Okay. My Mac Mini's graphics interface died after 6 weeks of usage. Just like that. The system ran well, (meaning I could play around with it via SSH) but it was kind of "headless" without displaying anything. Who needs a monitor anyway??
Apparently, this is not a very rare problem, as there is already a support page by Apple addressing the problem. Anyhow, resetting everything doesn't really help a hardware error, so I brought the box downtown to the local Mac store.
From Germany, I am quite used to sometimes getting the worst customer service ever (though it has become better since the last European customer protection laws), so I was (and still am) sceptical how/if they will repair it and how much they want to get for it.
But, Apple is quite famous for its good customer service, so I am quite confident that they will do a good job to my Mini, too. For now, I am at least impressed that I can check the status of my repair online and get quite a few interesting pieces of information:
- Your "mac mini 1.42 combo" was received at our Corvallis location on Friday, January 27
- Your system arrived at our service center on Friday, January 27
- Diagnosis was performed by our technician
- We ordered parts for your system from the manufacturer on Monday, January 30
- We received parts for your system on Tuesday, January 31
- Work was completed on your system on Tuesday, January 31
- Your system is being transported
Not bad! There are not many companies that have such a transparent repair process. Now they only have to call me tomorrow for picking the box up and not make me pay anything for their hardware problem and I am truly happy.
The real test if a Mac is worth its money, to be continued ;)