I've had my Aluminum Powerbook for about six months now. Solid performance all around with the exception of the monitor hinge. I understand that these things are difficult to make last in the harsh environment a laptop can be subject too but damn, I baby this thing and already the backbone of this device is starting to give.
Naturally I went to an Apple Genius, but he was way too busy to be bothered with the simple question like, "hey can you guys fix this here?" So I grabbed a sales person to smoke out and hunt Apple repair people for an answer to my question. The answer came back, "no" — the Powerbook would have to be sent to Cupertino where they would look it over. The problem is I don't have days that it takes for Steve to repair, clean, and bless my Powerbook. Maybe if I was allowed to then go on a seven day cruise around the Norwegian fjords — but that's not going to happen any time soon.
I still don't get why this is attitude is acceptable for computer repair. These things can be done on a kitchen table, it's not like they need a clean room to fix a monitor hinge. Hell, the Maytag or Dell guy will come to my house and do everything in front of me like a teppanyaki chef. Only they don't toss screws for me to catch in my mouth.
Luckily most of the time a solution can be found by Googling the problem. I did and found myself at Radex, makers of the Aluminum Powerbook Chassis Enhancement Kit aka AlGlide. For $20 they would send me a fancy screwdriver, lubricant, and instructions for taking care of problematic Powerbook hinges.
After six to eight weeks my new Apple-Genius-O-Matic was in the palm of my hands. Now all I needed was pants four times my required size and a tool belt. Armed with a #00 Philips screw driver, some lube and a butt crack the size of San Andreas, I sat down to make a repair.
Any happiness or hint of DIY gratification quickly drained as I looked at the one page of instructions, with two very, very poorly drawn illustrations. Here is the single paragraph used to instruct me on how to get to and fix the squeaky hinge:
Sweet mother of mercy, I thought to myself, I've just purchased snake oil. More words are spent on how to apply the liquid goo than there are for opening the Powerbook case. I still don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do. I mean I followed the instructions but my laptop looks nothing like the two gray blocks as seen in the instructions, and I don't even seen these so-called 'hinge pins'.
I don't get it. The entire nation of Sweden was put together with a hex wrench and simple diagrams, so why must I suffer with these pitifully inadequate caveman drawings and a vignette on how to use lube?
I can't say that I'm happy with Radex and their AlGlide product. I think it sucks big time ka-ka. My Powerbook still moans and groans like a 70 year old man with bad knees.
I'd demand a refund but it would end up costing me half of the purchase price in postage and wasted time on the phone with their customer service. I'm at the point where I'm thinking of going wild with a can of WD-40 or dipping the machine into some kind of 10W-40 petroleum bath.
No, I'm not really going to do that.
Maybe there is someone out there can help me. I could use either a better remedy (sending it to Apple doesn't count as my livelihood is dependent on this machine) or a better explanation for how to use my #00 Philips screwdriver and this tube of lube.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
pictures?
I'd be glad to welcome you in the Norwegian fjords. At least I could give a tour of the historic spots in Bergen.
I also have that Scandinavian swing with the hex wrench, but then you'd have to bring the Powerbook for the trip...
My PowerBook is only like a month and a half old, so far I haven't noticed any discrepancies with it, but reading about various problems so many people have is starting to worry me. Like you, I can't do without my PowerBook for the time it takes to ship it to Apple to have them examine it.
i had the IDENTICAL problem with my powerbook. i sent it out on a friday morning (DHL), it was back at my house tuesday morning.
Get a PC :)
My Titanium Powerbook was "out for service" for 6 weeks during the first 6 months of it's life. Bad display, a couple of bad logic boards, and some uselesss local service techs were to blame. Since then it's been great though, and I still ove my PB.
Took a look at the site you linked. They have the "instructions" online. Wow, those are some rudimentary drawings.
I don't have an AlBook (mines a Titanium) but this is my interpretation:
1) Loosen (but do not remove) the Phillips screws (how many, I don't know. Just the ones close to the display hinge I suppose) on the rear and bottom of the Powerbook. Opening and closing the display will loosen and realign the "internal frame."
2) Stand the Powerbook in an "A" position and apply the conditioner. Let sit for 1-2 hours.
3) Remove excess conditioner. Slowly work the display back and forth, repeat upwards of 40 times to work the conditioner fully into the hinge. Reapply as necessary. When noise and friction have been fixed, tighten the screws.
The confusing thing to me is that in their directions, the screws are loosened in step 1 then tightened again. But step 3 also says to tighten the screws.
