Undead PowerBook

Late last week I was shocked to find that my trusty Titanium PowerBook had gone to sleep and wouldn't wake up. When I tried to reboot it, it hung early in the boot process. When I booted in verbose mode (hold down Command-V right after turning it on) to get more info, it stopped while still in the power-on self test (POST). Ugh. Resetting parameter RAM and reset-all in Open Firmware didn't change anything. To my great relief, I was able to get the computer to come up in FireWire Target Disk mode, and the hard disk seemed fine (I backed it up at that point, of course).

I quested off to meet the Genius at my local Apple store, who quickly concurred that it looked like a main logic board gone blooey, which would cost me about $300 and a week without the PowerBook while it visited the repair spa. As I pondered my luck (out $300, but data intact), I compared my situation to that of my fellow Genius Bar patron, a young woman whose cat had tipped over a vase full of water onto her nearly-new powered-on iBook. She faced a repair bill of > $1000 and an unknown fate for her hard disk. Bad kitty.

The Genius said my PowerBook would be in the hospital for a week to 10 days. It came back yesterday after only 48 hours! (That's called "under-promise and over-deliver".) I picked it up and verified that it worked again, with its new main logic board. I looked at the Parts Used list, which included this inscrutable entry:

810-1703 BZL,ALUM,PNT

Yes, the Apple repair tech had touched up the paint scratches on the case. No charge. Cool.

Very good things: FireWire Target Disk mode, Apple repair service, Apple store.
Lucky thing: hard disk surviving dead main logic board.
Bad thing: cat.
Lesson learned: back up your data!

Comments

[Chris Thomas]

Good thing: cat
Bad thing: using portable underneath/beside vases of water

A cat isn't the only animate object capable of knocking things over. My arm will frequently do the job just as well. Also, a toddler is an effective substitute.

Nice to hear that Apple's learned a bit about customer service lately.

[Charles Hawtrey]

Interestingly enough, I hear about more and more cases of the main logic board up and dying with no apparent reason. I had a G3 iBook whose logic board died every 4 months (which Apple kindly replaced, finally), my friend's powerbook had its logic board replaced, and I recently heard about his friend's iBook G4's logic board going too. Could be coincidence, but it seems to be happening an awful lot.

[Dave McGary]

Did I ever tell you about the time my office-mate at Microsoft (they double up the contractors) spilled Pepsi on his Mac Keyboard?

The keyboard started generating random keyboard and mouse events. About the funniest thing I ever saw. I hurt from laughing.

By the time he unplugged the keyboard, it had hidden several files and folders inside other folders, and changed the name of a couple dozen folders and files.

[markd]

My tiBook is on its 4th logic board. Original had the firewire port stop working, then the next developed a crack (about a year later), the replacement was DO-almost-on-A, and then the replacement. My money is on case flex. A loser at a LUG meeting picked up my TiBook from just one corner. I bet the case flex was transmitted to the logic board.

Considering the use this poor machine gets, I'm delighted how long it's been lasting, even with the logic board fixits.

[Derek Kuhl]

They fixed the paint? Oh joy!

Come on computer, give me a reason to take you in! Not taking it in just for paint reasons.

[dianna]

I don't know if you know this or not, but Mac has a free logic board replacement program. I am not sure how useful it is, as my logic board has now gone for the 2nd time, but they will replace your logic board for free as long as you are within three years of the purchasing date. Everyone should know about this. Mac has some serious problems.

[Rob Speight]

I live in the UK but bought a G4 Powerbook 867 in the US. Three months later the logic board went with a graphics chip issue. After much arguing with Apple the board was replaced 4 times and two screens were also replaced until it worked.
18 months later the logic board went again, so it has been stuck in a drawer but I have found a website www.pbfixit.com that shows you how to replace anything and they sell the parts... cheaper than a new machine... if a little fiddly.