Rip off cable prices

WonkeyDonkey

WonkeyDonkey

Member
AmiBayer
Joined
Mar 5, 2012
Posts
895
Country
U.K
Region
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Arrrgh!

Nothing to do with eBay, Amibay or Amigas period.

I removed the screen from my beloved iMac to swap out the SSD drive and put in a super fast Sandisk Extreme. All done and dusted, so I thought.

Next thing the screen was blank, looked completely dead. After removing and replacing it several times and reseating the cables, it turns out one or more of the cables must have pulled away from the really tiny connectors that provide LVDS power and signal and V-Sync. Its not visible which one but when I wiggle the cables it comes back to life.

Replacement screen cost was almost £700.00 :o

So instead I decided to find the replacement cables. They have plugs on both ends so should be easy enough to remove and replace. Tiny little pcb plugs they are; around 6 mm wide and about 2 mm deep; the kind you think would fall off just by looking at them!

So now Im having to pay just shy of £50.00 for 2 of the thinnest and tiniest cables in the world.

:o

Talk about ridiculously over priced parts or what!

:mad:
 
The Only reason I don't have an Apple system :(

looked at quite a few iMac's on the other bay and most if not all have screen issues, either failed or have the usual lines running across the screen, sellers always say "probably a simple fix for those who know" yes simple but like you "Simple" comes at a premium with Apple hardware.

Good luck with your repair (I replaced the Home button on the Wife's IPhone 4, had to dismantle the ENTIRE phone not for the faint hearted or vision impaired :D )
 
The only reason Im paying for them is because the screen is brand new from Apple, fitted just a couple of months ago. Latest revision, no issues, and visually immaculate.

I cant get it sorted under warranty though since Ive been poking around inside the machine and swapped out the CPU at one point for a faster one, so the warranty stickers show they have been removed.

Im not fussed about the warranty as Ive upgraded the machine myself and know my way around them well enough.

The quality of this screen is fantastic and knowing it is brand new, I was never gonna replace it anyway.

Its just those pesky cables; way over-priced for what they are! They're not really designed to last more than a few insertions :thumbsdown:

---------- Post added at 21:27 ---------- Previous post was at 21:26 ----------
Phantom said:
You just don't poke with those machines. :)
Click to expand...

Too late for that; this machine has been well and truly poked.

With my screwdriver that is!
 
The problem with Apple is that almost everything is custom. It's not like peecees, you damage something, throw it away and buy a new one. I recently acquired a MacBook Pro and I'm really satisfied with it to say the least, but I'm not gonna touch it; I'll leave it as it is, it's a laptop though.
 
Phantom said:
The problem with Apple is that almost everything is custom. It's not like peecees, you damage something, throw it away and buy a new one. I recently acquired a MacBook Pro and I'm really satisfied with it to say the least, but I'm not gonna touch it; I'll leave it as it is, it's a laptop though.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, more so with newer machines too.

This is a 27 inch iMac from 2011. I got it from the refurbished section of the apple store for a really good price.

Lovely screen on it now, huge resolution and at least some standard parts; ram, hdd, ssd etc.

Its one of the reasons I went for an older generation model.

Plus it has a sandybridge cpu, which is very cool running and excellent performance. Some of the reviewers of both Ivybridge and Haswell are still suggesting that Sandybridge is still the one to beat. I happen to agree with that; at least in the desktop models anyway.

:)
 
If you're using dedicated graphics, the difference between Sandy/Ivy and Haswell are marginal for most applications. If I were building a new gaming system, I'd be plenty happy with a Sandybridge i3 / i5 provided I had dedicated graphics.
 
funny-MacBook-battery-replace-coin.jpg
 
rkauer said:
funny-MacBook-battery-replace-coin.jpg
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Lol the irony.

Stick to Hackintosh is my best advice for you if you hate Windows that much. Parts are PC cheap and common as muck (obviously). Also using a hack outside is not so likely to get knicked since that big Apple logo screaming "TAKE ME!" isn't being made aware to prospective theives. And then there's the image they have, not to put a too finer point on it but it has a whiff of the BMW and art college student about them. People that would give a crap already have thier Apple product(s). People that don't, dont generally give a toss.

Plenty of laptops out there with screens as good as them and having the MacBook style keyboards too (which personally I cannot stand).
 
I'm already on the hackintosh scene and have built a couple of very good machines that way.

But I refuse to change to Lion or Mountain Lion.

Once Mavericks is released I'll be looking at that option again. I have some pretty good hardware here already.
 
Would it be cheaper to get a used IMac from here or another bay and use it for parts? Even if it's a dead unit the cables would probably be ok.
 
Ed.D said:
Would it be cheaper to get a used IMac from here or another bay and use it for parts? Even if it's a dead unit the cables would probably be ok.
Click to expand...

I know what you are thinking, but 50 quid doesnt buy a lot of anything when it comes to macs lol
 
I have a mac pro and a macbook pro. I've replaced one of the fans on my macbook pro (got a bit noisy), put in an SSD and a HDD in it too (last instead of the Superdrive). added 8GB of ram too (which is the max it can do after the last EFI upgrade)

The mac pro has now four drives plus an SSD, the ssd is on a PCI-e card. and it now has 12GB of ram.

Both very easy to work on. I however stay the heck off the iMac just because it isn't very user serviceable.

I've worked on quite a few laptops. The macbook pros are among the easiest in that regard. nothing bad to say about them. the retina macs are however a step in the wrong direction.

If you are adventurous, a hackintosh as a desktop isn't a bad idea - I would have chosen that instead of a mac pro if work wasn't paying. but as a laptop - there are no substitutes. Even my (new) similar priced and similar aged thinkpad doesn't come close despite having superior build quality compared to contemporary models of other makes.
 
The price of the initial hardware and all upgrades and replacements, plus the closed hardware design (designed so users can't easily upgrade them) is the main reason I've never purchased a Mac.

I openly admit to Apple making some really nice high end hardware that is desirable, but I just refuse to be told I can't upgrade my own hardware without either voiding the warranty, or having to pay a premium for new/replacement parts.
 
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