RIP PowerBook G4
My Mac finally died last night at the young age of 4 years, 4 months. 
I knew my Titanium PowerBook G4/1 GHz was on it's last legs when the hinges started to go a few months ago. It began to fail quickly after that. The battery fell out of the case, no longer able to be held in properly, the power supply failed (I had replaced this many times before), and the computer was 'slow' to wake up, very similar to waking up under Mac OS 8 or Mac OS 9 (not immediatley responsive).
Last night, I realized that the sleep light wasn't working correctly. If I held the laptop at a certain angle while closed, it would blink. But when I held normally on my lap, the light was not blinking at all. I tried to wake it from sleep this morning and the display would not power on. A complete shut down and attempted reboot did not work either.
I got the laptop in early December of 2002, a replacement for my Pismo PowerBook G3/500 that had so many trips back to AppleCare that they eventually replaced it for me. I have been planning to buy a new Mac for some time now and have been debating between buying a MacBook Pro or a Mac Pro, but was waiting on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Now I'm wondering if I can even make it until next week without a Mac, never mind WWDC or beyond.
I knew my Titanium PowerBook G4/1 GHz was on it's last legs when the hinges started to go a few months ago. It began to fail quickly after that. The battery fell out of the case, no longer able to be held in properly, the power supply failed (I had replaced this many times before), and the computer was 'slow' to wake up, very similar to waking up under Mac OS 8 or Mac OS 9 (not immediatley responsive).
Last night, I realized that the sleep light wasn't working correctly. If I held the laptop at a certain angle while closed, it would blink. But when I held normally on my lap, the light was not blinking at all. I tried to wake it from sleep this morning and the display would not power on. A complete shut down and attempted reboot did not work either.
I got the laptop in early December of 2002, a replacement for my Pismo PowerBook G3/500 that had so many trips back to AppleCare that they eventually replaced it for me. I have been planning to buy a new Mac for some time now and have been debating between buying a MacBook Pro or a Mac Pro, but was waiting on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Now I'm wondering if I can even make it until next week without a Mac, never mind WWDC or beyond.
Comments
Regardless, I know that I'm on borrowed time with this Mac. I'll be buying a new MacBook Pro as soon as the next models are introduced. Hopefully I can get a few more weeks out of this computer before it completely gives out on me.
After going through this a few times now, I'd definitely advise people to not only buy AppleCare for their Macs (which my laptop had until it ran out last year) but also to send the computer back to Apple if *anything* goes wrong with it. If you think there's a problem, send it back. I sent my computer back to Apple quite a few times but after the last time I got it back, I should have sent it in again because I felt the hinges weren't quite right. Now it's all too clear that I made a mistake in not getting it looked at again, just so I wouldn't be without it for a few days. It's worth the small inconvenience to be without a computer for a few days to make sure it's in good condition.
I guess I'm upgrading it's condition from "Deceased" to "Critical".
Clear!!!
Well I guess I counted out my TiBook a little early. I guess I'm upgrading it's condition from "Deceased" to "Critical". While hooking it up to an external monitor, the built in screen suddenly came back to life. I guess I was holding it at that 'magic angle' while trying to attach the monitor cable. Now that I have it open in the right position, I'm afraid to close it. I'll probably use the Apple Menu sleep instead of trying to latch it shut from now on.
Regardless, I know that I'm on borrowed time with this Mac. I'll be buying a new MacBook Pro as soon as the next models are introduced. Hopefully I can get a few more weeks out of this computer before it completely gives out on me.
After going through this a few times now, I'd definitely advise people to not only buy AppleCare for their Macs (which my laptop had until it ran out last year) but also to send the computer back to Apple if *anything* goes wrong with it. If you think there's a problem, send it back. I sent my computer back to Apple quite a few times but after the last time I got it back, I should have sent it in again because I felt the hinges weren't quite right. Now it's all too clear that I made a mistake in not getting it looked at again, just so I wouldn't be without it for a few days. It's worth the small inconvenience to be without a computer for a few days to make sure it's in good condition.
Dude...I remember your awful pismo experience. God bless you for that. Really. I remember you having to go to war with Apple, right? I agree that getting a new MBP is a good idea. Sounds like your powerbook is in worse shape than John Corzine was.
While hooking it up to an external monitor, the built in screen suddenly came back to life.
This happened to my ibook during its logic board failure, which took a couple of weeks to finally die.
Dude...I remember your awful pismo experience. God bless you for that. Really. I remember you having to go to war with Apple, right? I agree that getting a new MBP is a good idea. Sounds like your powerbook is in worse shape than John Corzine was.
My Pismo was definitely a lemon. It is still my favorite Mac that I ever owned but it spent more time with Apple then it did with me. They finally sent me this PowerBook G4 because they decided it wasn't worth fixing and sending the Pismo back to me again. Unfortunately, AppleCare gave me a real rough time of it, including the AppleCare plan # not being unique. Every time I called, the AppleCare number I had was matched up with someone's iMac in Florida. Despite assurances that it was fixed every time I called, it always took about an hour to 'fix'.
AppleCare was much better this time around with my PowerBook G4. Whenever I called, a 'coffin' was at my door the next day and the laptop was back to me within a couple of days. The last time I sent it back for repair, the AppleCare expired while the Mac was in transit to Apple. When I got it back, I noticed the hinges were a little off but decided not to get into another fight with AppleCare considering it had expired. Looking back, I should have sent it back immediately.
This happened to my ibook during its logic board failure, which took a couple of weeks to finally die.
Well, I'm hoping it makes it until the new MacBook Pros are launched. I'm thinking we'll see them no later than WWDC and as early as mid-May.