

Ask HN: My Macbook is about to die. What do I do? - macuser1234

I have one month left on the Apple Care (3 year plan). My macbook has begun crashing as of late. It's just in a barely usable state and I can't really afford to buy a new macbook. Also, the CD drive doesn't work and the battery dies after just less than an hour when unplugged. Did I just over use it?<p>A few months back I reinstalled the OS, that did very little help. Often when I have Coda, Firefox, and Photoshop open, I have to force the laptop to shut down in order for it to allow me to be productive again.<p>Do I suck it up and just buy a new one just before my warranty expires? I just about have had enough.
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Mankhool
I'd say you are like a friend of mine who has killed numerous Macbooks, since
v1.0. He always uses his machine to the maximum - number of applications,
jammed hard drive, lots of media content, used in a mobile state 16+ hours a
day, etc. He's had numerous issues with them because he uses them heavily and
they are a lightweight machine. And every year or so, when the latest one is
in its death throws, he buys a new Macbook, but never the Macbook Pro - the
extra robustness of which, might just save him a lot of grief. If you do
nothing else, make sure everything is backed up, then nuke and pave it. Good
Luck!

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RBerenguel
How old is it? My Macbook (which I am currently using) is 2 years old and only
got a screen backlight problem (one vertical strip is dimmer)... What have you
done to hurt yours so badly? I mean... I've had mine at 90ºC for more than two
hours several times, while doing calculations (before I got to use my office's
computer)

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dctoedt
Impressive that your MacBook worked at 90ºC -- how'd YOU make out? (That's
194ºF, so I suspect it was a typo.)

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RBerenguel
As sorbus points out, this is CPU temp, not the overall computer. The base was
at around 45, I think.

I guess it was an overheating damage, but could not know. Since then, I've
avoided CPU intensive things from happening on it, and the usual CPU temp is
now around 60º. Which looks pretty high, but manageable.

I considered buying a lower platform with cooling (they sell it in some
computer stores, plates with fans on them) but gave up.

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warwick
Is there a reason this isn't covered under warranty? Did you physically damage
the machine?

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macuser1234
It's still working, somewhat.

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martey
If the machine is having hardware issues (which is probably the case if you
did a clean install of the operating system and the issues are still
recurring), and they are not the result of any accidental or intentional
damage (as grandparent poster stated), they should be covered under AppleCare.

The only exception to this would be the battery (most laptop batteries are
only covered under a one year warranty). It is extremely unlikely that your
battery is causing applications to crash, though.

