Well you never know what’s going to come through the door at the MacMedics Mac Lab. Today a PowerMac 6500 came in for some work. As you can see it’s sitting right next to a new Uni-body MacBook. New or old we can handle it. SCSI to SATA we’ve got you covered. Got an old Mac with some forgotten data on it? We can help! Bring it in and we’ll burn it to a DVD for you.

When a “Big Box” store with a national advertising campaign hangs out their shingle for Mac service, it might feel like a good option. We’re quickly learning from our clients that having a Mac serviced by someone that’s primarily working on PC’s and not super experienced on servicing Macs might be a bad idea.

Lots of companies are now jumping on the Mac service band wagon. When you have a major Mac service service need like an LCD or logic board, please consider that MacMedics is the regional leader for Apple Macintosh sales and service. We pioneered on-site Macintosh service, and our in-lab service is also highly regarded and award winning. Macintosh computers are highly engineered and as such they often have very small parts, various sized screws, and very tight fittings cases. All three of these things frequently trip up firms that are NOT specialized in Mac service. We frequently see computers after they have already been someplace else and NOT properly serviced. MacMedics is an Apple Authorized Service Provider and we’ve been fixing only Macs for over 20 years. So, before you ship your beloved laptop (or desktop) to places unknown, consider sending or bringing it to MacMedics. Also, all non-warranty Apple repairs are covered by our no hassle 1-year MacMedics warranty. If it fails, we fix it free.

Today, we had a client with a MacBook that had liquid spilled on it. They wanted to act quickly, so they took it to their nearest “Big Box” store, and the guys there quoted them a new logic board. When confronted with a large repair bill, they called MacMedics for a second opinion. We told them it would be a good idea to have us look at it, and ensure that it really did need a new logic board. It’s a good thing they brought it to us, because it turned out they panicked about the amount of liquid that was spilled, and that was not a factor. We think all the unit needed was a “System Manger Controller” reset and it was back on it’s feet. So for $49 they got an in-depth spill inspection and a SMC rest and they were good to go.

In another case of a client taking the “Big Box” route, we had a customer who wanted to get his hard drive upgraded in his G4 iBook. He brought it to us, and because we did not have the exact size drive size he wanted (super rare for us), he opted to take it to a local “Big Box” store for service. It should have been a pretty quick turn around as it was just a hard drive upgrade. After a few days and a few phone calls to their shop to ask about the unit’s progress, it was clear they were having issues with his iBook. We had just seen his computer here when he checked it in for a drive upgrade, but when we figured out we were out of stock, he took the unit with him. Nearly a week later he called me for advice. I told him to pick it up and bring it in for me to check.

We found numerous issues:

• The iBook had not be reassembled correctly
• There were missing screws
• There were stripped screws and screws in the wrong hole
• The iBook’s frame was broken
• The iBook’s logic board was fried as it would no longer display internal or external video

This is the iBook that was damaged by a big box store service dept.

When we added up all of the repair costs to get this super sick iBook back in shape, it looks it’s a better bet to go with one of the new White $999 Apple MacBooks instead of fixing this one. It’s still here, so I assume he’s having a hard time getting the offending service department to pay for their mistakes.

Update 2/22/09:

I ran into our client who had the problem with the big box store’s repair department at the Stefan G. Bucher Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington event on Thursday (MacMedics was a sponsor). He gave me an update on the status of his complaint. He ending up taking the offending service department to Small Claims Court here in Anne Arundel county. The court date is coming up quick, and it appears they are not going to settle out of court. I have to say I’m pretty surprised. Our client has pictures and other pretty convincing evidence to show the court. I’ll let you know what happens.

Update 4/1/09:

I heard from this client yesterday and he informed me that the “Big Box” store that damaged his computer did settle out of court with him for $1000. That of course does not really take into account that he he had to buy a new computer out of pocket, and that he had to wait over six months for the court case. Sad, that the folks that did the damage, waited until the day before court to settle up.

We’re always accepting exciting and difficult in-lab Mac repair work (like liquid spills, LCD screen replacements, hard drive upgrades, and of course data recovery (PLEASE check your back up system if you have one, or get one now that works automatically (like Time machine), so if you’ve got an Apple computer that’s not working correctly, bring it by and let figure out what’s going on with it. MacMedics has a long award-winning track record for service, and as an experienced Apple Authorized Service Provider, we have the tools and knowledge to quickly take care of your repair or data recovery situation.

Apple announced a new generation of the MacBook and MacBook Pro product lines.

New MacBooks:

Both the new MacBook and MacBook Pro is made from one solid piece of aluminum making it rigid and durable. New LED-backlit display is instantly on and offers glass “to the edge” of the screen and better energy efficiency. New models now come with up to 5x faster NVIDIA graphics performance, and the trackpad is now made of glass for multi-touch gesturing and clicking. Battery life has has also been improved

New MacBook models start at $1299 at Apple (Call your local MacMedics office to get yours on order)

Entry Level white MacBook available in plastic case is now $999

http://www.apple.com/macbook/

New MacBook Pros

Base model is priced at $1999, 15.4-inch LED backlit display. 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB L2 Cache, 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 Memory, The GeForce 9600M GT, 250GB hard drive and SuperDrive. New MacBook Pro model is .95 inches thick

Upgraded model is priced at $2499. 2.53GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 4GB memory, 512MB video memory and larger hard drive.

(Call your local MacMedics office to get yours on order)

All new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are shipping today.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

MacBook Air
The new MacBook Air now comes standard with The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M which brings amazing, high-speed (4x graphics performance) graphics to this amazing model. The MacBook Air now comes standard with a 120 GB (an upgrade from an 80GB) and the option “solid state” hard drive is now offered at 128GB. This unit now also now has a Mini Display port, just like the new MacBook and MacBook Pro. Price remains the same.

