My Macbook

A few weeks ago I saw a bargin mac on ebay – link. After careful (spur of the moment) consideration I bought the thing. It arrived about a week later from Spain.

At first it seemed alright and I began configuring. Then I noticed that there was something wrong with the battery. It would only last for about ten minutes and then it would run out – even though the icon on OSX said that it was at 100%. Turns out that the battery is worn out and won’t charge properly. I contacted the company i bought it off and they told me that they would send me a new one. A week later it hasn’t arrived – but I trust that they will send it. It’s not a major set back as I can still work with the computer plugged in.

On the first night I got the machine I downloaded a combo software update, to upgrade from 10.5.4 to 10.5.7. When I restarted to complete installation I was greeted with the infamous macbook blue screen. Anyway what happened was I fell victim to a fault only affecting spcefic macbooks with this specific update. So, not much of a problem. Just stick in the installation disks and either repair the OS or re-install it. Oh shit, I have no installation disks. The feckin fella forgot to package them. I got in contact with him and asked for him to send them out.

When the disks arrived I stuck them in, then realised that they were Tiger install disks, not Leopard – which is a completley different OS. Adding to that the disks wouldn’t even install because they were built for a a different model! At this stage I got sick of waiting and went to a local mac guru to fix it. He re-installed Leopard for me and fixed it. A few days later I got the blue screen again!! I was so angry. I rang Apple for help and they asked me to pay them €50 for phone support. Not a chance. Then I tried to obtain a copy of OSX Leopard and was asked to pay $130. Not a chance.

After trying about every trouble shooting option available I gave in and began searching for somewhere to download Leopard. About 10 days, 3 Disks and 2 Bottles of Whisky later the 8GB disk was downloaded, let’s just say that I didn’t pay €130! Burnt it and installed. Works a charm! Finally, hopefully the problem won’t recurr again!

I like OSX generally. Web development works well with Mac as well. I can have the best of both worlds – Windows and Linux. I can have Adobe CS4, which I am downloading atm, and xampp at the same time. Pretty sweet! Anyway now I can enjoy the world of Mac and stability and all that…!