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New powerbook keeps freezing, and has a stuck pixel!

mrjamin

mrjamin

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 6, 2003
1,161
1
Strongbadia
Ok, so my new 12" powerbook arrived on wednesday. Its fantastic n all, BUT there are a few problems:

1) its frozen quite a few times, always on boot (just after the macosx splash screen has gone), or when you wake it up from sleep. I think this is down to the crucial RAM in it, but the powerbook didn't come with a hardware test cd so i have no way of finding out! The only discs i got were DVDs; software restore ones at that. I've tried booting from the first disc but there's no hardware test jobby. Any other way i could find out? I've done 2 clean installs of Panther on it, both from the discs that came with it, and my retail boxed copy of 10.3.

2) i have a bright green stuck pixel about an inch from the centre of the sreen! What's apple's policy on stuck pixels? I don't want to have to send it back and get a refund, then buy another powerbook once the refund's come through as this would mean paying for it to be returned, and waiting another 2 weeks for it. I've sold my pc (powerbook is my main machine now, running it off an secondary display with an external mouse & keyboard), so will apple replace the screen? I couldn't find anything about their pixel abnormality repairs policy on the knowledge base so i'm a little stumped.

Any pointers on both issues?

MrJ
 
1) Pop the Curcial RAM and see how it goes.

2) Sorry mate, but I think you're stuck with that stuck pixel. You'd need a lot more than just one stuck/dead pixel to get a replacement screen/laptop :(
 
mrjamin said:
Ok, so my new 12" powerbook arrived on wednesday. Its fantastic n all, BUT there are a few problems:

1) its frozen quite a few times, always on boot (just after the macosx splash screen has gone), or when you wake it up from sleep. I think this is down to the crucial RAM in it, but the powerbook didn't come with a hardware test cd so i have no way of finding out! The only discs i got were DVDs; software restore ones at that. I've tried booting from the first disc but there's no hardware test jobby. Any other way i could find out? I've done 2 clean installs of Panther on it, both from the discs that came with it, and my retail boxed copy of 10.3.

2) i have a bright green stuck pixel about an inch from the centre of the sreen! What's apple's policy on stuck pixels? I don't want to have to send it back and get a refund, then buy another powerbook once the refund's come through as this would mean paying for it to be returned, and waiting another 2 weeks for it. I've sold my pc (powerbook is my main machine now, running it off an secondary display with an external mouse & keyboard), so will apple replace the screen? I couldn't find anything about their pixel abnormality repairs policy on the knowledge base so i'm a little stumped.

Any pointers on both issues?

MrJ
Click to expand...

welcome to the wonderful world of laptop owners. I used to have a powerbook till I saw what a real pain it was so I traded it to a friend for a more powerful desktop mac. with a laptop you can expect problems and even when those problems are gone you can expect more. laptops and lcd's suck. do yourself a favor and stick with crt's and desktops.
 
blue&whiteman said:
welcome to the wonderful world of laptop owners. I used to have a powerbook till I saw what a real pain it was so I traded it to a friend for a more powerful desktop mac. with a laptop you can expect problems and even when those problems are gone you can expect more. laptops and lcd's suck. do yourself a favor and stick with crt's and desktops.
Click to expand...
Big help :rolleyes: Some people need a laptop, having a desktop at home isn't much use for working in the school library for example :rolleyes:
 
Like eDesign said, remove the Crucial RAM stick and see if that works.

For the stuck pixel, gently massage the spot with one finger. I had a stuck pixel, and massaging it for a few seconds was all it took. You could get lucky and get it to start working again.

Good luck!
 
blue&whiteman said:
welcome to the wonderful world of laptop owners. I used to have a powerbook till I saw what a real pain it was so I traded it to a friend for a more powerful desktop mac. with a laptop you can expect problems and even when those problems are gone you can expect more. laptops and lcd's suck. do yourself a favor and stick with crt's and desktops.
Click to expand...

i've had 2 ibooks in the past, only problem i ever had was a duff mobo on the first. my housemate has a powerbook and has had for 18 months, no problems at all. another friend of mine had an ibook for 3 years, no problems at all. he now has a powerbook and has had for a year, again - no problem. sure, stuff goes wrong from time to time, but you can guaruntee that a pc laptop is more likely to go wrong, and when it does its a hell of a pain in the ass. I worked for Comet (electronics retailers) in the product returns area, we liased straight with the manufacturers for customer repairs, i never had one laptop away for less than 2 weeks. Sony Vaio's would be away for 6-10 weeks as they're repaired in france. In my experience Mac's are far more reliable, AND aftersale support is a whole lot better.