** I make NO claims that my directions will work. This is just my best guess. I CAN NOT be held responsible for your computer. **
Anyway, just my input. Love the site.
My friend had this identical problem (along with the fact that because of that problem, he wound up with 50 dead pixels in the centre of his screen seemingly randomly one night).
Took it to an Apple Repair Centre (support your local Mac retailer), and they can do the fixing for you.
duct tape?
Aspercream?
I feel your pain, and hear the creaking over here in Florida.
In an entire post criticizing a company that is trying to help fix (albeit in a less than satisfactory way) a problem caused by Apple, not a single word of criticism is directed at the manufacturer. Funny.
I would love having a PowerBook, but will hold my order until they sort out their quality problems. If they ever do it. Lucky thing they have iTunes.
Maybe this will help?
It's a guide for replacing the PB12's display, rather than simply repairing a hinge, but the instructions for openin' a PB up look to be a bit more detailed than those you were given...
Funny, I've never had a problem with the hinge on my PB. Granted it's a 12", but the hinge is completely solid even after getting bumped around a bit.
Here is the link to PBFixit I neglected to include in my earlier comment...
The "days it takes for Steve to repair" is 3 or 4 for something like this. Drop it off at an Apple Store. They express mail it to Cupertino, fix it in a day or two, and have it back to you by express mail to pick up at the store. I know this from experience (twice, unfortunately).
Lars, you're right I could have blasted Apple but it take class action lawsuits for them to improve on bad designs, ask any owner of a G4 Cube.
I was told that Apple would not guarantee that by sending it to Cupertino the problem would be fixed. I could part from this laptop for a weekend but I have to have it Monday through Friday for work. Sending it in, hoping they can fix it doesn't work for me, if I want to gamble I'll go to Vegas.
The idea of visiting a local Apple authorized service dealer is appealing and one I hadn't thought about. I'm not aware of many, if any, local dealers other than the university. We do have three Apple stores but in this case that's as good as having a refrigerator in an igloo.
Greg, I'm not sure I would have put much trust into a company whose other offerings are spelled ScreensavRz, Wildeepz, PowerSleevz, ScreensavRz, and PodSleevz... Perhaps they were on teh jointz when they wrote those directions.
Looks like Speck already beat me to posting a link to PBFixit; I came across the site yesterday, and was amazed with the level of detail in their walkthroughs. And, let's be hones: I like sites with big pictures and small words.
Will Apple fix a creaky hinge though? It's the only thing wrong with my AL15" (besides one dead pixel that is conveniently on the edge of the screen), and I go back and forth on whether it's really necessary to fix and/or whether they'll give me a hard time about it. It's creaky and pops and kinda freaks me out...
I started drinking (quite heavily) the Apple kool-aid about five months ago with the purchase of a 15" Aluminum Powerbook. Even with an education discount, I filled it with enough stuff to run up a $2700 bill.
Since day one I have loved this beauty. Love it. The design. The OS. The power. It's all there. There are only two things that have left scratching my head -- wondering why Apple didn't get a couple of basic things right...
* Monitor Hinge. The creaking noise my hinge makes scares me. At the moment the noise is only occasional, but chances are it will get worse before it gets better. This is a design/choice of materials/manufacturing issue that I think Apple should have considered more thoughtfully. Especially if it somehow relates to their choice of aluminum as the primary body material.
* Latch. Sure the hinge bothers me, but don't get me started on the closing latch. Approximately 75% of time I attempt to close my PB the latch doesn't catch. The Apple Genius said to "close it harder". Genius! I did. That helps, but it still doesn't catch every time. Secondly, even if it does catch, there is an 82.5% that in the morning I will find my PB popped open about an 1/8 of an inch -- it seems that latch can't hold on through a full night. Maybe my PB has nightmares and is a restless sleeper? This seems to be a problem with other owners as well. General thoughts are that this relates to the heating and cooling of the aluminum, causing it to warp or shape ship during operation -- thus popping the latch.
So, here’s my beef. You take two of most physical functions of a laptop, opening and closing it -- and Apple somehow didn't get them right. It raises several questions in my mind -- particularly from a design perspective. At what intersection of design, material selection and engineering process does the overall aesthetic of the design (look and material choice) lower the functional performance of a product. Does looking cool sometimes come with too high a cost? Is aluminum to blame? Is a stealthy, but funky, auto-magic magnetic drop-down latch to blame?
I don't know.
