Recieved my Powerbook

[Og Oggilby]

Well, I received my Powerbook last night

15" PowerBook
1.67GHz G4, 1024MB SDRAM, 100GB harddrive, SuperDrive, ATI Radeon 9700 video 128vram, 100/1000 NIC, Firewire 400&800, DVI & S-video, Airport Extreme card.
AppleCare Protection Plan

I played with the Powerbook for a couple hours and really liked it. I'm a longtime PC guy and a MAC/OSX newbie - it's also my first notebook.

The good:
Nice packaging. Real nice.
Looks great. Not at all PC like, very clean and uncluttered.
Great OS!
Nice keyboard.
Everything works so far as I can tell.
My wife likes it

The bad:
The notebook doesn't sit flat (case warped slightly?). I checked it on multiple surfaces (including a glass table). It's not real bad but it is annoying considering what the thing cost. I don't notice it when typing, etc.
One stuck pixel in the middle of the screen

The odd:
I tried two commercial DVD's to see how they would play. The first one "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" 4x3 format would only play the copy warning and rating screens and then I'd get a black screen with "apple dvd player" in the bottom right corner of the screen. The DVD menus wouldn't come up at all. Then I tried the Star Wars II widescreen version - it worked great, including the menus. Of course I tried the League of EG again after making sure it was clean - it still didn't work

BTW, the Powerbook gets hot on the bottom in the back, but not as hot as I was expecting from reading forum messages. Of course I wasn't stressing it out too much. The pad and palm rests didn't get hot at all while I was playing with it.

Will the case flatten out from the heat? I read a message that someone had a stuck pixel that started working after a few days use. Is that true, or is a bad pixel always a bad pixel? I'm not sure if I should call Apple Care on these things or not.

Any suggestions? Thanks...

 

[ohcrap]

Congrat's on the new machine.

I don't think the case will change shape much, odd that it's not flat.

As for the stuck pixel, I've read that if you gently massage the area around it, it can be brought back to life. Never done this, never seen it done, only heard it works.

 

[godbout]

In addition to hearing that you can gently masage it out I heard that you can use a program that can sometimes free up the oriented liquid crystal that often causes the pixel to be dead. I am not sure what this is called but I am sure that if you search for it you will find it no problem. I have heard many people that revived dead pixels!!

Not sure why the case is not flat... well congrats on the new PB I am sure that you will love it... these things are awesome!!

 

[ITASOR]

http://itasor.com/pixelmurder.MP4

Right click that-->save linked file

Run that in QT overnight in loop. Resize it to be about an inch and position it so the dead pixel is right in the middle.

 

[Og Oggilby]

http://itasor.com/pixelmurder.MP4

Right click that-->save linked file

Run that in QT overnight in loop. Resize it to be about an inch and position it so the dead pixel is right in the middle.

Thanks! I'll give it a try tonight...

 

[ohcrap]

http://itasor.com/pixelmurder.MP4

Right click that-->save linked file

Run that in QT overnight in loop. Resize it to be about an inch and position it so the dead pixel is right in the middle.

Ah! Just played that in fullscreen! Ouch.

You don't know if that happens to work with CRT's do you? I wouldn't think so, but then again, you never know.

 

[Og Oggilby]

Congrat's on the new machine.

I don't think the case will change shape much, odd that it's not flat.

As for the stuck pixel, I've read that if you gently massage the area around it, it can be brought back to life. Never done this, never seen it done, only heard it works.

Thank you! I'll give it a try and let you know if it works...

 

[dswoodley]

if the case does not lay flat, call Apple now! Two years ago the same thing happened to me and they replaced in within 7 days.

 

[VanMac]

Hey.

Congrats on the new purchase.

Your case should be flat. Give apple a call and check into it.

I had a dead pixel show up, and I just lightly touched it, and it went away...

 

[bartelby]

You don't know if that happens to work with CRT's do you? I wouldn't think so, but then again, you never know.

I'm not sure if you're joking or not but it won't work on a CRT.
A 'Dead pixel' on a CRT will either be where the coloured phospher is missing or the surrounding black matirx is covering where the phospher should show. (I spent 5 years making CRTs)
So no amount of flashing graphics (I'm guessing there as I haven't looked at that file) will alter the affected are.

 

[ohcrap]

I'm not sure if you're joking or not but it won't work on a CRT.

I wasn't joking. Try to remember that not all of us know as much as someone who has spent 5 years putting CRT monitors together like yourself.

Thanks for the answer, my eMachines has a dead pixel and it's very eye-catching. Guess I'll just have to live with it.

 

[KittenKrusher]

I thought dead pixels could only happen on LCDs since LCDs use pixels and CRTs don't. CRTs use a tube to show the picture unline an LCD that just uses many pixels. Or am I wrong? I probably am.

 

[Og Oggilby]

I fixed the case! Last night I put some pressure on the bottom of the case while the lid was up (very slight pressure - to the point where it didn't seem to be doing anything) while it was angled on the edge of my desk. Now it is perfectly level (I checked it this morning and it was still flat).

I tried the pixel massage on the bad pixel - no go. Will try ITASOR's QT file soon.