iMac question

[TJM]

And what sort of firearm are you fondling when doing so?

Alas, I've only a Ruger .357 Magnum revolver, clearly not a chest-thumper by today's standards. It did miss-fire while I was shooting at some fanboys during the recent San Francisco WDC and it developed a nasty bulge in the barrel. Happily my local Ruger store quickly replaced the barrel even though the gun has been out of warranty for some years now.

 

[Fishstick]

Lightening surges are normally not covered by warranties. Secondly (and lightening does actually strike twice) is power surge protection a good idea or a waste of money?

Consider powersurge protectors as disposable 'just in case' devices. They're not terribly expensive, and you don't lose anything by using one, but you may prevent a nasty surge from reaching your more expensive devices.
If it does make it past your surge protector, a PC PSU (and I would assume a mac's too) is designed to literally take the heat if a heavy powersurge happens, so that it breaks/dies, and not the more delicate components like your motherboard or cpu.

 

[CORed]

They will suspect but cannot be sure.



SurgeProtection is a a good inexpensive idea. Also use WiFi so that you cannot get surges through ethernet. If you use WiFi, if local laws permit, please open your network to the public:

If all would open their WiFi, we would all have emergency connectivity. This connectivity would be slow and intermittent because neighbors tend to be at the edge of range of WiFi.

I opened my WiFi and named the network OpenNetWork. In the logs, I see MacBooks, iPods, Androids, iPads, LapTops, iTouches, iPods, et cetera. The benefits to society of ubiquitous connectivity out way the downsides.

ISPs fearing that 10% of their clients will be so cheap as to put up with slow intermittent connectivity rather than pay the monthly bill and copyrightholders afraid of filesharing have started a war against open WiFi. They use three tools:

* Securityscares.
* Threats of prosecution for downloading or sharing illegal material copyrighted software, copyrighted mulimedia, and childpornography.
* Laws against deliberately opening WiFi.

As far as security goes, every computer should be firewalled anyway.

As far as illegal material, everyone should be innocent until proven guilty. The police should have to show probable cause to a judge. The judge should then issue a search-warrent for forensic examination of storage-media. If forensics finds nothing illegal or infringing, that should end the proceedings. The benefits to society of ubiquitous connectivity outweigh its downsides.

In some countries, copyrightholders and ISPs have made it illegal to open a WiFi-network. If you are in 1 of those countries, then opening your WiFi would only accomplish getting you thrown in prison.

If no such law exists in your country, then you would do a great public good by opening your WiFi-network to the public.

Hopefully, your neighbors will do likewise so that all can enjoy emergency connectivity if, let us say, lightning would fry most of the DSL-modems in your neighborhood.

While I won't discourage anybody who understands the risks and is willing to assume them from opening their wi-fi network to provide "emergency connectivity" to their neighbors, mine will remain closed, thank you. I like to keep my personal network wide open and rely on my router to keep freeloaders and those who might use my connection for illegal purposes out. While I agree with you that "innocent until proven guilty" should be the rule, I really don't want the police banging on my door and taking my hard drive for God knows how long to do a forensic analysis on it because one of my neighbors has a kiddie porn habit or downloads or shares copyrighted material.

If I need emergency connectivity, I will use my smartphone or take my laptop to McDonald's, Starbucks, or one of the many other businesses that have open connections.

While I agree that it shouldn't be illegal to leave your network open, it's a risk I just don't care to take.

 

[BenBurch]

...

The power surge was itself interesting; a ship dragged an anchor over a high voltage power line that ran under a local river. Apparently that left a lot of angry 60 Hertz electrons with nowhere else to go. The lights suddenly glowed at what looked like twice their normal brilliance before everything went dark. We lost a couple of freezer compressor motors and some additional digital equipment. AC power transmission is a complicated business.

One day a few years ago when I worked at home, I was in the computer room, where all the equipment was on a really good Best Power re-synthesizing UPS, and the window fan which was not on the UPS revved way up and then stopped. We had a power outage for about ten seconds, and everything came back. I didn't think any more of it til I turned on the radio and found that a crew working on a bridge which had power lines running under it got their cherry-picker in contact with the mains and killed two guys.