But what I do know is that I feel like I've purchased a beautiful silver Porsche 911 Twin Turbo. Out on the road it screams. It is a blast to drive. I love the car. I wouldn't trade it for any other car in the world. Yet when I open the driver's door it creaks. And I can't get the door to close every time. And in morning when I go out to the garage that door is open because the latch didn't hold. I still love the car, but it's not the kind of engineering error I would expect from a company of Porsche's caliber, especially after I've dropped so much money to have one of the best. I hold Apple up to that same measuring stick of design and engineering excellence. You don't pay $2700 for a laptop and then it doesn't stay closed. That's just not acceptable.
I totally agree with Nix's comments except I never have had a problem with my hinge, but my 17" PB does not close reliably and it's very frustrating.
Damm.... haven't you learned you lesson yet? Buy a PC man. I haven't had any problems with my PC laptops (TI, Winbook, Compaq, Sony and Dell). However, I have had all sorts of fun solving problems with my iBook. The keys break, the keyboard bounces, the WiFi cards works sometimes, using external firewire devices usually requires me to hack to OS, etc.
Go PC. Don't look back. Look away from the light. Join me on the dark side!
Damn, sorry man...I LIVE in Cupertino...wish i could help ya :)
Had the same problem. Get it fixed as mine eventually snapped of and then I was really screwed. My Apple Store gave me a loaner while mine was sent to CA. This isn't always possible depending on what their stock of demos is, but it kept me from having separation anxiety and kept my productivity moving forward.
Atlantian, when you drive a 15 lb. plastic mini-van it's hard for you to know what you're missing in using a precision machine — even when something isn't working quite as it should.
Well I've got a 4-month-old 15" and I've got a similar hinge issue. I blame it mostly on the fact that I hit the corner nearest the power adapter on a railing while the computer was in my backpack. I've had no problem with the latch, but I really think that Apple needs to work on their power adapters. Sure, little white squares look good, but I've had more problems with those things than any other Apple product. I replaced the one that came with my laptop, and now the new one seems to be going. Seriously, the shelf life on these things seems to be about 2 months. I worked in a help desk in high school servicing 1500+ iBooks and we'd replace 5-10 power adapters a day.
I have to say, just send it back to Apple on a Thursday or Friday. I know its your living, but if you have an external hard drive, you could clone your entire machine with CCCloner, so at least you'd have all your files. Maybe you've got an older, backup machine you could then boot from. Or you know someone with an older, secondary machine you could borrow for a few days. The Apple service is amazingly fast. I just sent my 15" Aluminum book in last week on a Thursday night and got it back Tuesday morning. The professional, guaranteed fix is worth the slight delay.
Have it sent in, get the problem taken care of. If you can pick a time when you can be without the computer for a couple days (yes, I know it's tough). But it's best to get these things nipped in the bud, especially while it's under warranty.
As for the repair itself, it's not as simple as you think. And believe me, you don't want to do it on your kitchen table, unless you don't mind shorting out the rest of your computer while doing it.
Wow, there's a lot to comment about here.
Greg, I know exactly where you're coming from. I had to hold out on repairs until I could afford time to give up my computer. it was a bitch, especially since they erased my files — citing a "software corruption" that never did anything to mile files in the first place — and didn't even fix issues I have with my line in. i.e. it's not a "professional, guaranteed fix is worth the slight delay" of about a week.
I'm sorry, but my laptop was developing this problem when I sent it off for screen "pooling" (the white spot issue) but it came back with that fixed. They also didn't fix the fact that my display somehow is higher on one side when closed which annoys the hell out of me.
My recommendation, backup everything, take a vacation if possible and send it off. You probably could find a repair center (Drive to Cupertino if possible).
Atlantian, that's funny I've only experienced those kind of problems on my PCs. Also, if you can't get apple + firewire devices to work correctly you shouldn't be legally allowed to touch a computer, especially if PC + firewire works for you.
All of you latch problem people,
Somewhere I read that slightly bending the latch out will fix your problems. However, I'm not sure how efficacious it is since I've never had that problem.
eric k,
You can repair laptops on your kitchen counter. It won't short, and it's very hard to short a laptop since the quintessential aspect of opening one up is removing screws. Most static electricity that you have will be dispersed in the screws and screwdriver as you remove them. Failing that, touching the chassis will usually get the rest — not to mention a PowerBook is made out of aluminum.
Having repaired hundreds of laptops in conditions worse than a kitchen counter, I can tell you first hand that laptop repair is not that difficult. I'd probably follow the instructions Jason B. gave you as they seem to be the most correct, however I didn't look up the directions myself. I say loosen the screws and open the display. Close the display. Lube it up and remove excess lube. Tighten the screws.
