My PowerBook G4 is one of the first Titanium PBs400MHz, 10GB HD, combo driveI bought it in August 2001 and have loved it. Its been my desktop computer and my carry-everywhere computer. AppleCare expired on it August 2004so Im on my own here now. And a rash of troubles have lately emerged.
Around the end of June, the CD/DVD reader became unreliable. It will sometimes refuse to operate at allwill just take in the disk and not even make a sound. Other times itll churn and churn and not mount it. But then itll decide to operate fine for a spelltheres no telling whether itll cooperate from one day or moment to the next. This, of course, poses quite a problem in efforts to boot from a CD for diagnostics. Luckily, I was able to do so both to run Disk Utility and to run Apple Hardware Testboth of those checks showed no problems. So whats the source of the litany of new symptoms lately?
BTW, these symptoms gradually emerged after we had a brown-out. The brown-out fried our router. (Despite everything being on surge protectors!) We had 3 computers on the routermine (my dear TiPB), my husbands, my daughters. My husbands is fine. My daughters has had lots of other problems predating this router-fry episodebut since then has also presented with a new problem just like one of mine. (Oh, also, the cable modem seemed ok but the signal needed work after this fried-router event. Since the cable company came out, the modem has worked fine.) Anyway, heres the litany:
My TiPB will only connect with the web through Ethernet via the modem directlynot through our new router. It doesnt even light up on the new routers T-slot, so it cant get the DHCP address assigned automatically. (This is the same new symptom my daughters troubled G4 tower now has). Went through troubleshooting with the router people. My husbands computer has no problem hooking up through the router and neither does my daughters new iBook. Just my TiPB and the G4 tower. The router tech said it sounded like my PB has a bad network cardit can deal with the signal direct through the modem, but not through the router.
Dropped USB printer suddenly. (Happened once only). I heard the printer respond to this, then it couldnt even see the printer to reinstall it until I reestablished the existence of the printer through complete reboot of both and repowering and reconnection of them in the proper order. (That happened once only).
Wouldnt wake up. (Happened once only). I think what may have finally booted it was my daughter trying the shift-power approach. Turned out that this was in the aftermath of having booted from a CD and it didnt have a system selectedhas seemed ok since Ive made sure that it had the OS 10 system selected as the start-up. However, now Im checking the start-up disk setting and see that it occasionally needs to be reset again.
Wouldnt see that it was plugged into the power cord! (Happened once only). Battery therefore drained completely and poor TiPB shut down. I suspected power problem and we tried 3 different power cords. Some with the light that indicates orange-for-charging and green-for-fully chargedand the light wouldnt even light up! Anyway, none of the cords helped, until maybe after the 5th or 6th replugging, when it finally saw the power cord was plugged in and the light went on and the computer could reboot and recharge.
Lost the setting on the sound (happened once only), so the on-off sound button on the keyboard didnt affect the speakersthey stayed off. I had to go into the advanced sound controls directlywhere I saw that mute was selected (despite the fact that the keyboard button and on-screen display showed otherwise). I reset on the advanced sound controls and things straightened out.
In the course of various efforts to deal with the problems, as they evolve, Ive reset the PMU and done the diagnostics mentioned above (Hardware Test and Disk Utility repair). The once only problems arent a big deal if they dont recur, but what about that Ethernet/network card issue? Orcan all these things be somehow related? Is there any hope for this beloved TiPB? Thanks for any suggestions.
Around the end of June, the CD/DVD reader became unreliable. It will sometimes refuse to operate at allwill just take in the disk and not even make a sound. Other times itll churn and churn and not mount it. But then itll decide to operate fine for a spelltheres no telling whether itll cooperate from one day or moment to the next. This, of course, poses quite a problem in efforts to boot from a CD for diagnostics. Luckily, I was able to do so both to run Disk Utility and to run Apple Hardware Testboth of those checks showed no problems. So whats the source of the litany of new symptoms lately?
BTW, these symptoms gradually emerged after we had a brown-out. The brown-out fried our router. (Despite everything being on surge protectors!) We had 3 computers on the routermine (my dear TiPB), my husbands, my daughters. My husbands is fine. My daughters has had lots of other problems predating this router-fry episodebut since then has also presented with a new problem just like one of mine. (Oh, also, the cable modem seemed ok but the signal needed work after this fried-router event. Since the cable company came out, the modem has worked fine.) Anyway, heres the litany:
My TiPB will only connect with the web through Ethernet via the modem directlynot through our new router. It doesnt even light up on the new routers T-slot, so it cant get the DHCP address assigned automatically. (This is the same new symptom my daughters troubled G4 tower now has). Went through troubleshooting with the router people. My husbands computer has no problem hooking up through the router and neither does my daughters new iBook. Just my TiPB and the G4 tower. The router tech said it sounded like my PB has a bad network cardit can deal with the signal direct through the modem, but not through the router.
Dropped USB printer suddenly. (Happened once only). I heard the printer respond to this, then it couldnt even see the printer to reinstall it until I reestablished the existence of the printer through complete reboot of both and repowering and reconnection of them in the proper order. (That happened once only).
Wouldnt wake up. (Happened once only). I think what may have finally booted it was my daughter trying the shift-power approach. Turned out that this was in the aftermath of having booted from a CD and it didnt have a system selectedhas seemed ok since Ive made sure that it had the OS 10 system selected as the start-up. However, now Im checking the start-up disk setting and see that it occasionally needs to be reset again.
Wouldnt see that it was plugged into the power cord! (Happened once only). Battery therefore drained completely and poor TiPB shut down. I suspected power problem and we tried 3 different power cords. Some with the light that indicates orange-for-charging and green-for-fully chargedand the light wouldnt even light up! Anyway, none of the cords helped, until maybe after the 5th or 6th replugging, when it finally saw the power cord was plugged in and the light went on and the computer could reboot and recharge.
Lost the setting on the sound (happened once only), so the on-off sound button on the keyboard didnt affect the speakersthey stayed off. I had to go into the advanced sound controls directlywhere I saw that mute was selected (despite the fact that the keyboard button and on-screen display showed otherwise). I reset on the advanced sound controls and things straightened out.
In the course of various efforts to deal with the problems, as they evolve, Ive reset the PMU and done the diagnostics mentioned above (Hardware Test and Disk Utility repair). The once only problems arent a big deal if they dont recur, but what about that Ethernet/network card issue? Orcan all these things be somehow related? Is there any hope for this beloved TiPB? Thanks for any suggestions.
