Macbook Disaster!

[zapper067]

You remove the screen and plug it onto a desktop monitor,if it dont have vga plug then too bad...Or you get one screen from eBay.

[raymangold22]

It looks like you need a thinkpad, lol ;)

Apple stuff is more for show than for industrial work.

[MrTpengineer]

Windows 7 with windows live movie maker and dvd maker is really good, plus you can add other 3rd party programs onto it. Adobe makes software that's alot better then mac's. You should check it out. I no longer use macs because of how bad they run when there afordable.

[jimmywoodard]

If you didn't get it fixed yet, you can get an external display adapter for about $10-$20 online... i think it's called mini dvi to vga... this will enable you to use it with an external monitor... partner that with a usb keyboard and mouse and you're all set.

[lightscameraction78]

That happened to my laptop. but it was a pc. My dad freaked

[JSantana319]

Man for the price of a new display you might as well get a new Macbook. I hope you solved your problem and next time don't leave your Macbook opened or anywhere where it might land on it when you're doing that type of work. Get a case for it too. Shit happens anyway and it sucks because I dropped my older Macbook Pro and messed up the hard drive for using the wrong case, lol.

[uxwbill]

Actually, there are places where the display is under $200, and sometimes well under that price.

As you said, "shit happens". And that's exactly how it ended up!

[Segadude3000]

ah man, i know how you feel, same thing happened to my Compaq Armada 3500 laptop

[StarCar98]

What do you think of alienware computers ?? Just curios for another opinion.

[compactc9]

If I ever buy a Windows laptop I'd get a Lenovo, I think they're very well made and good performers.

[Jaeqo]

yeh well.. im getting a replacement screen..

[skyman2002]

I Don't Know Why Everyone Hates Macs So Much (Brain Washed By Tv Maybe?)

I LOVE Them. They Are Reliable And All The Macs I've Ever Owned Have Never Gave Me A Problem. I Do Lots Of Design Stuff, So It Works For Me.

[Jaeqo]

and the operating system is strong..

unlike windows, they make it impossible to accidentally delete a hardware file. so its near impossible to fuck up the system.

which is good lol

[dpomd]

"I Don't Know Why Everyone Hates Macs So Much "

Maybe because their owners feel the need to start every word with a capital?

[OoBitEeAaBitEe]

DELLS ARE THE BEST

[uxwbill]

Nothing wrong with them, I have more than a few...

[UInACrash]

Damn I enjoy your videos but the optical drives on these Mac's go so easy. Really good that they are usually covered on warranty. My friend's been through 2 for the same optical drive problem all thankfully covered under warranty.

[uxwbill]

Hmmm. I never have lost one. Maybe it's because I don't use the optical drive all that often.

The drives in my all identify themselves as Panasonic drives, which are pretty good in my book. Maybe the other makers (Optiarc and Hitachi-LG) aren't producing drives that are as reliable?

[UInACrash]

I really don't know. What I do know is that I feel like through personal experience MacBooks are easy and rugged for small minor inconviences but as soon as they hit the floor (carpetted/pavement/tiled) the screen shatters like no bodies business.

I do think they are great though but very much overpriced. They are one of a kind in many ways though.

[191191119]

i saw a laptop display shatter when a fork hit it before lol

[mgospeed31]

How are the repairs going uxwbill?

[uxwbill]

Pretty slow, actually. I haven't really touched the system since the display broke. I really haven't needed it--other systems have picked up the slack.

[mgospeed31]

Yeah, in an earlier comment someone was harping about Mac's being crappy and you told them not to start the "Platform Wars" as you called it. You also remarked that you own/have used more op systems than most people have ever heard of. I thought that was funny.

[ngtflyer]

Ouch! I have seen screens break like that before. The substrate layer cracked. Check ebay for replacement screens. They often are available new for well less than $200. Good luck! It's worth the repair if you can get a replacement screen for less than 200.

[welldontdothat]

Sad day!  Woe is us!

[carshowsvideos]

what are you useing now to make your videos

[uxwbill]

PPC Mac Mini

[burkezillar]

Excuse my dumbess with Mac's (purely a Linux man myself) but surely you could hook it up to a VGA monitor for the time being?

[uxwbill]

Absolutely. That is assuming, however, that I can actually find the VGA adapter. So far that's been a bad assumption.

[burkezillar]

If your using the Mac Mini that should have the adapter? Or is the Mini VGA aswell? Otherwise, it's eBay for you :)

[mgospeed31]

Good luck uxwbill.

