Had to perform some repairs to mum’s Late 2009 iMac 21.5" yesterday. She said it froze while running, then wouldn’t start up again. Sounded like a standard Hard Drive issue, normally a fairly simple and inexpensive repair.
Of course, Apple used a proprietary temperature sensor cable that’s specifically keyed for a Seagate drive only, meaning none of the WD or Hitachi drives I kept in stock were usable. Even after I purchased a Seagate drive to use, because it didn’t have Apple’s customised firmware, the SMC still didn’t accept it and spun the fans up to maximum speed accordingly.
Either way, it’s mostly fixed. We ended up Installing a kernel extension to manage the fans based on the drive’s internal SMART temperature sensor. (Another $80 for an OWC sensor kit wasn’t in our budget, nor was the 1-2 week lead time.)
I still need to repair my brother’s 2014 Retina MacBook Pro as well somehow - the trackpad button doesn’t work, and it’s a complete top case replacement, since the battery is glued in and the trackpad isn’t available as a separate service part. At least $500 at an AASP. Still looking at options for that one.
So… as far as electronics companies go, Apple sits comfortably atop my personal shitlist.
But I’m sure everyone would rather a good, fun story too.
Take a look at what I found sitting atop an electronics recycling bin while driving to a retro-computing group meet last Friday night -
A Nintendo 64 with power supply, and Goldeneye 007. It was raining heavily that night, and even with the heater on in the car, both were still dripping with water when I arrived at the meet an hour later.
So later that night, it all came apart -
And because Nintendo 64’s are seemingly Nokia 3310 levels of indestructible, it cleaned up perfectly fine.