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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 30, 2005 3:18 PM in response to rangies

Firewire is a whole different protocol than USB. It's not just a different shape of plug. If your drive is a USB drive, there is no way to make it into a firewire drive, no matter how many cables you try.

Incidentally, your plan wouldn't work even with a real firewire drive. You can't just totally ignore the built-in drive and use your imac as essentially a monitor for an external drive. It doesn't work that way. You can start up from an external drive, but the state of your internal drive still plays a part. If you could just totally circumvent the internal drive, most of us with Flat panel imacs would just have bought mac minis and hooked up one of those.

rangies Author

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Dec 30, 2005 5:46 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

Good to know. I won't waste my time in that venture!

Dec 31, 2005 9:17 AM in response to rangies

Rangies, one thing that I think would help you very much in getting more comfortable with your mac and being able to do more with it is to get a copy of 'The Little Mac Book' by Robin Williams (not that Robin Williams). I think you'd have a lot more fun with your computer if you took the time to read it.

Best wishes for 2006.

Dec 31, 2005 9:31 AM in response to rangies

Hi,
I have had an original fp imac and I had an upgrade prblem, missing the cut off by about 2 weeks, we decided to send a letter to Steve JObs, which hit public relations who called and spoke to our son and talked to me, I'm 15 and thought I was so nice that she gave me the upgrade, our computer is now 4 and I have 6 macs in our house and every prblem has been a cinch, I hope you figure out your problem. We have had two pc's since our first imac and they have all died.

I wish you well

Dec 31, 2005 10:45 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

BTW, you would need to look for an older edition of the book--one that covers jaguar, since that's what you are running. You should be able to find it very inexpensively::

rangies Author

Level 1

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Dec 31, 2005 11:41 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

Probably a good idea. Thanks for the title!

Dec 31, 2005 2:18 PM in response to rangies

Try The Robin Williams Mac OS X Book, Jaguar Edition.

Edit: Never mind. I see that you will have found the title for Jaguar differs when you follow Barbara's above link. Sorry for the repetition, Barbara.

(Would have deleted this post if the Discussions software would have let me do that.)

Dec 31, 2005 2:26 PM in response to Ronda Wilson

No problem, Ronda. The more the merrier. 🙂

Davvid

Level 1

25 points

Feb 20, 2006 1:12 PM in response to rangies

Hi. I'm changing out my 3 year old eMAC for a new dual processor iMAC this week. I did have it on the old machine - however since the support for MAC has moved to India I have found it not nearly so good.

Is the product reliable?
Is the 3 year Apple Extended Warrenty worth the money?

Dave

Feb 20, 2006 3:47 PM in response to Davvid

Apple still has support in the US. When the lines are busy you get routed to India.

The warranty is worth every penney. Especially on a first year product as the Core Duo, in my opinion.

And spell it Mac not MAC on the forums. Some people do not like it mispelled like that.

How long should my iMac last?