[WULFY1993]

haha!! XD

[Foolishpleazure]

Bill.....you would probably be better off getting a new Laptop.Alot of them go for 500 bucks or less now,and it would cost almost as much to repair the Macbook than to get a new one.best of luck to ya,bud.

[appleimacuser]

I'm sorry that this happened, I hope you can fix it.

[nicks1258]

thats how my cell phone display broke!

[poopskinTheLiar]

Drat, hope you can get that thing fixed with minimal data loss!

(i should mention i like Macs and PCs equally. i am interested in both. i'd keep typing, but the detatchable keyboard on my p70 is acting up, and if i don't do anything my manuals and refdisk will be scattered around my old bedroom/computer room's floor.)

[itscool1968]

change over to a pc cheaper on parts:)

and i bet you would learn that easly:)

[uxwbill]

Laptop parts are usually not cheap, and it matters not whether they are PC or Macintosh laptop parts...especially in the era of the Intel-based Macintosh where more parts than ever before are "off the shelf" stuff.

I'm not a "Macintosh" or "PC" person. I use the tools that get the job done and the hardware they run on. The nature of my work requires familiarity with a lot of different platforms and operating systems.

[jbroad3]

looks a lot better than mine. mines completely spider-webbed. Darn my temper.

[01jaycob]

thats sucks

good luck at fixing it.

[rhblakeman]

laptopscreen1dotcom - should be about $175 or less for a new display and you can install it yourself. Optical drive likely is fine, hard drive you will know when you crank it up, most times they are fine inside the carrier if not running.

[hylander89]

its fine as he was running it at the time of the vid..... uxwbil it looks like it may be cheaper to buy a new computer man almost...... dang you are right I havent ever seen one break that way either which is wierd!!!!! best regards..... btw would you recommend buying a mac mini? the only complaint I have is that when ejecting a disk that is scratched the computer dont always want to eject it! have to shut it down hard in order to get it out......

[uxwbill]

I've got a line on a new display for $140 or so. It could be installed for $200. I'm debating whether to install it myself (as I do have the tools to do it) or just let someone else bother with it for the extra $60.

Optical drive sounds bad when powered on. The hard drive works, although it had developed some bad spots. SMART data suggests those were already an issue before it fell. GRC SpinRite brought it back to perfect health.

[191191119]

man that computer has been through alot.

[rhblakeman]

You can do it yourself, you know what is inside and to remove the bezel with fingers only after the screws are out. That way you have $60 extra to pick up a used Mac compatible (you still need the Apple compatibility in the drive's firmware dont you?) 2.5" drive and look for an optical. Look for the optical by the brand and model on the drive rather than seaching for the model of the machine. It powers up, that's enough right there to have the kick to fix it.

[uxwbill]

No Mac compatibility required for the hard drive...any old 2.5" SATA HDD will do. (This has been true since around the end of SCSI being built in to the Mac and the transition to OS X. Mac OS 9.2.2 would handle it as well, but HD Setup might have required some twiddling or patching.)

Drive seems to be fine now, after running SpinRite. SMART data suggests that the fall didn't cause the bad spots.

Don't know about the optical drive yet...

[itscool1968]

the mordern pc can run a SCSI drive no problem i own and run 4

[uxwbill]

Yep, they sure can. And SCSI does very well with backwards compatibility if you need it to--I've used an Adaptec 2940UW in a Dell Dimension 8300 to drive an ancient 40MB (yes, megabyte!) removable cartridge drive. It worked perfectly with the right cables.

What I said is that SCSI is no longer included on the Macintosh and hasn't been for years. (You can, of course, add a supported host adapter if you want/need to. I have a QuickSilver Mac using an Atto SCSI adapter to drive an SDLT tape unit.)

[rhblakeman]

check laptopscreen1 -dot- com for a replacement screen, might be less than you expected and the LCDs are new.

[TheDarkShadowMan]

ouch bro! that stinks!!! good luck with that thing (or what's left of it)!!!

[logical123]

Why not just hook it up to a monitor and get a usb drive? You might not have a laptop anymore, but you could manage still.

[hylander89]

usb drives dont work that way...... if you shut the computer off it wont find the info trust me I have tried using one as a secondary for my itunes to save room on the main and when I shut it down it forgot where every thing was WITHOUT my disconnecting it

[danielwaxmonski]

Sorry About Your Laptop. Everybody Makes Mistakes.

