Titanium Powerbook Life Span

[big]

I purchased a 15" 1GHZ TiPowerbook 18 months ago, this past month I have seen the battery DIE, and the left hinge break....

I am in the middle of acquiring all the parts and pieces I need to repair the hinge, has anyone else seen this kind of deterioration on Powerbooks, are there more surprises for me down the road?

has anyone made a hinge replacement and have any good advice?
thanks!

 

[timnosenzo]

Was it new when you bought it? My TiBook is 3 years old and although the battery life is deteriorating it still works (although I don't use battery power that much).

 

[ShermDog]

I've had my Tibook for 22 months (bought new), and battery life is down to 50% (it actually sleeps when the battery indicator reads 50% left). Other than that, I've had absolutely no problems.

 

[timnosenzo]

I've had my Tibook for 22 months (bought new), and battery life is down to 50% (it actually sleeps when the battery indicator reads 50% left). Other than that, I've had absolutely no problems.

I believe there is a way to re-calibrate that, but I forget how. I know I've read it somewhere here on MR.

 

[mattroberts]

reset the PMU is your best bet.

type this into terminal
ioreg -l -w 0 | grep IOBatteryInfo

Check the capacity anything less that 1000 and your battery is in need of replacement.

m

 

[big]

oh man... I'd usually use my PB as a desktop, go to another office, work all day, and then back home where it was a laptop again. maybe three times a year I use it for presentations strictly on battery.

But I was getting like 3 mins of charge before it put itself to sleep.... I bought a replacement battery, and did all the calibrations stuff in the directions and have not really tested the battery since, because my hinge is still broken, and I feel I have been doing good "propping it open"

mattroberts, here is the command line info I et, what does it mean:

"IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=4783,"Amperage"=0,"Current"=4777,"Voltage"=16584,"Flags"=1090519045})

(Note: this is the new battery from NwereTechnology, which is suppose to have a much better battery than apple, so they say)

 

[daveL]

I've had my TiBook, bought new, for 25 months. I've traveled on business extensively and used it as my sole machine during that time. I don't use it much on battery, but I was able to watch a 2 hour DVD on battery last spring. Otherwise, it has worked flawlessly and still looks brand new. I have no intention of replacing it any time soon.

 

[big]

After my Powerbook hinge broke, I did some researching around and apparently there has been a lot of posting about PB hinges breaking lately, so I thought I'd ask MacRumors... Looks like the Alum design fixes the Powerbook hinge issues with the one large one in the back.

I'm glad to hear there are not a million messages of angry Ti owner's saying "this or this or that" is broken... After a battery and tearing apart the display, I'm gonna be about through with this powerbook if something else goes wrong, though lately I've been noticing a lot of bad DVD burns, where toast or the finder says something about a medium sense key hardware issue....

replacing the superdrive next? Is there a Lemon clause in my state? I don't know, but I need to find out

 

[emw]

replacing the superdrive next? Is there a Lemon clause in my state? I don't know, but I need to find out

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the Ti. I have one that's approaching 2.5 years old, and the only problem I have is the common battery one. But I travel extensively, and so am on battery often on planes, and don't usually get to do the optimal drain and fill thing. So I'm on my third battery (luckily, work pays for it).

If there truly is a way to recalibrate the batteries, I'd love to hear it since then I'd have better spares. Right now my latest dies at about 18% full. I ran the command line shown above for Terminal, but the return numbers mean nothing to me.

Although I did recently burn a DVD, and when I reinserted it, the Finder told me it was unrecognizable, so perhaps my SD is going down the tubes as well.

 

[big]

Finder told me it was unrecognizable

yeah, this is annoying

 

[Macmaniac]

TiBook hinges are very fragile, and most of the TiBooks that we fix which have case damage usually have cracked hinges. The best thing you can do is get a nice case to protect you laptop.
The ond bad thing about cracked hinges is that sometimes this can lead to problems with the display, which can get really expensive out of warranty.

 

[mcarvin]

My 667 TiBook is still going extremely strong, and will be three years old come Saturday

My right hinge broke over the summer, but AppleCare replaced the whole lid - including the screen. Right now it serves as a media player when hooked into the home theater, portable web server and dev setup, and does the iLife thing when on vaca.

I'll probably be in the market for a replacement in 2006 sometime, and hopefully that will be one with a...nah, ain't gonna say it.

 

[big]

nope.... one morning, I woke up, opened the laptop like normal, and heard a "crack"..... it's not like it had been cracked or dropped... its just a design flaw, thanks for your input though

 

[big]

what, a...... duel processor G4 system, or G5?

 

[mcarvin]

what, a...... duel processor G4 system, or G5?

And risk the chance of starting that thread up again?

 

[mkrishnan]

And risk the chance of starting that thread up again?

It's either that or start a thread about the rumor that the PB will skip the G5 generation and go straight to G6. Oooh, maybe if they call it a G6, Oprah will give a bunch away on her show!!!

