Received my first Powerbook!

Well, I received my new Powerbook last night

The stats:
15" PowerBook
1.67GHz G4, 1024MB, 100GB harddrive, SuperDrive, ATI Radeon 9700 128vram, 100/1000 NIC, Firewire 400&800, Dual DVI, S-video, Airport Extreme card. AppleCare Protection Plan

I only had time to use the Powerbook for a couple hours last night and really liked it. I'm a longtime PC guy and a MAC/OSX newbie - it's also my first notebook.

The good:
Nice packaging. Real nice.
Looks great. Not at all PC like, very clean and uncluttered.
Extremely easy set up.
Great OS from what I can tell. More fun than XP.
Good keyboard.
Everything works so far.
My wife likes it

The bad:
The notebook doesn't sit flat (case warped slightly?). I checked it on multiple surfaces (including a glass table). It's not real bad but it is annoying considering what the thing cost. I don't notice it when typing, etc.
One stuck pixel in the middle of the screen

The odd:
I tried two commercial DVD's to see how they would play. The first one "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" 4x3 format would only play the copy warning and rating screens and then I'd get a black screen with "apple dvd player" in the bottom right corner of the screen. The DVD menus wouldn't come up at all. Then I tried the Star Wars II widescreen version - it worked great, including the menus. Of course I tried the League of EG again after making sure it was clean - it still didn't work

BTW, the Powerbook gets hot on the bottom in the back, but not as hot as I was expecting from reading forum messages. Of course I wasn't stressing it out too much. The pad and palm rests didn't get hot at all while I was playing with it.

Questions:

What's up with playing "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" DVD? Is it the fact that it isn't widescreen?

Will the case flatten out with use or from the heat?

I read a message that someone had a stuck pixel that started working after a few days use. Is that true, or is a bad pixel always a bad pixel?

I'm not sure if I should call Apple Care on these issues or not.

Any suggestions? Thanks...

 

Warped case is something which is common with Aluminium Powerbooks. It will not straighten out.

Bad pixel can be massaged. Take a cloth, and use your finger to massage in and around the pixel. Worked for me several times but it is not 100% proof.

Don't know about the DVD, but warped case is definetely Apple Care worthy.

 

I'd say return it, those issues are signs of a defective machine. You shouldn't have dead pixels. It should be able to play dvds fine (does that dvd work on your tv?) And it should be even with the ground. You paid a lot of $$ for it, you deserve to have it perfect, the way you like it.

 

Agreed. Return it. Bigtime.

Machine of that price should not have those issues. (My 12" rocked slightly as well...didn't bother to return it at the time...should have). Anyway, just for the record, you can't return it for one stuck pixel...your official reason is the warped case and the DVD player issue (Does the DVD work in other computers?)

Good luck...
-M.

 

If you can return it do so. A dead pixel in the middle of the screen would drive me crazy. FYI, my case was a little warped. The front right was a bit higher than the other three sides. I just placed the opened PB on a table with the offending corner hanging over the edge about 6 inches. Hold the case steady while gently pressing down on the high corner. I did that a couple of times to straighten it out. No problems since.

 

i believe there's a video u could play on the dead pixel. it works 90% of the time i believe.

research on it. i forgot where i got this info from....

i think it was from either ehmac.ca or notebookforums.com or forums.macrumors.com

 

duffyanneal - thanks, your suggestion worked! It didn't take much pressure at all. It is fine now.

The bad pixel is either gone or I just don't notice it anymore - strange. BTW, the video is called pixelkiller, and I did try it - it didn't seem to work at the time.

All in all I am having a lot of fun with the Powerbook and I have no regrets about my purchase. The Mac has a lot of intangibles going for it that are hard to describe. OSX just has a nice feel to it and seems quicker than it should be if you were to just compare stats and hardware with XP machine.

 

Are you able to use the powerbook on your lap without the heat being a serious problem? Also, how long is the battery life you're getting?

 

It depends on what you call serious. It does get warm while using it since the case itself acts like a heatsink. I love how quiet it is. The fan doesn't come on that often, and when it does I can barely hear it. It appears that most notebooks get warm, thin ones more so - that is why they don't call them laptops anymore. BTW, I ordered an iLap for when I use it on my lap.

 

Yah... most notebooks do get warm.... but some get scalding and I'm just trying to find the line you know.... but it sounds like the powerbook just gets warm. Thanks.

 

Is there something like undervolting program for MAC OS X (similar to rmclock under windows)?

BTW, for Mac OS X there exists a temperature and hardware monitoring software:
http://www.bresink.de/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html
http://www.bresink.de/osx/HardwareMonitor.html
See also:
http://www.bresink.de/osx/index.html

 

I wanted to see how hot the Powerbook would get (didn't have the monitoring software at the time) when really pushing the machine so...

With it plugged in, on max settings (no energy savings at all), while multitasking (downloading a really large batch of files using a cable modem in the background while playing a game full screen) for an hour. The notebook got extremely hot on the bottom at the rear and just a little bit warm (not bad at all) on the wrist rests. I wouldn't consider using it on my lap under those conditions without an iLap or a Lapinator (or whatever). Hope this helps...

 

I'd say 90% of PB cases are warped somewhere.