Archive for the 'PowerBook' Category

Fixing the Powerbook – How to replace the hard drive

Published on March 8, 2008 in Macbook Pro, PowerBook, hard drive replacement and how-to. 3 Comments

In case you haven’t heard – I recently bought a new Macbook Pro. It’s decked out with some pretty sweet stuff:

  • 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
  • 200 GB hard drive @ 7200 RPM (for video editing)
  • 15-inch screen (not the glossy one, who needs that crap?)
  • 4 GB RAM
  • SuperDrive

Why did I update? Well, my old laptop, a 2004 12-inch Powerbook, pooped out after my cat Toddle decided to take the iSight camera’s magnet holder and drop it right on the hard drive. Magnets and hard drives . . . not a good combination. The new Mac arrived a few days later, so I never bothered with getting a new hard drive.

Turns out, though, that Best Buy had a Seagate 160 GB hard drive on sale for $43 and so I decided to reanimate my old Mac. Man, I love that thing. From a form factor perspective, it is much nicer than the huge Macbook Pro.

After getting the hard drive at Best Buy, I started to take apart the Powerbook. I had to do that once before, in January of 2006, so I wasn’t too worried about it.

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This picture shows the dissected Powerbook. The toughest thing is getting the top part off the main case. There are some funky clips that hold the two shells together, so you have to be really careful and patient. (Not two of my best traits.)

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The dead hard drive.

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Since Apple uses about a gazillion screws to hold the laptop together, I had to make a little plan. Do the same.

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The new hard drive came from Best Buy. Pretty cheap at $43. If your name is Torey, you should also think about replacing the hard drive. :)

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New and old – side by side. Mac OS X comes with a program called “Migration Assistant” and so I just copied all the data, settings, user accounts, cookies, and programs from the new Macbook Pro to the Powerbook. Yay.

Remember my PowerBook? It’s in surgery.

Published on April 3, 2007 in Apple, G4, LCD, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Go, PowerBook, faulty, flicker, jitter, repair and support. 0 Comments

Apple Repair Status

The Powerbook is dead . . .My trusted Powerbook died while I was down in Mississippi . . . but you know this already. The display died in the sense that the LCD display started to flicker. These flicker episodes got worse when displaying certain content and whenever OpenGL or CoreImage services were accessed. The ColorSync Utility produces a complete display failure. While in diagnostic mode (in the shell) the display was fine. I initially assumed that it might have been cause by a corrupt installation of OS X, but even a new install over a zeroed HD didn’t change the situation. I assumed that it was a corrupt installation because these issues were not reproduceable under the diagnostic mode, outside of OS X. Before reinstalling, however, I decided to reset the PRAM and Open Firmware. Even that produced no change.

I then went to the Apple Store in Twelve Oaks, MI on Sunday. The Genius at the store looked at the Mac and suggested the following order for a fix:

  • reset the PRAM
  • reset Open Firmware
  • try a fresh install of OS X

I confirmed that I had already followed those steps. The Genius booted the PowerBook from an external HD, yet the issues persisted. He then had another idea. Assuming that the issues might be caused by faulty RAM (I had an extra 512 MB installed in the machine), he removed the RAM. Yet still, the display was still acting up. The Genius suggested that the LCD might be broken or the logic board with the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Go on it might be faulty.

He then told me that Apple has a new repair program. For $330, Apple will replace any faulty parts in the machine and return it to me. That’s pretty sweet, considering that previously a repair of this nature might have been more than the price of a new machine. This price is composed of a $110 labor fee and a $220 parts fee. The Apple Store in Twelve Oaks shipped the laptop off on Monday, it arrived at the repair center on Tuesday, was fixed on the very same day (supposedly, I’ll see when I have it), and is currently on its way back to Toledo. If there is no fixeable error, they will just send it back, without me having to pay anything.

Sweet.

What’s in your bag . . .

Published on May 22, 2006 in Apple, Blogging, General, PowerBook, Timbuk2, Yummy Pictures, flickr, iPod and whatsinyourbag. 4 Comments

It is the summer semester. And I was bored, so I participated in flickr’s ‘whatsinyourbag’ tagging meme. You basically empty out the contents of your bag (or ‘manpurse’, as Eli would say) and then tag each individual item with a note. To see the notes, you have to click on the image and go to the photo’s flickr page.

What's in your bag?