Question For Powerbook Owners

[lucys_trip]

I've been considering buying a Powerbook, either the 1 Ghz 15" or the 17". I'm interested to know though, how weather extremes affect the daily operation of a Powerbook and the stability of them.

For example:

I go hiking with my powerbook (2 hours), find an area overlooking a beautiful valley, sit down, pull it out and start creating a landscape scene in Vue D'Espirit. Open up Photoshop and do some cloud sketches with my Wacom Tablet (another 2 hours). It's summer and the temperature outside is 35 degrees C (95 degrees F) and 45 degrees C (113 degrees F) with humidity.

I head home (another 2 hours) and walk into my air conditioned house. Wake the Powerbook and start it rendering, while I go eat. The temperature inside the house is a very cool 16 degrees C (60.8 degrees F).

What can I expect in these types of situations, which here in Ontario, Canada is normal come summertime?

Another example:

It's winter, and the temperature outside is -20 degrees C (-4 degrees F) and I'm travelling out to an area by car to photogragh a natural wildlife habitat an hour from my home. The powerbook is in my backpack which I place in the back seat. Drive to location with the heat cranked, take some digital photos, go back to the car, pull out the Powerbook and download the shots into iPhoto for archiving, and open a few in Photoshop for some minor editing.

Afterwards, load them into Vue where I have an alternate background scenery created, perform some editing while I have the beautiful scenery right in front of me and I can better calculate lighting angle's and shadows and then start rendering for my drive back home.

This is a bit different example because at most times I can control the heat, but could I subject it to cold extremes if I wanted to? Does any moisture buildup pose a problem? What if it's warm outside but there is a huge amount of moisture in the air, like after a rainfall?

Any comments are appreciated. Thanks.

[Tom Wilkie]

Hi,

I accidently left my Ti power book (1Ghz) in the car over night about a month after I brought it.

The car was outside, and this was over christmas time. It was very icey, we recon the temp went down to minus 5 centigrade. The car was not insulated, and when I got the powerbook out in the morning it was very damp from condensation.

Afetr leaving it for a while and drying with a towel, it works fine. Two months on I've had no problems at all.

I can't comment on hot weather as that never happens in north england!! Condensation doesn't *seem* to do any harm.

Thanks,

Tom

[Kecksy]

I have one of the first generation TiBooks. Nice, but fragile. The Aluminums are better, but the 17-inch isn't shipping until April <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />

[murbot]

What the heck are you doing air conditioning your house down to 60 degrees? Did you win a big "Free Electricity For A Year" contest or something? Wow.

:)

EDIT - added a smiley... don't want this to seem like a "you're stupid" post, more of a "jeez you're nuts" kind of thing.

:p

[ 02-27-2003: Message edited by: murbot ]</p>

[lucys_trip]

[quote]Originally posted by murbot:
<strong>What the heck are you doing air conditioning your house down to 60 degrees? Did you win a big "Free Electricity For A Year" contest or something? Wow.

:)

EDIT - added a smiley... don't want this to seem like a "you're stupid" post, more of a "jeez you're nuts" kind of thing.

:p

[ 02-27-2003: Message edited by: murbot ]</strong><hr></blockquote>

Ok, I suppose 16 (60) is a bit cool although I wouldn't call it excessive. It's currently -20 degrees (-4) outside and it's only 22 (71.6) degrees in my house and it's nice and toasty warm. Hell, the freezing point is zero (32) and when it's 16 (60) degrees here in Spring, I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt outside. By the way, how expensive is your electric bill? <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />

[Matsu]

One of the special collections I visit from time to time is down right cold (rare papers and all that) no problems.

I've read that digital camera and video people often don't use their equipment right away after bringing it in but rather let it sit for a couple hours to come up to room temp before they work. Mebbe cameras are more fragile though, iDunno, any photogs wanna comment?

If you don't exceed the temp and humdity parameters Apple quotes you should be fine.

[torifile]

<a href="http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2000/10/antarctica/index2.html" target="_blank">Slightly more extreme conditions</a>. You ought to be fine as long as it doesn't get wet (condensation or otherwise).

[lix]

Batteries seem to be the main cause for concern, they don't like working when cold!