Warranty Realities

This isn’t exactly news, but I think all Mac owners should know this important information. You do know that Apple finally extended its warranty period from 90 days to one year, a move which we at TidBITS considered to be a case of "About time!" You may not know that it’s easy to void that wonderful one year warranty, at which point your friendly local dealer will be more than happy to fix your broken machine and take your first-born as a down payment on the repair bill. OK, so it’s not quite that bad, but still…

All Apple and third party hardware upgrades (basically anything you would want to put in your Mac, such as an internal hard drive, extra RAM, a PMMU, a new carburetor, etc.), must be performed by an Authorized Apple Service Technician. If some of my description sounds stilted, it’s because I’m closely following the guidelines to avoid ambiguity. Apple figures that if you crack a compact Mac or generally muck about with anything inside the case, you are likely to screw it up, most likely by failing to properly ground yourself against electrostatic discharge. While this probably isn’t true of most people who know enough to open the case, Apple doesn’t want to pay for your mistakes just because your machine is still under warranty.

What you can do inside your Mac is install a NuBus card if you have a Mac II-class machine, including the IIsi with the NuBus adapter (We haven’t heard about the PDS adapter, but it seems that PDS cards shouldn’t be different from NuBus cards in this instance. Check if you’re worried.). However, you have to check the details for your card, because there are three criteria which it must meet. First, the card manufacturer must not require installation by an authorized reseller. Second, the NuBus card must meet Apple’s specifications for NuBus architecture for the Macintosh II family. Third, the system configuration (in other words, the sum total of everything you’ve jammed in previously as well as this current board) must not exceed Apple’s specified total power consumption, as noted in the system owner’s manual. Whew. Be careful out there…

This last criterion is most applicable with the new Macs, and most specifically with the IIsi, which has a power limitation of 15 watts. Most cards fit within this limitation with the exception of some high-end graphics cards, including the Apple 824GC card. We gather that exceeding the IIsi’s power limitation will result in overheating, though Apple says that it tested the 824GC card with the IIsi and found no troubles in normal operating temperatures (up to 90[deg] F or 32[deg] C). If the IIsi overheats, an internal thermal sensor automatically shuts the machine down. So if your IIsi occasionally shuts down for no apparent reason, it might be overheating. Or it just might be possessed with daemons, you never can tell.

Information from:
Mark H. Anbinder — [email protected]