like edesign said, people need laptops, i'm one of them - i'm just not wealthy enough to buy a G5 AND a powerbook. At the end of the day, my PC was costing me money as i had to spend 1-2 days every month reformatting the SOB, so using a laptop hooked up to external kit was the ideal solution. I'm self employed, i'm also getting married and wanting to buy a house, i can't afford to waste time and money on a pc. Yeah, i tried using my iBook (with the clamshell mode hack) as my main machine, but it wasn't up to it even with the G3 900, and 640MB ram. Powerbook it is.

how about you do yourself a favour and don't post useless junk

edesignuk: with all macs, you have 10 days to send them back, even if you just don't like it. i'm tempted to do that, then just buy another one. I'll call them on monday and see what they say about the stuck pixel - have taken the ram out for now.
 
mrjamin said:
edesignuk: with all macs, you have 10 days to send them back, even if you just don't like it. i'm tempted to do that, then just buy another one. I'll call them on monday and see what they say about the stuck pixel - have taken the ram out for now.
Click to expand...
Ah, well, I didn't know that :) You just have to decide if it worth the risk, you may get one with more stuck pixels, you can't just carry on returning them forever.
 
Well I have had no problems with my PowerBook. I don't think it's fair to say that laptops always give you problems. No-one I know has ever had a hardware problem with their laptop (Apple or PC).

The crashing sounds like problematic RAM. Crucial are normally really good but you may have a dud chip - always a possibility. I think it comes with a lifetime guarauntee, so you could just get an exchange. As edesignuk says, just pop it out and see if it makes a difference.

Mine has one dead pixel. It is near the edge of the screen and is my friend :p - some people have had success with massaging them out, but I've had no success. I never notice it though so I don't care.

Bottom line, I'm glad I have my PowerBook. I can take it to my department, easily take it home between semesters and work in different rooms when I feel like a change. The LCD is easy to look at and I can always add an external display whenever I feel like. And it's more than fast enough for what I want to do - including editing video and images in FCE and Photoshop. Good luck.
 
mrjamin said:
Ok, so my new 12" powerbook arrived on wednesday. Its fantastic n all, BUT there are a few problems:

1) its frozen quite a few times, always on boot (just after the macosx splash screen has gone), or when you wake it up from sleep. I think this is down to the crucial RAM in it, but the powerbook didn't come with a hardware test cd so i have no way of finding out! The only discs i got were DVDs; software restore ones at that. I've tried booting from the first disc but there's no hardware test jobby. Any other way i could find out? I've done 2 clean installs of Panther on it, both from the discs that came with it, and my retail boxed copy of 10.3.
MrJ
Click to expand...

Have you tried booting your PowerBook with the <OPTION> key pressed while the DVD was inserted?
I think it's the same as my G5 Software restore DVD. If you just boot form it using the <c> key, is will boot the Mac OS X install DVD.
By pressing <OPTION> (=alt) you will probably find the "Apple Hardware Test CD" on it too.
 
virividox said:
not really advice but something i noticed

if its a stuck pixel they get 'unstuck' sometimes cant explain how why but they do with continued use. so unless u return it the chances are it may return to normal
Click to expand...
Massaging the pixel worked for me - I had a stuck red pixel.

Hold a lens cleaning cloth in front of the pixel. Hold the screen near the back around the pixel. Then massage it in a line, till it goes away. It might reappear, in which case you do this again. Mine came back twice so far, but hasn't come on now for a month ( I got it in Aug).

RAM is probably the problem, use a memory test program.
 
mrjamin said:
how about you do yourself a favour and don't post useless junk

edesignuk: with all macs, you have 10 days to send them back, even if you just don't like it. i'm tempted to do that, then just buy another one. I'll call them on monday and see what they say about the stuck pixel - have taken the ram out for now.
Click to expand...

LOL

If it were me, I would send it back and order the new one. Do you really want to be looking at that stuck pixel for the next 2 years, or however long you are using the notebook? I know not having a computer for 2 weeks or whatever it would take, would be a sacrifice, but in the long run, I think you would be much happier. Just my perspective, the pixel may not bother you as it would me though.
 
I got a stick of Mushkin RAM from somewhere for my new PowerBook a few weeks back and it was crashing my machine as well. Emailed Mushkin and they said the RAM needed to be "programmed" to work with Apple MoBos (same will Dell and HP, they claim). So I sent them the stick, and they overnighted me a new stick and it works great. So yeah, send the stick to Crucial and get a new one.
 
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