malvasia bianca

A postscript to my recent mac repair: when I got my computer back, it seemed that the DVD drive sounded a bit different, and now I’m 80% sure that they replaced it without my asking them.

I can’t figure out if this goes in the good column or the bad column. It is true that the drive wasn’t performing as well as I would have liked (though it was probably better than the original drive I got with the machine). Given that, bully on them for noticing it, and I suppose it’s good that they replaced the drive while they were working on the machine.

The flip side is that this machine is on its third optical drive in just under two years; a reminder that the drive quality on these machines isn’t very good, and it raises the possibility that the replacement drive may in fact not turn out to be better than its predecessor.

Still, it did manage to burn a DVD on its first try, which at least suggests that the drive has some basic competency in its anointed function.

A note to myself, should I ever wonder in the future about whether or not the drive has silently been replaced: the current (probably new) drive identifies itself as a “MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857”