Here’s a good website explaining the horizontal-lines defect on the new 15-inch PowerBooks.
I haven’t called Apple yet about my PowerBook, but I intend to do so very soon. I’ve been cataloging all the problems with this, my second consecutive 15-inch lemon. The horizontal lines are just the beginning; here are some of the other problems I’ve had:
* The “V” key fell off within 24 hours of purchase, and efforts to reattach it have grown increasingly futile; it quickly falls off again. (See here.)
* The “I” key sometimes doesn’t work. For example, sometimes I’ll type the word “Epsilon” and it’ll say “Epslon”; the input from the “I” key simply didn’t register.
* The keyboard squeaks. It’s hard to hear in most settings, but in an otherwise silent room (e.g., when taking an exam), there is a distinct squeaking noise that occurs during normal typing.
* The computer experienced a kernel panic on the first day I had it.
* I have had a number of random crashes in core applications (Mail, Safari, etc.).
* The first time I tried to burn a DVD, the Finder crashed.
* Pressing the Shift key and the zero key simultaneously (i.e., to produce a close-parenthesis symbol) sometimes causes the screen to “flash,” i.e., to fade almost to white and then return to normal (very quickly).
* The display experienced several unexplained “flickers” within 24 hours after purchase. (More detail here.)
* The bottom of the laptop sometimes gets really hot… I mean REALLY hot… much moreso than my 12-inch typically got.
Keep in mind, this is a brand new computer. I brought it home from the Apple Store last Sunday — a replacement for my previous, also defective PowerBook, which was itself only five days old when I returned it.
Argh.
My hope, tentatively, is to convince Apple to simply refund my money to my Apple Credit Account so that I can buy a refurbished model from the non-defective line of 15-inch PowerBooks that came out in January. I suspect they’ll want to do another simple exchange instead, but dammit, I no longer have any faith in this line of PowerBooks. Even if the horizontal line problem is fixed, two LemonBooks in a row makes me extremely suspicious.
But alas, something tells me that, after nearly two weeks with a 1440 x 960 display (albeit with freakin’ annoying scanlines), a 1280 x 854 display (like the January PowerBooks have) is going to “feel” much smaller than it would have otherwise, considering I was upgrading from the 1024 x 768 display on my old, stolen 12-inch PowerBook.
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Categories: PowerBook Problems,
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December 5th, 2005 at 10:29:58 am
Well, I will tell you in my normal use (highly unusual use in most people’s cases) the bottom of my Powerbook gets exceptionally hot. The bottom of the computer is used as a heat sink by Apple, which makes sense, and usually works great, but running anything processor intense will heat up the computer to uncomfortable levels…
December 5th, 2005 at 10:32:13 am
And yes, but hot I mean a good bit hotter than a 12″ those seem to have a rather efficient cooling system, but also have a less power hungry processor.
I just had a thought about the issues with recent powerbooks — I am wondering if Apple has released into the wild a dual processor version of the OS. That might explain a lot of these anomalies — check for software updates…
December 5th, 2005 at 12:28:20 pm
Dane, OS X, as far as I know, has been multi-proc aware from the get go thanks to the UNIX under pinnings.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:28:59 pm
Dude, get a Dell! Or a Gateway. Sounds like Mac is over.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:36:48 pm
Uh, yeah… NO. I used to have a Dell, and its problems were way worse. And anyway, the Mac OS is much better than the Windows OS, for me anyway. If every PowerBook were like this, obviously that would be a problem… but obviously that’s not the case, if every Mac laptop had keys falling off the keyboard, they wouldn’t sell very many laptops… I just happen to have gotten a bit unlucky, and this particular line of PowerBooks seems to have more faulty systems that usual, and one glaring flaw… that still doesn’t even come CLOSE to dragging Apple down to the level of Dell.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:37:00 pm
You only assume that your old laptop was stolen, you don’t know that for a fact. From your story it sounds more likely that you LOST it. There’s a difference. If someone had broken into the car and taken your laptop, well, then you would be correct in calling it “stolen.” However, since you most likley just left it somewhere, and someone most likely picked it up and didn’t return it, I don’t think it’s stealing. It’s finding. I know it makes you sound less irresponsible to call it your “stolen laptop”, however I think you know you lost it.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:59:06 pm
Considering that I outlined the whole story in detail on my blog, and I link to that story whenever I mention it, I don’t think it’s plausible to claim that I am trying to “sound less irresponsible.” I’m being completely honest about exactly what happened. If I wanted to, I could have left out the details and made myself “sound less irresponsible,” but I didn’t do that, which is the only reason why you even know what happened!
As for the term “stolen,” it’s factually accurate, IMHO, and that’s why I use it. If you “find” a $2,000 laptop and you don’t return it, you’re a thief in my book. It’s not like you could remotely think that it was abandoned or left there on purpose. If it were a piece of furniture left in someone’s front lawn or something, that’s different. But if you find a laptop in a restaurant parking lot, obviously that was unintentionally left there, and the right thing to do is turn it in, either to the restaurant or the cops. If you fail to do so, you become a thief… you have stolen the laptop.
Moreover, I actually think the more likely scenario is that the laptop was taken out of Adrienne’s trunk while we were at Harry Potter. The trunk was unlocked, which was admittedly stupid of us, but surely you wouldn’t argue that because we failed to lock the trunk, therefore opening it, taking out a bag, and closing it, isn’t stealing.
December 5th, 2005 at 1:14:38 pm
Brendan - breathe ! Breathe !
Ummm … could it be that the folks assembling the LemonBooks just don’t want you to be able to type the word “Victory”, whether referring to Iraq or to USC football ?
(innocent smile)
December 5th, 2005 at 4:26:19 pm
David, I meant PowerPC and Intel chips not dual proc. I was unclear.
December 5th, 2005 at 6:47:49 pm
Hmm, I doubt it, its still not ready for primetime from what i have heard on the grapevine, although it is pretty good at this point.
No i’m guessing Brendan has hi’self a hardware issue, well maybe not A hardware issue, more like hardware issueS.
December 5th, 2005 at 8:45:07 pm
could be a bad logic board and or a general logic board issue with this iteration. at a qc issue on the screen.
December 6th, 2005 at 4:23:40 am
So harry Potter is to blame for the stolen laptop?? Damn you, Harry Potter!! I WILL SEE YOU IN HADES!!!!!
December 6th, 2005 at 2:15:39 pm
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, but when life gives you Apples, get Apple-Aid ;)