Both Child and I have an external hard drive. The key to both the problem and the solution is that our drives use the same-sized plug, but hers is 9 volts and mine is 12 volts.
Child's drive stopped working on her MacBook. The drive power-light would light up (briefly) when it was turned on, but it wouldn't register with her MacBook. I tried it on my Dell, and Windows would recognize that a device was plugged in, but it wouldn't install it correctly. We took it to SimplyMac, and it wouldn't work on their computers either. Again, the drive would light up, but not register on the computers. I even tried MY external drive (but using her power cord!) on her Mac, but it didn't work either.
The key turned out to be the power cord. The issue was very subtle, because her 9 volt power cord was apparently enough to turn the drive on, but not powerful enough to make it function correctly. Which is strange, because it was the power cord that came with the drive.
However, using my 12 volt power cord, the drive would not only turn on, but function correctly. Maybe this will help someone else...
Showing posts with label Macbook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Macbook. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Macs (*spit*)
Child's MacBook has a warranty, and let's just say it's a good thing.
A couple weeks ago, it died with a gray screen, and an icon of a folder with a question mark on it. Not being a Mac person, I had to go online and find a few websites, but nothing they suggested helped. Child took it into the store, where they told her it was a crashed hard drive. Unless we wanted to pay $1500, all her stuff was lost.
She finally got back her computer, and a few days later, the same thing happened. Identical crash screen. We took it in again. This time, it was a simple corrupted file, and they were able to back up all her data, fix the disk, and restore the data.
Now out comes the suspicious side of me. Was it really a crashed hard drive the first time? Or was it just simpler to SAY that and toss in a new hard drive? A lot less work for the employees, and they weren't getting anything out of it because it was under warranty.
I understand that different problems can result in the same "error message," but a software problem is a lot different than a hardware problem, and I would think would result in a different crash screen. Not being hugely familiar with Macs or hardware problems I don't know for sure, but until then, I'm going to remain suspicious.
If nothing else, if it had been a PC, it wouldn't have cost $1500 to recover Child's data.
A couple weeks ago, it died with a gray screen, and an icon of a folder with a question mark on it. Not being a Mac person, I had to go online and find a few websites, but nothing they suggested helped. Child took it into the store, where they told her it was a crashed hard drive. Unless we wanted to pay $1500, all her stuff was lost.
She finally got back her computer, and a few days later, the same thing happened. Identical crash screen. We took it in again. This time, it was a simple corrupted file, and they were able to back up all her data, fix the disk, and restore the data.
Now out comes the suspicious side of me. Was it really a crashed hard drive the first time? Or was it just simpler to SAY that and toss in a new hard drive? A lot less work for the employees, and they weren't getting anything out of it because it was under warranty.
I understand that different problems can result in the same "error message," but a software problem is a lot different than a hardware problem, and I would think would result in a different crash screen. Not being hugely familiar with Macs or hardware problems I don't know for sure, but until then, I'm going to remain suspicious.
If nothing else, if it had been a PC, it wouldn't have cost $1500 to recover Child's data.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)