Just bought a new mac Mini (its actually a temporary replacement for a troublesome one in repair but that's another story)
Strange diagnostic? messages when it tries to boot up - then just blank screen - tried booting from startup cd but similar diagnostic messges (white text on black background) - then nothing on screen.
OK - just phoned support and they asked me to do the alt
apple+pr restart 3 times and its now booted up into something called PhoenixCE.
This looks like an Apple diagnostic tool (About says Apple sw)
Seems to have a diag partition - so the support guy says try and reinstall - so I'm going to search around the net, play with this tool and then reinstall.
Oh dear - I managed to repartition - and install from fresh - but it freezes alot (just trying to run sw update) - seems to be when I attempt to do something other than what's going on.
My other one that's being repaired due to fan noise has had a new motherboard so hopefully I can just send this dud one back
This time, I strongly urge you to use your consumer rights to refuse to accept the item since it is clearly faulty. The sale of goods act gives you the right to a full refund, a replacement or a repair. Repair should not be considered acceptable in this situation in my view.
If you bought it from a bricks and mortar store, return it. If from Apple on-line, call them and state that you wish to return it since it is faulty.
I understand the point you are making about finding the process of solving issues of interest, both from a practical and academic standpoint, and I don't doubt that once you have been able to ensure that both your systems have had their respective problems resolved, you will get good service from them. But I can't help but think hat relatively poor levels of support to customers is, at least in part, caused by the preparedness of many to access products that are not fully functional or have slight (sometimes even significant) imperfections. In many parts of the world consumers have very little in the way of protections, but in the UK that isn't so.
I also think the consumer protection legislation in the UK is one of the reasons Apple don't have a free-phone support number - because for the most part a faulty item will simply get returned rather than the user want (or need) to go through the process of calling and troubleshooting as would happen in the US.
I think you've been rather unlucky in your experiences with these two systems, and Apple have been fortunate not to have to honour their responsibilities to you in providing equipment which is working correctly at the time of purchase. Any production run will inevitably include faulty items of course, so while it's sad that some minis ARE faulty, it's not at all surprising, but the measure of the company is in how they respond when the faulty items are discovered. If in either instance, you had been offered a replacement but chose not to have one, I would say that was a good sign of positive customer service - and certainly was what you had a right to expect.
By the way, I say this not so much for your benefit since quite obviously you can make your own decisions based on the circumstances you experience, but for those others purchasers in the UK who may be among the unfortunate in receiving faulty systems too. Consumers really do need to avail themselves of the protections afforded to them!
It occassionally freezes for 20 secs? or so and makes a clock, chock, clocking feint noise at the same time.
I have a lack of confidence in the machine due to the presence of the diagnostic (PhoenixCE) sw installed on it when it came instead of OSX. And looking through these logs there were HD and Airport errors.
I've tracked down on the net that this freezing and then noise is characteristic and typical of bad sectors - its mapping them during the freeze - but if it happens all the time its a symptom of a faulty hd.
I'm now trying to return this machine for a full refund as although the hd could be replaced this is alot of hassle - about half a day at least - nearly a whole day.
And its not so critical now my other mini is repaired
Don't forget - if you have any problem returning it and getting your money back, take the issue up with your local trading standards office - their responsibility is to ensure your rights are protected.
wow dude bummer. well we are going to have to get used to things like this, if apple gets any bigger they will become like everyother company that gets big, there products get made massively and thus in the process get crappyer and crappyer. look at Samson Microphones or Ford Motor Comany, or Microsoft for example there all really huge but the quality of there products STINK! they may work for a little bit then crap out. i sure hope apple cares when they get bigger. well you should return your mini, bring a copy of that law that was mentioned earlyer just incase you get flack. we will back you up on it.
pray that you get a lemon.if you dont want to worry about that and dont feel bad about getting a 4inch smaller screen. i would go with the 20" iMac. or the 17inch for that matter. i like my 17 inch iSight iMac G5 its pretty sweet. just think the bigger the screen the bigger the stand it has to sit on for balance
