New 15" powerbook defects

[Westside guy]

Chiming in...

Overall I've been very happy with my 15" 1.25GHz Powerbook (4200rpm 60GB drive). Battery live is 3 hours + (I wonder what the correlation is between perceived poor battery live and the 5400rpm drives). I love the keyboard's feel, the wireless works well, the machine is zippy. I port it back and forth between work and home every day, because I'd rather use it than the Linux + Windows x86 machine provided for me at my job (okay, the "Linux" part of that was done by me ;-) ).

As I posted on another thread, I am starting to see a couple white spots if I use a solid background - I've been looking for them after hearing about all the complaints. For normal use they are currently a non-issue, but I will send this in for repair if they get worse.

All in all, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this machine to someone else.

 

[Powerbook G5]

I thought that even the 4200 RPM drives were 80 gig...battery life seems nearly unaffected by the 5400 RPM drives though since I get over 3 hours easily out of a full charge, which seems to beat a lot of people even on the 4200 drives. The only "defect" I can tell is that my USB ports "refuse" to let me disconnect devices, as in, I have to really wiggle and tug to unplug USB cables when on all other computers, they usually slide right out. It's a non issue, though, since it just shows that it's in there securely since my PC used to have the problem with the cables slipping out easily by themselves.

 

[Counterfit]

I'm pretty sure my PowerBook came off the first run, I bought it at the nearby Apple Store on 9/18. I'm going to stop pressing my screen and my luck now, just in case I break something.

 

[Westside guy]

Made sense at the time

Originally posted by Powerbook G5
I thought that even the 4200 RPM drives were 80 gig...

The default is 4200rpm 80 gig; but I dropped to 60 gig (55 gig in real life) because it was still way more disk space than I needed, and the difference in price for that extra 20 gig looked higher than it should. If I ever need more I can buy a fast external FW drive, or even perhaps replace the internal one.

Dropping the HD to 60 GB allowed me to switch the memory from 2 DIMMS (2x256) to 1 (1x512) while keeping it at roughly the same price as the stock machine. It seemed to me that I was more likely to need more memory sooner than I'd need more disk space (although in retrospect it looks like 512MB will be plenty for the forseeable future). The only thing I had to go on was my Dell laptop, which had a 12GB disk I hadn't filled (even with Windows and Linux on it), and needed a minimum 256MB of RAM to function decently - and Mac folks kept telling me what a memory hog OS X was...

Even now I've got 37GB free; and that's after installing all the software I need, plus ripping every CD I own to 160-bit AAC.

 

[Powerbook G5]

I went from a PowerBook G3 400 MHz with a 6 gig HD and 192 megs RAM so trust me, I know what it's like to think "damn, 80 gigs sounds like a lot" and I also got a single 512 module thinking it'd be a good idea for when I do want to upgrade to a gig of RAM.

 

[Counterfit]

Hmm, thanks to having a Direct Connect hub inside my school's network, I have managed to get my disk down to ZERO kB available several times. Thankfully, I have a superdive so that's easily cleared up. Also, I seem to routinely be using about 500MB of my RAM when plugged in, out of the stock 512. I just wish it wasn't so darned expensive to upgrade it.

 

[Westside guy]

Originally posted by Counterfit
Hmm, thanks to having a Direct Connect hub inside my school's network, I have managed to get my disk down to ZERO kB available several times. Thankfully, I have a superdive so that's easily cleared up. Also, I seem to routinely be using about 500MB of my RAM when plugged in, out of the stock 512. I just wish it wasn't so darned expensive to upgrade it.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listpa...erBook+G4+1.25GHz+(15-inch+Display)&submit=Go

Crucial sells the 512MB SoDIMM for $141.99 - that's right in line with the cost of upgrading my previous Dell notebook. Not trivial, but not outrageous by comparison. Notebook memory is going to be more expensive than desktop memory, for sure.

 

[joelc73]

Originally posted by Winston Smith


And no white spots which bothered me as the serial number is from the batch that had this problem apparently.

What serial numbers are part of the batch that are affected? Mine's fine (so far) but I'm curious how worried I should be...

 

[nesbitt_a]

Powerbook update

Guys, you might like to know that I was told today by the UK AppleStore, that Apple are due to ship 200 (standard-configuration) 15'' al-books this week.

Hopefully our replacements will be among the lucky 200.

 

[dietsoda]

Well this is turning out to be the worst experience from any company i've ever encountered.

Ordered a BTO 15" 1.25ghz PB (5,400rpm hdd, 1 512mb chip) from a reseller on the 21st of September. Tooke a month to arrive, 21st October. 1 1/2 weeks into owning it the white spots develop. Ring Apple, who issue a DOA, it's picked up the next day (31st October) by Amsys the UK partner for Apple repair / Applecare.

They ring me 4 days later to say that yes they confirm the problem and it's doa, they say ring Apple in two weeks. I rang them last friday and they said that it wasn't shipping yet, but to ring next week. the woman said it should be with me by the end of this week (tomorrow). I rang them again today to find out when it will be delivered. After nearly two hours oh holding, and being transfered twice to different departments. I eventually spoke to someone who seemed to have some kind of clue. She says that the order went in to the factory on the 5th and that as yet there's no more info. Ring again on Monday she says!

