More Mac problems... are these things actually reliable?
Annoyingly the Mac had more problems again this week. The CD drive seemed to disappear and OS X had no clue of its existence. This was doubly annoying given that I had a rented DVD in it at the time. Anyway, I reset the PRAM (a Mac specific thing I think) and it seemed to start working again - though not immediately after so it could be something else. More annoying though was that resetting the PRAM meant that the fan was blaring - until I found out that this was a common problem and solved quite easily by reseting the SMC (unplug it for a few seconds).
So, I'm left wondering exactly how reliable these things are. The problem I had a few weeks ago was very annoying and very serious. But it was also very unlucky (probably - and it could genuinely have happened to any computer - so its not really a reflection on Macs). The problem with the DVD drive is also serious and annoying, although it does now work. The problem with the fan was caused by me, and solved by me quite easily.
I suppose in summary I can conclude that ultimately, Macs are reliable. I am increasingly realising though that, while you can trust Macs far more than PCs, you still can't trust them entirely.
So, I'm left wondering exactly how reliable these things are. The problem I had a few weeks ago was very annoying and very serious. But it was also very unlucky (probably - and it could genuinely have happened to any computer - so its not really a reflection on Macs). The problem with the DVD drive is also serious and annoying, although it does now work. The problem with the fan was caused by me, and solved by me quite easily.
I suppose in summary I can conclude that ultimately, Macs are reliable. I am increasingly realising though that, while you can trust Macs far more than PCs, you still can't trust them entirely.