PB G4: DVD-R, Heat and USB Problems

keotkeot
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Last Friday I received my PowerBook G4 15" 1.67GHz with 128MiB of VRAM and 512MiB of RAM. It's my first ever Apple product and so far I really like it.



However, I currently have three problems with it and would be interested if anyone could point me in the right direction to make my Mac experience a nicer one.



DVD-R

Upon inserting a DVD-R disc, I click the box to open it with Finder and up pops the message 'The disc could not be used because the disc drive is not supported. (Error code 0x80020025)'.

I found a way of fixing this by force quitting Finder and reattempting, but it isn't a nice way of doing things.

Is there a nicer way of fixing this, and when will Apple do something about it?

Are Apple as bad as certain other companies with software patches?



Heat

I can't use the machine for longer than half an hour without becoming concerned about the melting point of aluminium. I've set the processor performance to 'Reduced' and they'res no difference. From listening very carefully I can hear a slight whirring, which I presume is the fan yet I cannot feel any air being moved around the vents. The bar above the keyboard frequently becomes too hot to touch. I have the PowerBook on a desk raised by four packs of chewing gum to improve ventilation to little effect.

Is this normal?

Is there anything I can do about this?



USB

Plugged in a USB flash disc a few days ago and it worked fine. Brought the machine home and tried a Microsoft Optical Mouse. Nothing. A USB to PSX controller adaptor. Nothing. A DAB Digital Radio. Nothing. Tried the flash disc again and nothing happened. No extra devices are showing up in the 'System Profiler' under USB.

How can I get my USB ports working again?

(I haven't tried rebooting yet because I'm an uptime freak )



Thanks in advance, and apologies for length - I like typing on this keyboard...

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    sebazsebaz Posts: 12member
    I assume that your brand new powerbook (congrats. btw) came with Tiger installed on it.



    Regarding the error:

    Quote:

    'The disc could not be used because the disc drive is not supported. (Error code 0x80020025)'.



    Make sure that you have updated your sytem to 10.4.1. To do this click on the Apple Menu -> Software Update..



    Download any update that you may have there (along with 10.4.1) if you havent already. After the install and a reboot (bye bye uptime ) you will be back to your Desktop.



    Concerning the heat issue, powerbooks are knowed to get a bit "hot". The heat is normal, as long as your computer keeps functioning correctly. By correctly I mean, doesnt kernel panic (freezes up), or acts "weird". Your powerbook will tend to get hotter when plugged in to the wall, as opposed to when running on batteries. Also, take in account what tasks you are putting your powerbook through. Reading DVDs to install apps, lots of HD activity, CPU processing, will create more heat. Do remember as well that aluminum its a good heat conductor lol.



    I have a 12in.1.33Ghz w/768 RAM powerbook and right now its quite warm, by the HD side and where the RAM is. My power management setting are as followed:



    -Plugged in: Better Performance.

    -Battery: Normal performance.



    These are the settings under Tiger's power management of course. With these settings, my powerbook still gets really warm when photoshopping/dreamweaving, editing my iphoto library etc.



    To your USB Issues, again upgrade to 10.4.1 and see if after the reboot everything works OK. You are plugging the peripherals, straight to the powerbook's USB ports correct? Im asking because some USB devices require higher power requirements and a USB Hub, or the Apple keyboard's USB ports wont cut it.



    Well, I hope this has help you. If you need anything PM me or reply here. Good luck with your mac experience, and most importantly enjoy it.



    -sebaz
  • Reply 2 of 3
    keotkeot Posts: 116member
    Thanks for the reply .



    My system is all up to date with 10.4.1. I waved goodbye to my uptime and my USB ports are now working again.



    Good to hear that the heat is 'normal'. It seems to be running a bit cooler nowadays - I guess Spotlight has finished indexing and Mail.app has stopped fainting about my large amount of imported email.



    I downloaded a little application 'Temperature Monitor.app' and it says that there is a problem with the current version of Mac OS X meaning it cannot update the temperature sensors - a bit annoying.



    Other than that, everything is going well.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    neutrino23neutrino23 Posts: 1,562member
    In the Applications folder is a folder called Utilities. In this is an application called Activity Monitor. Launch this and click the CPU option. This monitors how busy the CPU is and displays how much of the processor time each task is using.



    Normally, in an idle state you should see something like 90% idle time. In this condition the PB should cool off after a few minutes.



    On a few machines people have seen the Finder CPU usage go very high. In Panther Safari CPU usage would get very high on some web pages.



    If idle time drops to about 50% or less you will feel the PB get quite warm. At some point the fan will come on full force. As long as there is good ventilation the PB should not have any problem even operating under heavy loads for long periods.



    If you still see the problem with the DVD drive I'd call Apple. You have a new machine and they will help you. That is not an issue I've heard of.
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