So next week it will have been two months since i originally ordered it. Most of the Apple people I've spoken to really don't seem to have a clue, and aren't very helpful at all. At this point I'd accept a non-bto model and a partial refund, but by the looks of it I'm going to have to cancel my order.

I've got a wifi access point that cost £80 sitting at home now useless, a new £90 laptop bag, now useless. If there was any alternative to Apple right now I'd take it, and I've had to stop recommended to my friedns that they buy Apple as I can't recommend them with a clear conscience any more.

We'll see what happens on Monday, but I'm furious and vaguely upset at how much time and trouble this is wasting. I cannot accept getting my PB only for the whole line to be updated a few weeks afterwards. I waited months for the 15" to be released, then a month for it to arrive, now nearly another month to get one that isn't defective.

 

[jcgerm]

I know the feeling. I've had the same problems except I got the white spots repaired, although I can't comment if they're still gone since I had to send my powerbook back AGAIN for ANOTHER keyboard repair. I've had the LCD problem, keyboard problem, and battery problem so far, and I've only been able to use the machine for about 2 weeks. It's been in repair longer than that. Plus, now I'm being told that they can't duplicate the keyboard problem (the right 1/2 of the keyboard is sort of raised and when keys are pressed down, they pop back up and it sounds like tape unsticking). I'm going to strongly push for a replacement if they can't fix it, and I'm going to be extremely pissed if they say they can't find the problem.

My first apple might very well be my last.

 

[nesbitt_a]

Replacement powerbook finally shipped

Apple have FINALLY shipped my replacement Powerbok G4, after an unbelievable five weeks without a mac.

Lets hope this one is without the problems of the first machine.



Fingers crossed.

 

[ITR 81]

All the white spots happen when something or you press too hard on the outside of the lid and it presses against the screen causing a white spot. Apple already knows about this issue and is working on fix so everyone will get a revised lid.

Has for issues with the latch..hell I even have latch issues with my 15 inch Titanium but it's not common as it shuts perfect 99% of the time.

As for the gap..unless something happen at the factory or it got dropped I believe Apple just designed it that way.
Samething goes for the keyboard as well.

The only issue with the 15 inch is the white spots which only seems to affect the first batch of PB's. So I doubt you will have issue if you buy one in next couple of weeks or in Jan of next yr.

 

[nesbitt_a]

Powerbook problems solved?

I am still waiting on my replacment laptop arriving.

There have been very few reports of powerbook problems here for the last week or so - am I right in assuming people are having no or very few problems with the hardware revised laptop, since Apple paused production to sort it out.


Andrew

 

[syclone]

Not only do I have the white spots, but a now have a group of three pixels stuck on blue in the lower right of the screen. I also got stuck with a Spanish keyboard instead of a standard one, but it seems to work fine. I live nowhere near an Apple store - should I just call apple to get this fixed?

 

[Golem]

Re: Replacement powerbook finally shipped

Originally posted by nesbitt_a
Apple have FINALLY shipped my replacement Powerbok G4, after an unbelievable five weeks without a mac.

Lets hope this one is without the problems of the first machine.



Fingers crossed.

From when I ordered my 15'' to when I finally got my 17'' just under 2 months, Got sick of waiting and i was told possibly not before xmas for the 15'' and with the ongoing quality issues I decided to bite the bullet and changed my order.

The 17'' is perfect, well at least till I next need to hop on a plane.

 

[Counterfit]

Originally posted by syclone
Not only do I have the white spots, but a now have a group of three pixels stuck on blue in the lower right of the screen. I also got stuck with a Spanish keyboard instead of a standard one, but it seems to work fine. I live nowhere near an Apple store - should I just call apple to get this fixed?

Well, the screen issues happen, one is a design/manufacturing flaw, the other is something that happens in LCDs. But how the **** did you get a Spanish keyboard?!

 

[MyPB&Me]

I got mine last Wednesday after odering it on October 20th. It is perfect, no dead pixels or white spots. I am thoroughly impressed and still convinced that these problems are in the minority, because people with defective computers usually post more.

 

[nesbitt_a]

Replacement powerbook is beautiful

Guys, just to let you know that my replacement powerbook has arrived and is 100% perfect.

No screen issues whatsoever, well done Apple -- it only took you 6 weeks.





Andrew.

 

[MyPB&Me]

Got mine Nov. 15th and it has a small faint white spot in the middle of the screen about 3" from the top. Should I have apple replace the lcd? Its a really vibraint screen with no dead pixels and you can only see the spot faintly when its on a white background. I feel liek it stares at me when I write papers on Word. I am super anal about stuff i buy and I am scared that this will drive me up the wall for the nest 4 years.

 

[Counterfit]

Too bad you aren't anal about your grammar...
Anyhoo, if it really bothers you, call 'em up.

 

[nesbitt_a]

Definetly contact apple about a replacement LCD, or declare the machine DOA and they will replace completely.

Don't settle for defects -- especially at that money!


Andrew