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/

The 24” LED Cinema Display

The 24” LED Cinema Display offers 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution. This display only connects to your new MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air with the ultra compact Mini DisplayPort connector. The LED Cinema Display includes a MagSafe connector that powers and charges any Apple laptop with that type of connector. The display now offers three self-powered USB ports along with a built-in iSight camera, microphone, and speakers. It will be available for $899 in November.

http://www.apple.com/displays/

Watch the whole event right here.

One of the things we hate the most is to see folks who come into our shop with a bad data loss situation. We expect to see people with older Mac computers in situations where the data is lost, and no back up was in place. That happens pretty frequently, and sadly it often happens WITH a back up that was either NOT in use, or UNTESTED. As computers age so do their hard drives, so think about replacing your drive with a larger, faster, and more robust drive BEFORE your drive starts to fail. Just because your computer is newer does not mean that your hard drive is without risk, in fact you might be in even greater risk in the first 30 days of use with a new comouter. See our website: www.HardDrivesDie.com for more info

Now that Leopard has been out for almost a year, we’re starting to see customers who never set up Time Machine, set it up once then turned it off, or some how messed up the configuration. With Leopard and Time Machine it makes it really easy to have an affordable and reliable back up that really works in place. While in most instances it’s a case of set it and forget it, it is wise to test your Time Machine and/or Time Capsule back up. Pick a file at random from a few weeks ago and do a test recovery. See what happens and make sure you understand how to pull old files off of your back up system.

It’s also not a bad idea to make sure you know how to recover from a Time Machine back up and a total hard drive failure. We suggest testing your back up (Time Machine or any other back up program you may be using) and doing a test restore of your entire back up. It’s best to do this on a separate machine, and not tamper with your working machine, but you should know how to get back on your feet again if the unthinkable happens. If you need help getting a backup and disaster plan in place, call your local MacMedics office.

This week a nice lady with a 1 year old infant came to see us after being referred from the Apple Store in Annapolis (Thanks to the Apple Store for thinking of MacMedics again!!). She was in a really bad situation, as her drive that was installed in pretty new machine was making a terrible noise. We tried to recover her data, but the hard drive was too badly damaged to get a copy of the data. All she wanted was the pictures of her baby. Totally understandable. We’ll be sending her drive off for a clean room recovery evaluation.

Losing pictures is one of the things that hurts the most. One easy way to ensure you always have a back up is to “burn” a CD of your new pictures as soon as they are imported into iPhoto. As soon as they are imported, they are all right there, just highlight them and burn them to a CD right then and there. CD media is so cheap, there’s no reason not to use a CD and just make a back up on the spot. The mistake that people make, is that they will plan to make a back up later, or wait until they have enough data to fill a CD or DVD. Even if you DO have a hard drive based back up, pictures are too precious not to double protect. There is no reason NOT to have more than one back up. Use the extra CD or DVD you burn as a way to start an off-site back up, give them to your parents or to a neighbor for safe keeping. Trust me, it sounds over protective, but right here in Severna Park a close friend of MacMedics had his house burn to the ground, and he lost everything including all of his hard drives, and all of his pictures. We went though the pictures we took of our kids playing soccer together, and looked for any instance where we had pictures of his daughter playing with ours.

Also, this week we had 3 back-to-back cases of the Seagate 7.01 firmware failure. This type of drive failure make data recovery impossible. If you have this drive take steps to replace it now! It appears that as these drives age, they are even more prone to the failure they are famous for. MacMedics STRONGLY recommends proactive replacement of this drive immediately! If you have questions on the best way to do this, call or e-mail your local MacMedics office as soon as possible. A new drive can be as little as $119 and most come with a 5-year warranty.

If you need a system for designed for backing up your data (or help recovering lost data) get in touch with your local MacMedics office or give us a call at 1-866-MAC-MEDICS

Here’s two pictures of another MacBook sent into MacMedics from Iraq. Our last Iraq MacBook was a big success, as we were able to save the data and replace the hard drive in short order. You can read about that data recovery case here: http://www.macmedics.com/testimonials.htm

Sadly, in this case the hard drive was toast. We could not do anything with it. So I imagine it’s off for a clean room recovery.

I wanted to share these two pictures as it shows how dusty and dirty the environment in Iraq must be. If you look at the MacBook screen, you’ll see what looks like a reflection of the keyboard, it’s not a reflection. It’s super fine Iraq dust. Notice the spot in the middle with the finger print where the dust has been wiped off.

Here at MacMedics we see more in-warranty MacBook hard drives fail than any other type of Apple hard drive (laptop or desktop). This may be due to an issue with a certain type of failure in some MacBook hard drives where the assembly’s read/write head detaches (ouch), making recovery impossible. As a result, we recommend that our client’s MacBook hard drives be “retired” after 1 year of use. If you have a MacBook computer used for mission critical needs (or you’re just really concerned about your data or spend lots of time traveling), then it might be wise to simply install a more robust hard drive as soon as you can. The MacBook’s factory hard drive could be installed into an external case to make a handy back up drive. You could also carry your original drive with you as a “spare-in-the-air” back up loaded with a fresh OS and all of your applications in case your drive fails (thus rendering your MacBook useless in most cases) during a photo shoot or at a client presentation. The MacBook hard drive can be replaced in the field in case of an emergency, so having a spare drive with you at all times makes pretty good sense. We think that it’s worth the $100 to have a laptop that you know you can could on when the chips are down.