For everyone needing simple repairs,
If you don't need parts and you're out of warranty, I'd just suggest fixing the damn things yourself. Of course be extremely careful when removing parts on your PowerBook. I've heard of people completely ruining parts of the computer by opening it up incorrectly. I've never been one to use take-apart manuals, but I hear the PowerBook is difficult to take apart without seriously messing it up unless you know exactly how to do it. I've taken apart hundreds of laptops and I can tell you that you won't damage anything if you think about taking it apart as you're going about it. Of course, knowing how many different laptops are constructed helps in deconstruction.
I have to say that Atlantian knows his stuff when it comes to PC (especially his choice in laptops) but seems to be the victim of an old Transilvanian curse when using a Mac — nothing works like it should.
Sorry, Joe, but I would STRONGLY recommend against trying to take apart a Powerbook yourself. No offense intended, but it doesn't seem you've taken a Powerbook apart before, and your idea that it'll be fine as long as you think about it simply isn't correct, as is the idea that static electricity will automatically be dispersed as soon as you start working on it and won't damage the components. These repairs are done in a static safe environment for a reason. And as for just thinking about what you're doing, well, I could concentrate as hard as I could while dismantle my car's engine or my DVD player, but that sure doesn't mean I could get it back together again in a functional state. Again, no offense...just my own two cents.
Greg, judging by the marketing on the Radtech website the screw thing is just to "align the internal frame" and really doesn't have anything to do with the hinge. It seems that the lubrication is the main solution. The "frame alignment" seems to just even out the gap between the display the chassis when closed. As to lubricating the hinge, it looks like lubricating any old hinge with any old oil, except this is super special lubricant on a super special computer :)
I liked the "have Steve jobs bless my PowerBook" part! ^^ But seriously, that must be it! No wonder it takes so long time for the repairs..
Petition IBM to make PowerPC-based Thinkpads. Then we could have the niceness of OS X with the smart, sturdy design of Thinkpads, which unlike Powerbooks appear to be designed to withstand leaving the confines of fancy desks in fancy design agencies ;-) And the difference in keyboards? Wow. And a 2nd mouse button!
Well I can dream at least.
I don't know if it's just because a lot of people whose sites I read use Macs or not - but they seem to have an unusually poor track record with their Powerbooks. Lots of these hinge issues, and worse stuff like drives, motherboards, and video cards which seem to fail at an alarming rate.
This arthritic computer obviously needs Vioxx.
nix, if I can borrow your Porsche 911 from time to time, I'll lend you my hammer to securely close close the lid over night.
You are clearly not alone:
http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/
The problem is that you are using a mac
"I could use...a better explanation for how to use my #00 Philips screwdriver and this tube of lube."
"Loosen the screws and open the display...Lube it up and remove excess lube. Tighten the screws."
I knew Mac users were hardcore, but I had no idea it went so far...
NC: No, the problem is that his (well founded) expectations on his Mac exceed those put on any PC ten fold.
Yeah if this was a PC I would just throw it away and go buy a new one. Isn't that what you do with PC laptops?
Greg,
PUH-lease...throw it away? Cmon, that's why I keep my old Mac AND PC boxes/laptops to put GNU/Linux on 'em.
Look, folks, drive what you like, but don't put down someone else's choice of 'puter, car, whatever...they guy was asking for help with his PB HINGE...
If it's out of warranty, I actually do recommend that you try fixing it yourself. I repaired an old PB3400C and it was a good experience. Take your time, use the static strap and all -- take digitals of each step and it's surprisingly easy to do. Have fun with it!
sigh...
it's just machines.. and macintosh are very good ones but only that : object made by humans. and sometimes they break.
_only_ sometimes ! (because my own computer are still living for years, and I'm not the only one)
no, the real problem is I want a GOOD and FAST repair center everywhere I live.
about PC : too much problems on it (you can buy quality, it will cost, sometimes more than apple), but it's not that reason I choosed to _run away_ from things like windows, dell or whatever crap in geeks shops.
FYI - Apples laptop repair, regardless of what they might tell you is usually less than 48 hours. (Ship overnight in the afternoon, it'll be there the morning less than 2 says later, YMMV).
Ship early in the week so IF there is a delay you don't get delays due to the weekend.
Good luck. My 12 incher has held up fine. Thing fell off the roof of the car the other day and besides the dents, it runs just as fast. It was in sleep mode and it didn't even crash, but it did wake up...