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Horizontal Lines in New Powerbooks

Agreed. My battery was fine until the first time I calibrated it - then afterwards it would only hold about 30minutes charge (at that time I didn't know how to check the mAh value, so I don't know what it was reading). I did a number of PMU resets, and calibrations to no avail.

Then while on the phone with Apple to get a replacement battery, I unplugged, and suddenly it was registering a proper (4h+) charge. I got a new battery anyway. No problems so far.

So I feel like we should have a poll.

How many had:

1 Horizontal lines?
2 Wavy diagonal or wide horizontal interference lines in some colours (e.g. orange)?
3 Battery failure?
4 Unresolvable kernal panics?
5 "Squeaky" keyboard when typing in Safari (sometimes)
6 Received a working replacement?

Only problem is that the first two are subjective, so may pull up false negatives.

PDE said:
When I got my second powerbook (replacement), I used it until the battery was completely depleted and then I followed Apple's exact calibration instructions, after which the battery no longer worked at all. Or, rather, it held a few minutes charge while the powerbook told me that it had 50 hours remaining. In any case, I followed the instruction and it somehow messed up the battery.
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If people would take pictures of the screen problem, and pictures of a screen without the problem, and show that there is very much a big problem there.

Then it's a lot easier to get them to do something about it, otherwise it's just showing pictures of a screen.

Need to compare it against something.
 
finchwizard said:
If people would take pictures of the screen problem, and pictures of a screen without the problem, and show that there is very much a big problem there.

Then it's a lot easier to get them to do something about it, otherwise it's just showing pictures of a screen.

Need to compare it against something.
Click to expand...


The problem is that a) there are no high resolution powerbooks without the horizontal lines. One could only compare with previous generations and the 17" B) It's almost impossible to take good pictures of the issue.

aaaah....
 
I have tried numerous times to take a picture of my 15" with the lines, it's too hard to capture, even with a good Digital SLR.

Is there any progress on the problem? I've seen on Apple Discussion that USA have acknowledged that there is a problem.

When are they going to do something. It's a very frustrating problem, one that I can see my lines at arms length, so my eyesight is very good, but I can notice the difference coming from my previous 17" because that screen was very good.
 
I downloaded a shareware app called Supercal. Following its onscreen instructions in calibrates your screen. It can take a couple of attempts but using it I have wiped out nearly all the line issues with the new pb its a great app.

Has improved the screen 100% and is a great temp solution until apple find a solution if there is one.

Oh just make sure once you've calibrated to make the gamma mac/print standard 1.8
 
tristan said:
the trolls have arrived...
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he's actually been here all along.

i maintain that it will be sorted. those who are bothered about it enough will get their replacements, and those who arent, wont even bother trying.

after doing some processing of photos recently, i've decided that i'm going to have to go for a new one if/when the opportunity arises. i'll ring apple again tomorrow and see if there's been any further developments. last times i spoke to them, they said that they'd acknowledged there was a problem,as i wasnt the first user to report this. i'm going to battle it until i get my lineless PB...even if i have to go 17" with it. meh.
 
Went to Fry's today and got one of the sales clerks to acknowledge the problem and told him what I know about it. I went to CompUSA ( a few doors down) hoping to do the same, but they didn't have the new PBs.
 
i know this might sound a stupid question, but are the apple stores actually affiliated with apple? like, i bought my mac online, can i take it into a store for them to look at? im not sure if it'd make a difference, but if anyone from UK/Europe can confirm, that'd be lovely :)
 
Sic said:
i know this might sound a stupid question, but are the apple stores actually affiliated with apple? like, i bought my mac online, can i take it into a store for them to look at? im not sure if it'd make a difference, but if anyone from UK/Europe can confirm, that'd be lovely :)
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Yes, they are affiliated, and yes you can take it in. This does not change from country to country (or continent to continent).
 
MacRumorUser said:
I downloaded a shareware app called Supercal. Following its onscreen instructions in calibrates your screen. It can take a couple of attempts but using it I have wiped out nearly all the line issues with the new pb its a great app.

Has improved the screen 100% and is a great temp solution until apple find a solution if there is one.

