Mac support is so phenomenally good, it is well worth any additional cost of the Mac (and applecare, which was only like $99 for three years and has already replaced my mouse twice).
There's rarely a wait on hold, the support people are knowledgeable and wait on the phone with you until the problem is solved. And, of course, even after your warranty expires, you can always go into any Apple store and get free help at the Genius bar. I don't know of any other company that makes anything that has customer support this thorough, efficient, and friendly. If anyone wonders why Apple's doing so well, it comes down to customer experience--design and support of their products.
If your Mac starts running slow (or won't start at all) here are the basic things you need to know to help make it right.
So, today my mac took about 10 minute to boot. I knew that wasn't right.
A few weeks ago instead of the apple at startup it gave me a folder with a ? but when I rebooted it was OK. It's frozen twice since then, never done that before.
So I called Apple support, got a great guy, Rodney, in Indiana (thanks Rodney!).
Apparently, at some point, the Mac didn't shut down correctly. And while this is usually OK, it can obviously cause disk problems, and it doesn't automatically do chkdsk on startup! So it can get worse, which it did.
Now, great as I think OSX is, I do think if the computer wasn't shut down correctly it should tell you and run normal diagnostics. But it doesn't.
WARNING--THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR PEOPLE WITH COMPUTER EXPERIENCE WHO FEEL COMFORTABLE WORKING UNDER THE SUFACE OF THE MAC: You do all these things at your own risk. I take no responsibility for these instructions. If you are the least bit unsure, call apple and do this on the phone with them.
So I learned how to reboot in UNIX mode (Command-S while booting) and how to run a command line program to check the disk:
When you see the # command prompt, type /sbin/fsck –fy (“fsck” is a file system consistency check utility) and hit Return. Now sit back and wait while the software works to find and fix any file system problems. This could take 15 minutes or so—or even longer if things are really messed up—so be patient.
If and when you see the message “File System was modified,” repeat the step above again, and again, until you finally, hopefully, see a message saying, “no problems were found.” (It can take several runs of this).
When it's done, type
reboot
and hit Return again.
Then we put in the Mac Snow Leopard CD and booted from it:
Hold down the C key this time as the Mac starts up. If you’re running OS 10.4 or later go to \Applications\Utilities\Disk Utility, select your hard drive in the left-hand pane and click Repair Disk on the First Aid tab. If no disk errors are reported, click Repair Disk Permissions. When that process is done, restart your Mac.
So--if you are having any speed issues with your mac, do those things to clean it up, because as Rodney told me, it can get much worse if you don't.
(Really, shouldn't it be checking itself--I mean, it does actually check during boot, and when the records were wrong that's what took so much time, but it never told me or offered to fix it itself, which it clearly should do).
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More Mac Tips
If the fan on your Mac or Macbook runs continuously
you'll reset smc
unplug. Remove battery
Hold power button for 5 seconds.
Release. Restart
---
zap the pram
turn on and immediately old down COMMAND OPTION PR
3 chimes, let up
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