Six Dead 'Books in Six Years: Is Apple Quality Control Slipping?

Quality control doesn't seem to be an issue with some computer manufacturers, but judging from my experiences with their laptops, Apple has a bit of work to do.

So far I've had six Apple laptops die on me within their useful life, starting with a PowerBook 140 and ending with the recent demise of my PowerBook G4.

The first Apple laptop I bought was a PowerBook 140, and it died back in 1997. Granted, it was a little bit beyond its useful life when it died, but it still lasted me for only a year. I had a used 540c after that, which promptly fell apart.

After that, I used a 5300cs that was only about two years old at the time. Unfortunately the floppy drive stopped reading disks - and later the screen failed.

I then decided that buying a brand new computer would be the best way to go, so I ordered a 300 MHz tangerine iBook. It was a great machine for a few months - until keys started falling off the keyboard. Soon afterward the hard drive kept corrupting itself, and eventually the AC adapter died. Thankfully this was all while it was under warranty.

This was when I bought my G3 PowerBook, which has probably been the most reliable PowerBook I have owned - yet it still had problems. The internal fan failed while I was on vacation, and I had to get it repaired by a dealer I knew nothing about. Unfortunately, when I got it back the modem didn't work. I had to pay an additional amount for a local dealer to look at that for me.

The only real problems started under Mac OS X; the machine would not boot back into OS X when you booted into 9 (I never figured that one out), and then it started locking me out of OS 9 completely, even when booting from the CD. Luckily I was able to fix that, and the machine once again ran fine under OS 9.2.1.

Why did I buy the G3? I was attracted by the large screen, better support for OS X, and longer battery life. The first year with it was a dream - then the nightmare began last week. First, the keyboard stopped working correctly. When I pressed 'delete', the computer would type '1qa' and the screen brightness would decrease. The down arrow produced another combination of characters and changed the sound volume.

Luckily the local Apple dealer was able to fix it, but then an issue came up with the screen, where a green vertical line would appear about 2/3 of the way across the screen if you held either side of the screen, and it has been consistently getting worse. Now opening and closing the lid produces the line, and it often stays on the screen unless you wiggle/tap on the LCD or move it back and forth a bit. I've been informed that it is most likely the screen, which will cost $1,240 to repair.

Initially I was hoping that I could have it done for less somehow, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Even if I bought a screen on eBay and had it installed, it would cost close to $1,000, and honestly, this machine is probably only worth about that. There's always the possibility, I suppose, that it's the screen cable - but all the advice I've gotten so far says it's not worth bothering with getting it checked out.

How unfortunate; I paid $1,400 for it only a year ago.

Right now it looks like I have two realistic options. Sell this on eBay and buy another used one, or sell this on eBay, save up for a while, and buy a new laptop.

This raises the quality control issue. If this one and the past ones I've had haven't been reliable, how do I know the next one will be? I know people who own IBM, Dell, and Gateway laptops who have never had a problem with them. In fact, I have owned several older IBMs, and they are built like tanks.

While my Apple laptops have failed, my IBM ThinkPad 760e is still going strong, except that it's far too slow for most of what I use my laptop for, and Windows 98 (the highest version it can run) crashes too often for my tastes.

Perhaps Apple thinks that it can concentrate less on the quality of its notebooks, since it's the only game in town if you want a Mac OS computer. It seems as if they get away with it, too.

I wouldn't have a problem with a modern IBM laptop, except for the fact that probably half of the files I have are in applications that I don't have a PC version of, and the simple fact that I have used Apple laptops for six years and would like to continue to do so. This is partly because of the design, the integration of power management with the OS, and also partly because I am just used to Macs.

I'm still unsure as of the route I'll take, but I assume I'll end up getting another Apple laptop of some sort (what kind is the question) and moving on with my life.