I bought my iBook last August. I'm experiencing The Battery Problem (see apple.com discussions).
The battery only lasts about an hour and a half. When it gets down to about 50% it drops immediately to 0%, as if 50% is the real 0%. The opposite happens while charging (gets to 50% and immediately jumps up to 100%). As near as I can tell, this started happening in the last month or so. I hardly use the battery, so I can't say for sure when it started. No amount of PMU resetting or PRAM zapping, etc. makes any difference.
I'd call Apple to get a new battery right now, but I hardly use the battery and I don't want a new one until they figure out what is causing this. Many people seem to think the batteries themselves are fine.
So my iBook isn't "Dead" but if something does happen to it it is almost as good as without the ability to reinstall the system software or boot from diagnostic CDs.
If you have access to another recent Mac, can you reinstall the OS by using Firewire target disk mode? (Holding down T on startup makes the iBook act like a Firewire hard drive).
Spotcatbug: dead battery cells? I'd still get it checked out while the iBook is in warranty.
The iBook is a very mature design, we don't see many bad iBooks, and most of the ones that go bad have a problem seem to have a bad cable going from the motherboard to the display.
We have however seen problems with the 12" Powerbook, some of them come seriously warped right out of the box. Some are so badly warped I can't figure out how the hell they were assembled in the first place
"For some reason, I would expect a computer to be more reliable than a car."
Give me a break! Cars are much more reliable--when they fail, people tend to DIE. Computers don't have that kind of liability attached, and in fact a lot of industry signs show that they are getting sloppier and sloppier at building them to last.
For the record we have a 1st gen dual USB iBook in the house, and it runs great.
One day I went to pull my iBook out of my computer bag but found that it was pretty hot inside; apparently it never fully went to sleep before I had put it in there last. I thought I was lucky that nothing had fried when I turned it on and all seemed fine. Unfortunely, it wasn't as I discovered a couple hours later.The screen started acting strangely, then I started having kernel panic after kernel panic (even durring startup). I was able to back-up all of my data to my PowerMac using FireWire Target Disk Mode, fortunately, since it eventualy came to a point where it wouldn't start-up at all.
I took it to my local CompUSA, hoping they could get it fixed for me, but they wanted $300 just to ship it off even though I was still under warrenty. So I just walked-out, knowing that I could get it fixed for free by taking it to an AppleStore located two hours away in Dallas. I didn't need it fixed immediately, so I decided I'd just wait until the next time I needed to travel to Dallas to get it fixed.
A month or so later, I went to Dallas to attend the grand opening of the Knox St. AppleStore and the helpful staff there checked-out my iBook. It didn't take much to get them to have my iBook sent-off to be fixed, as, by then, the iBook wouldn't even turn-on at all! I got my iBook back in less than a week in some expensive-looking packing material, and they even replaced one of the feet that had come off and had been lost (despite being told that they wouldn't replace it).
At the time, I had just thought my iBook, for some reason, didn't turn itself off and had overheated, but, after hearing about these motherboard problems other iBook users have been experiencing, I'm not so sure anymore.
I bought my iBook on August '02 and it died near the beginning of December.
I bought my iBook in December of last year, the 800 MHz Combo version. It's been fine so far with the only problem being the combo drive - it burns slowly as many have reported, and something scrapes the bottom edge of the tray when it closes. However, neither one is very important as I don't burn CDs often and the scraping doesn't really damage anything. Although I might take it in sometime anyway, just because I feel a bit uneasy about the little scratch on the bottom of the CD tray. And I'll definitely buy Apple Care once I can afford it.
Eleven months in the dreaded flakey backlight problem started. Sent it in. (Very nice phone people by the way).
- 1st time came back with drive wiped, no fixes
- 2nd time came back with replaced reed switch. Worked fine for almost 24 hours.
- 3rd time came back with new MB and a new 3 month warrenty. Phew!
Four months later (and no warrenty left) it started again. Backlight randomly fades, blacks, lights, flickers etc. Bad reed switch for sure. Since I don't feel like sinking ~$400 at the moment (out of work) I'm just living with it and adding new words to my vocabulary.
I think I'd rather have bought 5300's at least I could have made toast over the flaming batteries....
To be honest, my 5300ce was more reliable than my iBook. I don't think I had any serious problems with it at all (other than speed ) But don't get me talking about the Powerbook 190cs I had before that... ai-yai-yai!!
My 500MHz iBook (sold last year) is still going strong, as is a similar model we bought for the office; no problems with either after almost two years.
FWIW, my campus computer store recommends iBooks or a Dell laptop for students. The store manager told me last year that ALL the Dells they sold to incoming students came back for repair at least once. They do require students to purchase AppleCare for the iBooks because they can't be serviced on campus.
I might have to amend my post... my iBook has made a couple of nasty sounding noises from the hard drive recently so I'm backing everything up and having Apple look at it just in case.
