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How long should my iMac last?

I've been having an awful lot of problems with my iMac in the last few months. In reading post after post to try and solve each one on my own (the three year warranty expired, and I just can't afford $49 every five days per problem occuring), it seems like a lot of people who give answers here concur that the average life for this computer is only about three years. Am I crazy to think that spending this much money on a computer should get me further? Is it really acceptable for a SuperDrive to die in three years? We're trying to decide whether or not to replace this system with a PC. We bought the mac because I wanted to burn our home movies to DVD and edit them nicely, clipping out long shots and adding music, captions, etc. Also, we use(d) it for the iPod and our family photos. All three of these things can eat up a lot of space quickly. I delete my movies once I've burned them and made one backup DVD so that I save space. What's the best option? I'm not sure I want to spend this much money again if I can't depend on the system for more than three years, especially when PCs just don't want to read our Mac files (photos, movies, tunes, etc.).

iMac flat panel G4 Superdrive, Mac OS X (10.2.x), machine speed 800 MHz, Bus speed 100 MHz, CD/RW & DVD-R

Posted on Dec 23, 2005 8:16 PM

70 replies

Dec 23, 2005 10:10 PM in response to rangies

NO! so don't do that.

Dec 23, 2005 10:14 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

Do not do it then. I was able to do it on mine without reformatting. It is formatted as Mac Extended.

Dec 23, 2005 10:15 PM in response to Freddie L.

I'm not at all confident that it would be formatted correctly, so I suspect it might be asking for trouble, frankly. I'd try an archive install on the main drive first.

Dec 23, 2005 10:16 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

I agree.

rangies Author

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Dec 23, 2005 10:21 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

I've done the Repair Disk Permissions before, and I can't remember the result. Since I'm still having troubles, it must not have fixed it, but I'm trying it again now. Maybe it will give me an error message or something to provide more insight. I'm seeing several "differs" and "corrected" lines... I've got my fingers crossed.

It's encouraging to hear that I may not have a dead hard drive. I just haven't been able to figure out the problem, or why I'm suddenly having it. The best answer I've been able to conclude is that we used up too much of the hard drive (we got to only 10 out of 60 remaining) and perhaps the hard drive tried to overwrite itself. If I had a crystal ball and could know for sure that that is the problem, and that if I spend $600 or more on labor and replacement parts it would be fixed, then it wouldn't be so bad. I'm just terrified of spending all of that, knowing that $600+ is a huge chunk of a new computer cost. What if the repairs don't work? Money's very tight with three kids, two in diapers.... Money's probably tight for all of us this time of year!

I'm still fuming from when I paid $120 or whatever to upgrade my iLife, then found that it wasn't compatible with my OS and I had to either go back to my original iLife and have wasted my money, or pay another $129 or whatever on upgrading my OS. Our computer, at the time, was only months old and I couldn't BELIEVE I was being robbed that way. I called customer service and I had missed the "cutoff" for the free upgrade by a miniscule amount of time and they wouldn't budge.

Dec 23, 2005 10:26 PM in response to rangies

Look, we're just other people with macs, and complaining to us doesn't accomplish anything. Apple employees rarely show up around here. Anyway, iLife is about $50, not $120, and if you had checked the system requirements before you opened the box you could have returned it. No operating system upgrade is "mandatory." I was still running panther until last month and it still worked just fine.

Anyway, getting back to repairing permissions. This is something you need to do after all major installations, and every time you run software update and download and install something.

As for your hard drive, you can have the work done by any apple technician. Independent certified techs are usually much less expensive than the apple store prices, if it turns out you do need a drive, but I'm very unconvinced so far.

And what is the problem with your router? Linksys has pretty good mac technicians, you know, if you call them.

Dec 23, 2005 10:29 PM in response to rangies

I also think you should follow the link in my post about mac janitor and get that right now and run it, too. It's free, but be sure you get the right version for jaguar, if that's what you're running.

rangies Author

Level 1

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Dec 23, 2005 10:29 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

What's an archive install?

Dec 23, 2005 10:31 PM in response to rangies

It's a way of reinstalling your operating system without disturbing any of your existing programs or documents. But don't worry about that for now.

rangies Author

Level 1

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Dec 23, 2005 10:34 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

In the nutshell, the computer hangs and freezes within a few minutes of startup if I'm navigating the system. When I go in to try to burn a disc like tonight, it doesn't hang and freeze right away, because I'm opening a window and leaving it. When my burn is unsuccessful and I'm clicking on several windows looking up disk utilities, etc, to try and figure out the problem, it freezes. Opening and closing windows seems to "confuse" it and make it freeze. This never happened until recently. I just finished running the repair permissions to try and solve the problem, and it went fine. When I went to another program, it froze again.

Dec 23, 2005 10:37 PM in response to rangies

Can you give us a little more information about your computer. How much RAM do you have, and how much free disk space? The symptoms you are describing are more likely to be a lot of other things than a bad hard drive, although that is possible.

Dec 23, 2005 10:38 PM in response to Freddie L.

Freddie, are you still around? I need to go shortly, and I'm beginning to think this is going to take a while.

rangies Author

Level 1

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Dec 23, 2005 10:40 PM in response to Freddie L.

I hadn't even thought of that (the hard drive being damaged in the area that handles burning discs). It makes total sense. I know it's a matter of opinion, but do you think it's better to replace the hard drive or replace the machine? I'm afraid of having continued problems once the HD is replaced.

Dec 23, 2005 10:49 PM in response to rangies

I've been having an awful lot of problems with my
iMac in the last few months. In reading post after
post to try and solve each one on my own (the three
year warranty expired, and I just can't afford $49
every five days per problem occuring), it seems like
a lot of people who give answers here concur that the
average life for this computer is only about three
years. Am I crazy to think that spending this much
money on a computer should get me further? Is it
really acceptable for a SuperDrive to die in three
years? We're trying to decide whether or not to
replace this system with a PC. We bought the mac
because I wanted to burn our home movies to DVD and
edit them nicely, clipping out long shots and adding
music, captions, etc. Also, we use(d) it for the
iPod and our family photos. All three of these
things can eat up a lot of space quickly. I delete
my movies once I've burned them and made one backup
DVD so that I save space. What's the best option?
I'm not sure I want to spend this much money again
if I can't depend on the system for more than three
years, especially when PCs just don't want to read
our Mac files (photos, movies, tunes, etc.).

I've been having an awful lot of problems with my
iMac in the last few months. In reading post after
post to try and solve each one on my own (the three
year warranty expired, and I just can't afford $49
every five days per problem occuring)

That doesn't make economic sense given the present value of your iMac. I take it you're talking about calling AppleCare and being charged per incident, then you should either learn to research and troubleshoot yourself or trade up.

As for longevity, I recently sold my nearly 4 year- old 800 MHz 15" G4 iMac for over $600 on ebay, but the average price seems to be at or around $500. Of course, these were for ones with working SuperDrives. I'd say, no, the SuperDrive should last more than 3 years, but you might also try finding a replacement SD and installing it yourself. Lots of options for you. A PC is a viable choice, but you get what you pay for. I wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole.

rangies Author

Level 1

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Dec 23, 2005 10:57 PM in response to Cyberdog2.0

I'm not confident enough to do my own install. I have been researching and troubleshooting for over a month now (I never could figure out my old username/password today), and nothing I've been advised has helped. It's probably inevitable that I'm looking at a new HD, professionally installed, or a new iMac. I have looked at e-bay, too, and yes $500 is a top selling price about now with a working superdrive. With my lack of expertise, I'd not risk buying a new superdrive and doing the install myself. I would probably do more harm than good, and lose money.

How long should my iMac last?