The 'Book Mystique Mailbag - June 22, 2006
with Charles W. Moore
Nupower Battery problems
"Is AppleCare Worth The Price?"
Applecare
From Galen Rutledge
Hello,
Regarding:
https://www.macprices.net/columns/hildreth_moore/nupower.shtml
After reading your article I bought a Nupower battery.
When the battery ran out of juice, the computer would just die, not go to sleep. So on the advice of an Otherworld Computing tech, I returned it for a replacement. Now on my second battery, the same problem occurs. Another OtherWorld Computing tech has just informed me that their batteries lack the proprietary hardware to put the machine into sleep mode at 0%.
These batteries are not a 100% replacement for Apple batteries.
Galen Rutledge
Hi Galen;
Sorry to hear about the problem. It's an issue I was not aware of, and one that I haven't encountered personally.
The NuPower battery in my Pismo is working great at eight months plus old, but I hardly ever run a laptop battery flat.
A caveat for those who do, I guess, and NewerTech/OWC should make the issue clear in their promotional material. Thanks for the heads-up.
Charles
"Is AppleCare Worth The Price?"
From Bill Saunders
Applecare has at least one additional advantage that you missed: its coverage for peripherals when used with a the computer covered under Applecare.
I still use the original graphite Airport Base Station for a backup, dialup internet connection.
That model has a known issue with capacitor failure, yet it is covered under the Applecare plan on my Powerbook.
Also, please remember Applecare is available from online sources at a significant discount off retail price.
I've never paid more than half the suggested retail price for Applecare.
I think both you and Landau ("might be 10%") underestimate the failure rate for Apple laptops, given recent history:
http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/laptops.html
One of the most popular models was the iBook G3.
But from the 700MHz model on it was a reliability disaster, often needing multiple repairs (3 logic boards for my 800MHz model).
The $100 I spent for Applecare got my machine repaired (in as little as 2 days), without arguing as to whether or not I needed to pay $50 per support call.
And it eventually got me a replacement iBook G4.
I can't imagine not buying Applecare for a laptop.
Hi Bill;
Thanks for the comment. Good point about the peripherals coverage.
In general, however, I stand by my assertions about AppleCare. As I noted in the article, I've bought five Mac laptops in the past decade, one of which actually was one of those 700 MHz iBook G3s (which hasn't missed a beat in 38 months and counting), have never purchased AppleCare, and so far have never had a failure it would have covered.
In you're case, however, I can't argue that A/C didn't pay off.
Charles
FromVuong Pham
I have owned too many Macs to count...
None have ever had Apple Care purchased.
Few have been worthy to keep for over two years... otherwise they are subjected to re-sale towards purchase of another..
But, what I have discovered is many Credit cards companies offer free extended warranties. i.e. American Express.
Extenstion will double warranty for up to one year..
Nice to know.
Apple care-wannabe on the cheap.
take care.
Vuong Pham
P.S. Just bought the MacBook 2.0
Nice very nice. Deja vu of when the PPC came out. Not many things fully native.. but when they are universal.. wow.
2 gigs of memory is a great investment.. and installation is WAY EASY compared to the ibooks I have upgraded. (optical drive, logic boards, HDD etc)
Sure I haven' t had to change the logic board of the MacBook, but hopefully it is a better design than the iBook. I think the Quadra 800 design team must have influenced the iBook team!!
Hi Vuong;
Thanks for the comment. I think we're pretty much on the same page re: AppleCare.
And yes, many major credit cards will double the manufacturer's warranty up to 2 years (non-commercial use only).
Good luck with the MacBook!
Charles
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