaging the logic board. Any other ideas? I love my Mac but the repair cost is getting close to replacement cost.

Cheers!

[SpringHeeledJack]

Although you might be able to locate a logicboard for the iBook, will you be able to take the old one out and have the new one fitted ? I'm led to believe that it's not the easiest of the repairs that one can do and therefore might be v expensive to do. This place, for example TheBookYard : UK Apple spare parts specialist are a source, but it will depend where you are located. I've seen mention of suppliers in both Hong Kong and the USA. Hope this helps.


SHJ

[Pitts2112]

Thanks, SHJ. It hadn't occurred to me that there was such a thing as a computer breakers' yard. I've found a couple of websites based on your suggestion. I think this is going to be a much cheaper way to do it. I'll still have it replaced by a technician, but sourcing the parts either in the US or UK, or even buying used rather than new, might save me a bundle.

Two questions if anyone can answer them for me, please:

I have a 2006 MAcbook white. Will ALL Macbook logicboards fit and work in it?

Is there any real risk in installing a second-hand one from a reputable source?

Many thanks,
Shawn

[Senior Pilot]

Pitts,

Much as I like Mac, there's absolutely no way I'd buy one and not take out AppleCare. My daughter's MB Pro has had over £2000 of repairs due to her 'feminine' outlook towards computer care, all covered by AppleCare. Well worth a few £'s outlay, IMO

[SpringHeeledJack]

I have a 2006 MAcbook white. Will ALL Macbook logicboards fit and work in it?

Is there any real risk in installing a second-hand one from a reputable source?

Well there are many better placed to answer that, but it seems to me that there is a specific 'architecture' within the Macs and to change that brings with it the potential for malfunction. Like for like would be best, which will depend on you finding out which 2006 MacBook you have. Info should be available under 'about this mac' when you click on the Apple icon, top left.

There will always be a risk with 2nd hand components, but they are usually tested and guaranteed for a few months. Also make sure that you and your technician are wearing an earthing device when handling the board

In retrospect i would always get the Applecare with a new mac. I've been very fortunate not to have had any problems, others have been less so....

Finally, have you considered buying a 2nd hand replacement on eBay,(usually from someone who simply wants to upgrade) and sell yours 'as is' for all those who need parts or a project to fix ? Just a thought.


SHJ

[Mac the Knife]

My old Mac Mini (Intel Core Duo at 1.66GHz) was running s-l-o-w despite de-crapifying and checking permissions etc.

So just on general principles I doubled the system memory from 1GB to 2GB.

MUCH better now - really quite sprightly!

For what its worth...............



Mac

Replace the slow pissy little original 60GB hard drive next.

[Mac the Knife]

.....and just stuffed in a Western Digital 320GB drive.

Cloning the original drive was simple with Carbon Copy Cloner.

Despite all the dire warnings I was able to move my home directory to a different partition (hate mixing system and data files on the same partition) and Tiger coped with it without problems.

Nice little box now.



Mac

[rgbrock1]

Actually Mac, I hate mixing system and data files on the same drive.
It's good to use different partitions to separate the two from each other.
But if the drive goes belly up, it doesn't matter. My personal and data files
are always on a different drive. Also makes a system restore that much easier.

[Mac the Knife]

I quite agree and all my big boxes have the system and data components on different drives (actually a lot of the common data is on a RAID 1 physically separate fileserver).

But for systems that only allow one physical hard drive, like the Mac Mini and laptops, at least separating data from the system on different partitions is cleaner than lumping it all together (and, as you say, makes re-imaging or restoring a system much easier).



Cheers!

PS: And the fileserver rsyncs periodically to another fileserver at some distance which maintains daily, weekly and monthly backups on (of course) separate physical drives. FreeNAS - FreeNAS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - how I love it!

[rgbrock1]

Thanks for the link to FreeNAS Mac, I didn't know about this!
This opens up a world of possibilities.

[innuendo]

Mac, please forgive me if this falls under "Teach your Grandmother etc."
but when you ,

....and just stuffed in a Western Digital 320GB drive.

Cloning the original drive was simple with Carbon Copy Cloner.

did you partition the drive GUID?

The reason I ask is that CCC can replicate your previous drive on the new one and everything will seem identical however I found out the hard way that without partitioning the new drive GUID you cannot install any OS updates nor can the OS be re-installed.
The partition need only be a single one, it is not necessary to split up the drive but the Mac system needs the GUID type of partition.

PS. The tech who did this to my MBP was an Apple authorized tech but was not aware of the requirement.

Again if this is not news I apologize but it may be news to others.

[Mac the Knife]

Hmmm. As far as I remember, I did! Don't have the machine here so I can't check.

I bought an external drive case and the 320GB drive, used Disk Utility to partition it into System (80GB) and Data (the rest). Then used CCC to copy the original drive to System. Then booted from the new drive to make sure all was OK. Swapped the drives and copied my data /User/mac over to Data and then changed the pointer in whatever it is to point to /Volume/Data/mac. Changed the name of the original /User/mac to /User/mac.old (for deletion later if all is OK).

Rebooted and all seems fine. But I'll recheck tomorrow at work.

Thanks for heads up!



Mac

(bit of a PITA physically changing drives in the Mac Mini)

[Saab Dastard]

innuendo - thanks for bringing this up - I've now done some reading around GPT & EFI, which is good stuff.

There's a very useful article on intel-based Macs on SourceForge.net:

rEFIt - Myths and Facts About Intel Macs

SD