Powerbook: Dead pixels?

jeremiah richjeremiah rich
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hey again. Once again I am back asking for some advice in regards to purchasing. In the footsteps of our beloved Murbot, I have a story of my own to tell as far as the buying and selling of Macs is concerned. Glad you asked to hear it. Well, here goes. So November of 2001 I got an iMac DV 450 for building a buddy of mine a computer. Got OSX for Christmas and quickly moved from my 733 mhz Pentium 3 machine to the Mac and eventually abandoned PC's all together.



Well, the following year during Christmas I got a 4x dvd IDE burner for 200 bucks. In all of my wiseness, I decided to build an IDE extender and use the IDE drive on the built in IDE bus. Worked great until I shorted the darn thing out. Luckily for me I had just acquired a Beige G3/300 from a friend of mine and I proceded to use that as my main machine for the next YEAR! So in January I picked up a G4 Cube. (As a trade for my video camera. Very good deal). Thing ran great with the 768 megs of ram I had in it and Panther.



I found out shortly after that my family would be moving to Chicago in June, so I decided a laptop would better suit my needs, as I am staying with a friend of mine here in STL this summer and then going to college. So in Marchish I picked up a G4 iBook. Upgraded the ram to 640 and it has been running pretty well... Except I have been doing FCP work with it and will be doing a ton of photoshop/illustrator/whatever stuff simultaneously and am finding this does not quite have the horsepower to keep up. Furthermore, I would like a larger internal screen, as I will be limited for space.



So, the logical choice is a Powerbook G5 15". I have a buyer lined up for the iBook and need to find one for the Cube, but as soon as I sell those and the line is updated, I am buying. My current iBook has no dead pixels, which has been great. However, I would like to know how many Powerbook owners (of most specifically the 15"ers) have no dead pixels or do have them. If I order online through the Applestore and through a credit card, isn't there a way I can threaten to "refuse payment" if they don't let me return it?



So, the point of this thread is to find out who all has experienced dead pixels and all. Well, the white spot do not count. This machine will need to last me pretty much through college, so I would really like it to be flawless. Speaking of which, I think Apple could make a very handsome profit by adding say a 49 dollar option to the online store to guarentee no dead pixels. But that's just a thought. Thanks for the help, and Murbot, if you are reading this, what Mac are you on now?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    formerlurkerformerlurker Posts: 2,686member
    Murbot is probably binge-drinking right now after trying to read that big block 'o text you laid down there, if it made his head hurt anything like mine.



    Paragraphs, man, paragraphs!



    Anyway, in answer to what is (I think!) your question, I would advise buying at the Apple Retail Store and opening and checking out the PowerBook before you leave the store. If you have a dead pixel, you can politely but firmly request a replacement.
  • Reply 2 of 11
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Hows that? Sorry. It's kinda late so I did not realize how long that was. Crudely split it up, but that should do the trick. The question is badically, what is the best way to make sure I have no dead pixels. And have you ever had dead pixels in a Powerbook? I have heard before they don't let you return the machine if you do that, but if they have changed policy that would be great.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    I don't know about everyone else, but I just skipped down to the last paragraph seeing how bloody long the post was. I have two large LCD displays sitting in front of me. The left one has a single dead pixel, the right one has two dead pixels. My PowerBook has one dead pixel. Actually, they're all stuck.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    15" AlBook: 0 bad pixels

    Pismo: 0 bad pixels

    5300: 0 bad pixels

    180: 0 bad pixels



    15" Apple Studio Display: 1 stuck pixel
  • Reply 5 of 11
    gabidgabid Posts: 477member
    I've had a PowerBook 1400cs (1997), a TiBook (2001), a 17" Studio Display (2003) and a 12" iBook G4 (2003), all of which are still functioning perfectly without ever having shown a sign of either a stuck or dead pixel.
  • Reply 6 of 11
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    That $49 option would be a real bad idea. It would be like Apple saying, "we know our products aren't the best, so pay more to have them that way." Apple knows what they make is the best, and dead/stuck pixels just happen. Fact of life.



    I managed to get rid of one on an old iBook Clamshell that I have. It pokes its ugly head up every once in a while, but it's nothin a little rubbing cant fix. (Come to think of it, there is nothing that a little rubbing can't fix )
  • Reply 7 of 11
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    Whoops. Didn't even see this thread until now.



    I'm pretty sure I've only had dead or stuck pixels a couple of times. I had a 17" Apple LCD that had a few, and I had a Titanium PowerBook that had 1, but it was right at bottom of the menu bar, and I only saw it when I watched a full screen DVD.



    I could be out by 1 or 2, but I think I've had 7 PowerBooks and 4-5 iBooks over the last 4+ years. So that's basically 1 out of 11-12 with a single dead pixel. Oh, I did have one other with a stuck pixel, but it only came around every couple of weeks. So in all likelihood I saw it maybe 4 times before shipping it off.



    It's rolling the dice, really. I know people who have had terrible track records with this, and others who have never had a single one. Just the unfortunate state we're at with LCD technology.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    locopanolocopano Posts: 38member
    I've got the latest 17" PB 1.33GHZ



    No dead pixels whatsooever.



    I'vr also had a 1GHZ SD 15" Ti PB(last revision PB), that also had 0 bad pixels.



    All my friens PB 12" ALuminium PB's havent had probs either.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    messiahtoshmessiahtosh Posts: 1,754member
    15 inch flat panel iMac-No dead or stuck pixels. A perfect display.?
  • Reply 10 of 11
    madmax559madmax559 Posts: 596member
    15" ti 800 bought in aug 2002

    0 dead pixels



    www.macwarehouse.com



    call & bargain..

    ask them to turn on the machine & make sure

    theres no dead pixels



    use a credit card & dispute the charge if not satisfied



    heres my take on products....screw apple

    i'm the customer & i'm paying a lot of money

    for a product & I dont put up with defective crap



    i buy a lot of hardware & if sun & dell & emc can provide

    great service then theres no reason for apple to treat

    its customers like crap



    pay $49 more ?? your're nuts

    dont turn into an apple fanboy & bend over

    its just a computer & its still your hard earned money
  • Reply 11 of 11
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Hah. About the 49 dollar option... Just a crazy idea I thought of while posting the thread. Anyways, I think I will likely order it on apple.com with my fathers credit card. (Mine does not have a high enough credit limit yet). Here is to waiting for the update....
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