 

[jeremy.king]

Any rechargeable battery has a finite amount of charge cycles. They die - thats just how it goes. Don't see what all the fuss is about.

 

[parrothead]

After my Powerbook hinge broke, I did some researching around and apparently there has been a lot of posting about PB hinges breaking lately, so I thought I'd ask MacRumors... Looks like the Alum design fixes the Powerbook hinge issues with the one large one in the back.

I'm glad to hear there are not a million messages of angry Ti owner's saying "this or this or that" is broken... After a battery and tearing apart the display, I'm gonna be about through with this powerbook if something else goes wrong, though lately I've been noticing a lot of bad DVD burns, where toast or the finder says something about a medium sense key hardware issue....

replacing the superdrive next? Is there a Lemon clause in my state? I don't know, but I need to find out

I bought a Tibook 500 back when they first came out and received some very good advice with it. An apple tech told me to always, always grip the top middle of the screen or use two hands (one on either side) to move or adjust it. Otherwise he said it was a guarantee that the hinges will break. I did that for the entire time I had the computer up until I sold it and never had any problems with the hinges.

Yes, the Albook's hinges are much sturdier and are a huge improvement, the Tibook just needs a little more care.

Hope this helps...

 

[dross]

I purchased a 15" 1GHZ TiPowerbook 18 months ago, this past month I have seen the battery DIE, and the left hinge break....

I am in the middle of acquiring all the parts and pieces I need to repair the hinge, has anyone else seen this kind of deterioration on Powerbooks, are there more surprises for me down the road?

has anyone made a hinge replacement and have any good advice?
thanks!

I have a broken hinge too on one of my Powerbooks. Where did you find the parts to repair it?

 

[big]

thanks Parrothead! That is some real good advice... when my hinge broke, I popped the latch, grabbed it with one hand in the center of the display, and pulled it open, people, do not do that!

About any battery having a finite amount of charges, this is advice better left to those other guys using PC's. I think most of us here (especially when we are discussing dismantling our own PB's (had you read the first post) know about battery charge, and comments like that could be seen as fairly egocentric or disrespectful. On thing I have learned is that if you do not talk to someone (anyone) as that they may not understand, they will silently hate you because they feel the are being talked down to.

just a small tip in living through life. Now had you been explaining a point that actually would need some in-depth discussion from your part, you should could have said something like "I am going to tell you about XY&Z, but I do not know where your knowledge is on X or Y, so if you feel like I am talking down to you, please forgive me, as I do not have a basis for your understanding of the subject matter"

You could go on to say "If you feel I am talking over your heads and do not understand what is being said/explained, please let me know, and we will get through that.

ie.... "I shall oversimplify, omit, perhaps even lie a little." the beginning of a physicist's speech introducing a relatively new subject. Now considering the angle at which some physicists may introduce new information can sound very crazy, like how Lee and Yang discovered that Nature does have a way to prove left handedness from right handedness through beta decay. Now should you need me to stop here and explain a little further (should this be the topic) I could break down where we were and where we were headed.

The entire point, is that introducing the fact that rechargeable batteries only hold a finite amount of charges, to a group of well educated persons, is well, talking down to us, specifically me. If you wish to continue to introduce something meaningful to the thread, by all means, please do, but not derogatory in nature please.

I realize by posting this, this kills this thread, so did the G5 and G6 discussion, so I might as well have gone out in a blaze..........

 

[big]

I have a broken hinge too on one of my Powerbooks. Where did you find the parts to repair it?

there is a guy on Ebay selling a pair of them BRAND NEW for like $99, this is the cheapest you can get them. You will want to replace both if you are going through the surgery...

 

[mattroberts]

mattroberts, here is the command line info I et, what does it mean:
"IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=4783,"Amperage"=0,"Current"=4777,"Voltage"=16584,"Flags"=1090519045})

The Capacity reading is All I'm interested in 4783 is great. its a sign that the battery is still really good. you will notice over time that number decreases. The Current number (4777) shows how charged (full) the battery is now. The rest is generally not important.

My advice is reset the PMU- See below-
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

cheers
m

 

[jalagl]

I have had my PB for almost 20 months, and it is still like new (except for some scratches on the top, made by airport security...)

BTW, I got an add selling powerbook hinges at the bottom of this page...

 

[JordanNZ]

I've had my 1GHZ tibook for just over a year and a half now.. And i've had one power adapter die, my backlight is failing, and my superdrive is basicly dead (spindle servo error happens a lot).

Not happy.

 

[California]

I love my tibook 400 and have had it more than three years. Upgraded to 40gig 5400rpm travelstar hd, 1gig of ram, and I accidently knocked it on the side and cracked the case which is starting to affect the left hinge.

Daystar is goign to upgrade my cpu to 550mhz and fix the case and put in an airport card for me and I plan on keeping the Tibook for a long time. I LOVE IT. Best thing is no keyboard troubles ala the Aluminum PBs.