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My New PowerBook

P

PowerBook User

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 29, 2003
171
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I just bought a used PowerBook G4 15.2-inch Titanium. It's an 867 MHz and is running Mac OS X 10.2.8. These are quite nice computers. :) Anyway, I had a couple questions about it. First, my battery indicator in Mac OS X is not working correctly. At about 85% the PowerBook went to sleep with no warning. The battery was dead. Second, I don't think my PowerBook is running at full speed. Terminal says it is running at 667 MHz (What was that command?), but it is an 867 MHz computer. I heard that Mac OS X 10.2.8 may have caused these problems for some people. Has Apple come up with a fix for these problems? Also, OS X 10.2.8 was on the computer when I bought it. It is Build 6R73. Is this the "good" version of 10.2.8? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

P.S. I think this should be in hardware discussion. If not, moderators fell free to move it. Thanks.
 
I think that the misreading of the processor speed can sometimes be fixed by zapping the PRAM. I'd also try resetting the power management unit and seeing if that helps the battery problem. You'll have to reset the date and time after you do these things.
 
Originally posted by QCassidy352
I think that the misreading of the processor speed can sometimes be fixed by zapping the PRAM. I'd also try resetting the power management unit and seeing if that helps the battery problem. You'll have to reset the date and time after you do these things.
Click to expand...
I reset the PRAM and Power Managemment Unit before the battery problem occurred. Does anyone know what build number the "good" 10.2.8 version is?
 
I found another thread that mentioned battery problems with PowerBooks and iBooks here. Has anyone else had this problem?
 
If you bought it used with bad battery and wrong processor specs, it's more likely you got a lemon. I concur, where did you buy it from?

There was a story a while ago when people were sellin powerbooks on ebay that were slower than sellers claimed. I don't think it was about 867mhz though...
 
The Apple System Profiler says it's an 867 MHz computer. Also, in the battery compartment it says 867 MHz (near the serial number). The battery lasted a decent while (I didn't time it). It just seems to be the battery indicator reporting the estimated percentage incorrectly.
 
From what I've seen in other threads, the sysctl command to show the processor speed can be misleading at times. Several users with AlBook 1GHz computers complained about sysctl only reporting 667MHz -- the same for some using 867MHz AlBooks and the 1.25/1.33GHz AlBooks. Both Apple System Profiler and XBench correctly report the laptop's "correct" speed.

This behaviour happens even when the Energy Settings are set to "Full Speed" or maximum (I forget the correct term). A reboot initially seems to correct the problem for sysctl, but later on there is a possibility of 667MHz coming out again. Haven't seen the response in Apple Discussion Boards about this, though.

As for your battery, you should probably re-calibrate again: Use it (unplugged) until the TiBook goes to sleep, charge it fully, then use regularly. That should help. Otherwise, you might have a failing battery, and getting a replacement one may be the next thing to do.
 
About the build number, you have the "good" version of 10.2.8 - same as I'm using. So 6R73 is the good version not the dud version that they released and then took down.
 
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