Oh just make sure once you've calibrated to make the gamma mac/print standard 1.8
Click to expand...
This post needs more feedback. Anyone else tried this?
 
adrian-cg said:
This post needs more feedback. Anyone else tried this?
Click to expand...

I suggested this a while back. It worked quite well for me, but it does not eliminate the problem at all - it merely covers it up. I guess it's a temporary solution that is better than nothing at all....
 
I just used SuperCal. It actually did make it look slightly better, but I think in general all I had it do was lighten the screen up a little. It walks you through steps that creates a color sync profile. And from switching back and forth to the one I created and what it originally was, it pretty much just lightened it a bit. I kind of like it so far though, it does make it seem a better, I can tell in some things. But certainly the lines are still there, just perhaps a little less visible. I'm still not happy :(
 
I hope Apple do someting for Line problem.

I hope apple do something for new powerbook horizontal problem.

That is why still I have new powerbook 15" 1.67.

Even though there is no official announcement.

I want to keep fighting for this issue.

You know Why?

Because It is my first MAC. I was very much impressed about Steve Jobs and Mac Powerbook.

But Now I am very much disappointed by line problem.

Somehow, Apple will do something for us.

I hope..
 
Just read on the Apple website forum that the new 15" uses a lesser quality LCD according to one of the posters there and if thats true then theres very little chance Apple will do a recall on the LCDs for the 15" PB.
 
f1restarter said:
Just read on the Apple website forum that the new 15" uses a lesser quality LCD according to one of the posters there and if thats true then theres very little chance Apple will do a recall on the LCDs for the 15" PB.
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That's probably where the $300 price reduction comes from.
 
This does it. I just sent back the Powerbook. Horizontal lines, even though faint, still irritating. But worse is that batterylife got to 10 minutes after I calibrated it! On its way back to Amazon.
I will decide at MacWorld if I will get a new PB or see if Apple has fixed the current ones...

/Peter
 
Every time Apple upgrades their powerbooks they take the previous top of the line one and make it the budget model and then introduce a new top of the line model. This time, they probably couldn't introduce a higher spec one because of limits with the G4 CPU, so they just introduced this instead. I doubt that the lower price has anything to do with a 'cheap' LCD.

I think whoever checked these displays at Apple just didn't notice the problem - just like so many people now. It's very hard to see for many. It could well be that they made a mistake and can't get out of it now without stopping production completely. They would need an immediate supply of these non-standard LCD displays and that's not something they can find that quickly.
 
nph said:
This does it. I just sent back the Powerbook. Horizontal lines, even though faint, still irritating. But worse is that batterylife got to 10 minutes after I calibrated it! On its way back to Amazon.
I will decide at MacWorld if I will get a new PB or see if Apple has fixed the current ones...

/Peter
Click to expand...


Just one comment about returning your powerbook. Make sure you DON"T choose the USPS return option! Amazon has started using USPS sometimes and the service is not trackable. I sent my powerbook back three weeks ago and they still haven't received it and nobody is able to track it. Crazy for a $2000 return. I've had only great experience with Amazon before this, but this time has been really bad dealing with moron service robots in India. I disputed the charge with my credit card because I can't waste more time on this.

Anyway, you can choose to pay for your own return shipping and get reimbursed for that later. Avoid the USPS and the hassle and go with fedex or ups - just some advice. I was cheap and didn't want to put out a dime so I went with USPS even though I knew it would be a mistake (it always is). Now I regret it teribly.
 
Just got confirmation that my replacement shipped (my original had more problems than just the horizontal lines). And it's being shipped from Sacramento, CA....wondering if this is a new batch or what??

Will update as soon as it arrives this week, along with serial prefix
 
If its shipped from sac area its from an apple distibution facility. For apple stores the big batches are shipped from shanghai to sac, as well as other designated places throughout the US. they serve as hubs. same thing happened to my replacement pb
 
I'm starting to get really mad with this whole situation. Apple needs to own up to their mistakes. I talked to 3 different guys at the apple store, and although they all admited to the problem...they gave me no solution. I asked for a 17" for the price of 15"...no luck. What kind of customer service is this!? Admiting to a problem...and then STILL trying to sell me a 15". One guy even said, "well, if you upgrade the hardrive to the 7200 100gb...you won't have the problem". Wow.
 
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