12" Powerbook Screen Latch
I have a 1Ghz G4 12" PowerBook and the little hook part of the latch tends to stick when I try to close it. I've even noticed it stuck out when the monitor is open as well, but not quite as common as the other. This really bugs me because I have to kinda smack it, don't worry it's not a hard pimp slap just a light tap, to get it to hinge shut. Has anyone encountered this problem as well, is there a fix I can try? I don't want to break it if I try to bend it, but I really don't want to send it off to Apple either considering I have to use it ALL the time. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Comments
Assuming you have applecare, do what i did and call them, tell them about the problem and ask them for the ticket number. Now, just live with it. If it gets really bad, send it in. Now you have proof that the probelm is not new.
Suddenly circa about 2 months before the end of the 1 year warranty period, something broke inside the mechanism for the latch on the screen lid, and the latch hook came out and dropped on the keyboard.
This was a big issue as I never really used to shutdown the laptop - I always used to close the lid , and see it go into hibernate mode.
But now whenever the lid was nearly closed it sent the machine into hibernate mode and then forced it to come out of hibernate mode when slightly open etc (this occurred many times when i closed the lid and then pushed the laptop into my rucksack and then took it out after say 1 hour of travelling on the bus/train etc on arrival at the office for example)
Now I am forced to switch off the laptop via a shutdown sequence, and wait for it to go through a start up sequence, each time that I need to transport the laptop....
I have heard that the latch mechanism can be replaced under warranty but before doing that I guess i would be happier to purchase a new apple powerbook thats a lot more powerful as a second standby machine.
Dont get me wrong - I really love my 12" powerbook.... but I really wish that apple would get a move on in terms of getting a more durable version without the small problems like the latch problems I have encountered, as well as the larger problems of getting more performance out of the laptop (more memory, faster front side bus etc - which even the current powerbooks dont really have...).
*sigh*.
[ Come on apple .... where are those g5 powerbooks ?!? ]
Anyway this post was just to share some of my experiences with the latch problem on my powerbook.
matt.
Originally posted by vimto
I have heard that the latch mechanism can be replaced under warranty but before doing that I guess i would be happier to purchase a new apple powerbook thats a lot more powerful as a second standby machine.
Are you saying that you would purchase a new laptop over taking advantage of your warranty and having Apple fix the latch issue?
Looks like half of my post (that i wrote in another application) didnt get cut_and_pasted properly into the previous update on this bulletin board.
What I meant in my original post was this :
The 12" powerbook is my main machine.
I if were to send it back to apple and get it fixed under warranty then I would be basically stuck in terms of not being able to do any work using this machine whilst on site at the client; until of course it arrived back from apple (whenever they have decided to finish fixing the screen latch etc - I don't really know how good or bad their hardware support is in this case in terms of how long it would take to fix). (I am a freelance software architect currently working on site at a client in europe).
To avoid this situation, I would opt to look at getting another [perhaps new] machine as a replacement perhaps and then send the 12" powerbook back to apple to be fixed etc.
As I class myself as a "power user" I would prefer to wait until apple seriously beefs up their machines before I would buy the next new [laptop] machine from apple.
In my opinion all they would need to consider doing is perhaps looking at the current powerbook range - at increasing the f.s.b. speeds (assuming the cpu and peripheral chipset for the powerpc can handle it); increasing the L2 cache, putting back in the L3 cache, and perhaps increasing slightly the power pc cpu speed - say to 2ghz. Of course they could always slinging in a g5 in there too ...
The 12" powerbook that I have is nice, but I need serious power, and the 12" powerbook just seems sluggish in comparison to my non apple machine which is a toshiba p10-804 laptop (with a seriously nice screen at 1920x1200 pixels, and fantastically speedy performance, but unfortunately too heavy to carry around to clients sites - but apart from this - nothing else to write home about).
matt.
Thanks for the help all.