[mechanicwarrior20]

owe well sh#t happens

[naterade21]

that's what happened to my PSP screen

[Villlaparkmike]

as Microsoft CEO says claims apple is just a 500 dollar logo

[blazerlover25]

hey bill sorry to hear about this but if you got the extra funds you can get a brand new laptop at your local walmart cheaper than it is to fix that one i seen some good ones for 400 bucks but my tip dont buy acer mine didnt last but a yr well good luck with that thing

[uxwbill]

I don't know of any "good" $400 laptops, excluding the "netbook" systems. Let's not even mention Windows Vista... :-)

What I could get there might be cheaper, but it would surely need some software added to it, and I really haven't looked into editing Quicktime video (all my cameras record movies in QT format) on a PC.

I think I've got a line on every replacement piece I need, and most of them are actually looking pretty reasonably priced. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

[makaveli087]

MacBook? Isn't that an antique? I've got an iBook G3 and thats older than dirt. Youre a smart man usin Macs to edit, I do the same. Theyre great for that type of stuff. Why don't you just plug a monitor into the MacBook until you find a screen?

[themaritimeman]

Antique?!? Apple is always redesigning/improving the MacBook. They still make it today.

[uxwbill]

It's much newer than the iBook...in fact, it is the replacement for the iBook, with an Intel processor in place.

[makaveli087]

ah ok. I just saw a Black Mac and assumed it was very old. I know a little about Macs and I know next to nothing about their lineup (obviously).

[CWM480]

This is why macs are nothing but a overpriced piece of crap..... They cost an arm and a leg to fix thats why I WILL NEVER BUY A MAC and is very much turned off to macs

They are nothing but overpriced garbage that costs way to much to fix

Im sorry that your having to learn this the hardway

best of luck though!

[uxwbill]

Please don't bring the platform wars into this. I use more operating systems and computers than a lot of people know about--"using the tools that do the job" and meet my needs.

I would say that some of Apple's products are overpriced. This machine was one of them, but luckily I bought it new on closeout and got a serious discount.

I don't know about "costs way too much to fix". *Any* laptop that gets busted up is expensive to fix, and so far I've got a line on a new LCD for $140.

[CWM480]

What I said had NOTHING to do with platforms.... As you will see if you take it to the apple store its going to be a PITA to get it fixed with a boatload of money... Since they use " Quality parts" in their machines -.-

[evildwarf]

Damn... it's horrible both for you and for the computer. You have my condolences.

[pickupman1995]

s#!t happens :/

[josh198869]

did you already try to hook another screen up on it and also a new hard drive is 50 to 100 bucks to buy so if thats all it needs just hook up another screen up to it and your good to go thats what i would do no need to pay 500 bucks for a new LCD for a older mac lol

[uxwbill]

The hard drive has suffered a bit. I got all my data off of it no problem, so that's safe.

I have the external monitor adapter. But I also have an Intel Mac mini buried someplace. What I do depends on which one I find first. Or maybe I'll just use the PPC mini.

[josh198869]

well spend you 100 bucks buy a new laptop hard drive i no they are not that much i have already replaced like 3 of my laptop hard drives for biger ones lol and then get that 75$ brand new LCD that i had givein you the link to lol and your good to go lol

[randomrazr]

time for a new macbook :(

[lobsterbox22]

I have a mac mini. Its one of the intel ones. But as dellsucksass said, you should try the apple store. It may also be a good idea to buy the applecare plan and the extended warranty the next time you buy a macbook.

[randomrazr]

does it still have warrenty?

[uxwbill]

Not for a long time now. Even if it did, it wouldn't really be honest to turn it in as a warranty claim. What happened was not due to a fault of the computer, or a shortcoming in how it was built. Something bad happened, and it wasn't the computer's fault.

[902120]

dang that sucks. I'm afraid to drop my macbook

[uxwbill]

Maybe it was just the "straw that broke the camel's back". I can't imagine what else it would have been.

I haven't made a habit of mistreating it, but it did once fall on the kitchen floor (hard linoleum) from much greater height with no problems.

This time it was thick shag carpet--who knows, maybe it just fell the right way?

[mauser8mm192422]

good luck with this fix.

[37474748]

thats nearly identical what happen to me in the beginning of this week with my hp pavilion zd8180ea.

strange damage though... circular... :)

if its that bad... my tip is get an second hand computer rip the screen and optical drive out and fix it that way :)

[dellsucksass]

take it to the mac store

[uxwbill]

Already got an estimate there--$800!

And then I said "yikes" along with a few other words! I do not think so.

At that rate, I'll fix it myself. I have the precision tools and it won't be the first Apple product I've worked on...Powerbooks, iBooks, "lamp" iMacs, CRT iMacs, the odd iPod, and other stuff...