My iBook here is gonna be 3 years old this coming Xmas and the only problem its had is that 1 CD sometimes causes me to have an I/O error that a Restart fixes. Otherwise I haven't had to send this baby in for repairs. its running like a dream. ^_^ I love it. It's my baby. ^__^__^
Jag has really sped me up. 10.1 was too sluggish. I rarely even boot into OS 9 anymore... I may dedicate that as my music/audio OS.... but not before I reinstall it so I have no 3rd party conflicts.
I'd be really pissed if anything serious went wrong with it.
its a 12" 600 MHz model, with the factory installed 384 MB of RAM from 2001.
Comments
The battery only lasts about an hour and a half. When it gets down to about 50% it drops immediately to 0%, as if 50% is the real 0%. The opposite happens while charging (gets to 50% and immediately jumps up to 100%). As near as I can tell, this started happening in the last month or so. I hardly use the battery, so I can't say for sure when it started. No amount of PMU resetting or PRAM zapping, etc. makes any difference.
I'd call Apple to get a new battery right now, but I hardly use the battery and I don't want a new one until they figure out what is causing this. Many people seem to think the batteries themselves are fine.
I've had 6 iBooks die of various causes of 10 I have bought (for the company) in the past eighteen months...
I'm a bit disgusted at the shocking failure rate.
Most have either had USB or FireWire die on the board or the screen issue.
I think I'd rather have bought 5300's at least I could have made toast over the flaming batteries....
So my iBook isn't "Dead" but if something does happen to it it is almost as good as without the ability to reinstall the system software or boot from diagnostic CDs.
If you have access to another recent Mac, can you reinstall the OS by using Firewire target disk mode? (Holding down T on startup makes the iBook act like a Firewire hard drive).
Spotcatbug: dead battery cells? I'd still get it checked out while the iBook is in warranty.
Originally posted by GardenOfEarthlyDelights
If it was in the 0.5% range, that works out to be 500 PPM (parts per million), which would be unacceptable in my industry (auto).
For some reason, I would expect a computer to be more reliable than a car. Quick—let's make Car/Computer analogies about this!
Yeah. Because I put my kids in my iBook and get on the freeway, right?
Originally posted by serrano
Yeah. Because I put my kids in my iBook and get on the freeway, right?
You must have tiny kids. How fast does your iBook go? Is that in mph, rpms, or mhz?
We have however seen problems with the 12" Powerbook, some of them come seriously warped right out of the box. Some are so badly warped I can't figure out how the hell they were assembled in the first place
Give me a break! Cars are much more reliable--when they fail, people tend to DIE. Computers don't have that kind of liability attached, and in fact a lot of industry signs show that they are getting sloppier and sloppier at building them to last.
For the record we have a 1st gen dual USB iBook in the house, and it runs great.
I took it to my local CompUSA, hoping they could get it fixed for me, but they wanted $300 just to ship it off even though I was still under warrenty. So I just walked-out, knowing that I could get it fixed for free by taking it to an AppleStore located two hours away in Dallas. I didn't need it fixed immediately, so I decided I'd just wait until the next time I needed to travel to Dallas to get it fixed.
A month or so later, I went to Dallas to attend the grand opening of the Knox St. AppleStore and the helpful staff there checked-out my iBook. It didn't take much to get them to have my iBook sent-off to be fixed, as, by then, the iBook wouldn't even turn-on at all! I got my iBook back in less than a week in some expensive-looking packing material, and they even replaced one of the feet that had come off and had been lost (despite being told that they wouldn't replace it).
At the time, I had just thought my iBook, for some reason, didn't turn itself off and had overheated, but, after hearing about these motherboard problems other iBook users have been experiencing, I'm not so sure anymore.
I bought my iBook on August '02 and it died near the beginning of December.
Eleven months in the dreaded flakey backlight problem started. Sent it in. (Very nice phone people by the way).
- 1st time came back with drive wiped, no fixes
- 2nd time came back with replaced reed switch. Worked fine for almost 24 hours.
- 3rd time came back with new MB and a new 3 month warrenty. Phew!
Four months later (and no warrenty left) it started again. Backlight randomly fades, blacks, lights, flickers etc. Bad reed switch for sure. Since I don't feel like sinking ~$400 at the moment (out of work) I'm just living with it and adding new words to my vocabulary.
Originally posted by robster
I think I'd rather have bought 5300's at least I could have made toast over the flaming batteries....
To be honest, my 5300ce was more reliable than my iBook. I don't think I had any serious problems with it at all (other than speed
FWIW, my campus computer store recommends iBooks or a Dell laptop for students. The store manager told me last year that ALL the Dells they sold to incoming students came back for repair at least once. They do require students to purchase AppleCare for the iBooks because they can't be serviced on campus.
Has yet to crash.......
Jag has really sped me up. 10.1 was too sluggish. I rarely even boot into OS 9 anymore... I may dedicate that as my music/audio OS.... but not before I reinstall it so I have no 3rd party conflicts.
I'd be really pissed if anything serious went wrong with it.
its a 12" 600 MHz model, with the factory installed 384 MB of RAM from 2001.
Cheers everyone!