 

[BenBurch]

No problem with getting the repairs done under warranty. The efficiency and service levels at Apple shops is awesome. Arrived at the booked time, was immediately met by the service guy who thanked me for being punctual and sat down while he went through the diagnostics, explaining what he was doing. He found it was a hardware problem, and booked it in, no questions asked.

Awesome.

 

[lionking]

Incidentally, I just had a look at the receipt they gave me. They are replacing the whole motherboard at a cost to them of nearly $1,000.

 

[BenBurch]

Incidentally, I just had a look at the receipt they gave me. They are replacing the whole motherboard at a cost to them of nearly $1,000.

As I have owned 14 Macs over the years, and they have yet to replace one for me, I think they can afford it in your case.

Which macs you ask?

512K
Mac Plus
Mac IIx
Mac IIci
Powerbook 145
Quadra 700
Original Bondie-Blue iMac
Tangerine iBook
Graphite iMac
Snow iMac
800 MHz eMac
1 GHz eMac
21" Intel iMac
24" Intel iMac

And I am eying a 27" iMac with a quad core i7...

 

[BenBurch]

Oh! And I have an Apple //c that still works.

 

[Walabio]

I had powersupplies explode.

…

If it does make it past your surge protector, a PC PSU (and I would assume a mac's too) is designed to literally take the heat if a heavy powersurge happens, so that it breaks/dies, and not the more delicate components like your motherboard or cpu.

I have bad wiring. I suspect that the contractors who built mine hour cut corners and bribed the inspectors to look the other way. Without surgeprotection, electronics last about 1–2years. With surgeprotection, mine electronics last about 05–10 years. The last incident was 2 years ago:

In 2009 this 2007 Intel iMac U use right now made a loud pop, emitted a mushroomcloud from the vents on the back, and had its screen go blank and stopped making sound. The room smelled strongly of burnt plastic and ozone. My iMac was an expensive paperweight.

Luckily, I extended my warrantee to 3 years using the AppleCareProgram.* I called Apple. The man on the telephone told me to go to any Apple Store or Apple-Authorized retailer. I need no appointment, and I do not need my AppleCareDocumentation because the serial number of my Mac is in their database. The man gave me a list of nearby Apple-Authorized retailers and AppleStores ordered by distance from mine home.

I took the iMac to the nearest place, which was an AppleStore. I it down on the counter and said that it exploded earlier that day. The technician scanned its serial number. Within seconds, he said that it is under warrantee, and as long as he finds no evidence of tampering all repairs will be free for me. He took it to the backroom.

After about 5 minutes, he returned from the back with the news that the powersupply blew, but the other electronics seems intact. Unfortunately, the AppleStore does not have powersupplies for 2007 Intel iMacs in stock, but he already ordered a new powersupply. He said that the new powersupply should arrive tomorrow, but, just to be safe, I shouldreturn the day after tomorrow.

I return the day after tomorrow. Within 5 minutes of arrival, my Mac was on the counter. It booted in under a minute to the loginscreen. I entered my password. My desktop loaded in less than a minute. I could tell tyhat the WiFi worked because my Mac found the AppleStoreWiFiNetWork.

Within 10 minutes of arrival, I left with a fully functional 2007 Inter iMac and an invoice. Total amount i had to pay was 0 dollars and 0 cents.

It is now 2 years later. My 4-year old 2007 Intel iMac still runs fine. Unfortunately, it is no longer under AppleCare, because AppleCare only extends the warrantee to 3 years.

We can learn 2 things from this:

0 Powersupplies do protect the rest of the electronics from powersurges.
1 AppleCare is worth every penny.

* AppleCare is great, but I must warn everyone to stay away from RadioShack:

A few years ago, I bought a SiemensDSLModem at RadioShack. For 5 dollars mor, I got the extended warrantee for an extra year. About 4 months later, the modem died. I brought it back to RadioShack. The manager gave me a choice:

0 Ship the modem to the warranteecenter at mine own expense. Wait 1-2 months for a technician to get around to confirming that it is dead. Then pay to ship the replacement modem to me. With the shipping costs, I might as well buy a new modem, and I would have to wait 1–2 months without connectivity.
1 If I do not want to wait 1–2 months without connectivity, I could buy a modem from the store immediately.

I told the manager whither he can shove that modem. I boycotted RadioShack ever since then.

 

[lionking]

And I am eying a 27" iMac with a quad core i7...

Ha! Suffer.

It is my first though.