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hall · Apr 24, 2003, 12:41 PM

My wife's 12" PB won't boot at all. At first it was acting weird (locking up on boot). Now, nothing on powerup.

I called Apple Care and this is what happened:

According to the "2nd" level guy, there has been a small number of similar cases. Apple said they could repair it in a few days. The tech said Apple would rather send it in to the engineers for further study. Apple would then send my a Brand new machine to replace the broken one. I told the guy it kindy sucked cause this one had no dead pixels, no wobble, flush battery and a good latch... for some reason he didn't laugh.

The only problem is that it will take 2 days for the shipping info. 7 to 10 to proccess and then 1 day to ship it back.

anybody else have this issue?

spaced · Apr 24, 2003, 01:03 PM

Originally posted by hall:
According to the "2nd" level guy, there has been a small number of similar cases. Apple said they could repair it in a few days. The tech said Apple would rather send it in to the engineers for further study. Apple would then send my a Brand new machine to replace the broken one. I told the guy it kindy sucked cause this one had no dead pixels, no wobble, flush battery and a good latch... for some reason he didn't laugh.

If they want to send you a new machine and your current one doesn't have any dead pixels or other common 12" problems, DO NOT let them give your PB to engineering. If the new PB has dead pixels, and statistics are in dead pixel's favor, it is a total pain in the ass to get Apple to replace the panel, and even then if the replacement has dead pixels, you have to go through the whole process over again. Getting Apple to replace LCD panels takes a lot of phone calls, transfers, and time on hold. They intentionally make it this way so most people will give up.

My advice... ensure that they repair it and demand that they not touch your LCD or replace your PB, just fix the boot problem. Waiting 2 weeks to get your machine back is a whole lot better than having dead pixels on your screen. After multiple Apple displays (external and in laptops) with bad pixels I finally lucked out with my 17", and there is no way in hell I am giving that up.

dettociao · Apr 24, 2003, 01:04 PM

That's crazy man. I got something *like* that but not exactly. The other day I got a kernel panic, and so I hard booted it. On boot, it hung on the Apple Logo and then turned off.

When I turned it back on, it wouldn't boot at all. I freaked out and just kept trying to turn it on-- eventually it cranked up and hasn't given me any trouble since. I'll tell you I was freaked out though.

Maybe this is a symptom of the problem-- did your wife's PB do this before it died? I hope not!

Nate

MacNStein · Apr 24, 2003, 01:12 PM

dettociao,

Sounds like your system did a self PRAM reset. No worries, it should be ok.

dettociao · Apr 24, 2003, 01:26 PM

Oh yeah? Awesome. I was really getting kind of worried.

hall · Apr 24, 2003, 05:43 PM

The 12" has been running fine. I used for months before my 17" came in.

The only thing it would do weird is lock on boot up at the desktop. It later started locking up "sooner" at the "post" screen (apple logo and wheel spinning). Then about a day later, it went south from there.

tonewheel · Apr 24, 2003, 08:57 PM

quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by spaced:
....statistics are in dead pixels favor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Really? According to who?

spacefreak · Apr 24, 2003, 10:16 PM

Originally posted by hall:
My wife's 12" PB won't boot at all. At first it was acting weird (locking up on boot). Now, nothing on powerup. According to the "2nd" level guy, there has been a small number of similar cases.

I've been hearing about this all over the place. "Small" problem my butt. Look around at some other mac forums - this problem seems a bit more common then is being revelaed.

spaced · Apr 24, 2003, 10:30 PM

Originally posted by tonewheel:

Really? According to who?

I do. Personally, I have owned 7 Apple laptops or LCD panels, and only 2 of those were perfect.

Also according to common sense considering nearly every computer manufacturer's LCD replacement policy which generally ranges from 3 to 5 dead / stuck pixels before replacement. This would indicate a high rate of pixel anomalies, otherwise, they would be replaced upon any defect. As it stands now, it's like pulling teeth to get them to replace LCD panels that have dead pixels below the threshold.

There are statistics on this, but I trust you're smart enough to do a Google search. I really can't be bothered.

tonewheel · Apr 24, 2003, 10:50 PM

I currently own a 17", have a 12" (work issue), my youngest daughter has my old Pismo, and my eldest has an original Ti500. Not one bad pixel in the bunch.

Not sure your opinion can be credited as "statistics". Sorry to have bothered...

7Macfreak · 11:45 PM

there was some fix for this posted by someone.. **** i wish i had saved that.

edit:
ok found it!

Press"C"while power on the laptop,when you see the spinning thing,press and hold the command & v keys,command prompt will run for about 30 seconds and you'll be in the OS install screen,it works every single time for me,I received this little trick from an apple employee,please let us know if it works for you.

here is the thread

PB2K · Apr 25, 2003, 04:34 AM

I owned :

pb g3 333
pb g3 400 (2)
pb g3 500 (2)
pb g4 500

never had a dead pixel.

CyberGreg · Apr 25, 2003, 06:09 AM

Hmmm I too have owned:
Key Lime iBook 466
Key Lime iBook 466
Pismo 400
iBook 500 CDRW
iBook 500 DVD

All with zero dead pixels

Sounds like your percentages are improving...

Moose · Apr 25, 2003, 07:12 AM

Originally posted by tonewheel:
quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by spaced:
....statistics are in dead pixels favor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Really? According to who?

Whiners.

icruise · Apr 25, 2003, 07:13 AM

I've owned 7 laptops (three powerbooks, 1 ibook and 3 PC laptops) and have never had any dead pixels. Just for the record...

hall · Apr 25, 2003, 11:08 AM

thx for the boot help. the problem is that it wont even boot to the "apple" , stays black and nothing.

i've tried the power management reset and still nothing.. got my apple lables today..

7Macfreak · Apr 25, 2003, 01:14 PM

Originally posted by hall:
thx for the boot help. the problem is that it wont even boot to the "apple" , stays black and nothing.

i've tried the power management reset and still nothing.. got my apple lables today..

did you try a boot cd/dvd?

hall · Apr 25, 2003, 03:37 PM

yes, no boot no spin no lights no picture no options no go

just dead

qnxde · Apr 27, 2003, 09:41 PM

I owned a PowerBook 180 with 4 dead pixels, then a PowerBook G4 500 with one dead pixel, then the screen was replaced under warranty (for other reasons) and the replacement had one dead pixel.

Then I bought a 12" PowerBook and it's screen had one dead pixel. That PowerBook was DOA'ed several hours later because of a wonky trackpad, and the replacement has a perfect screen. My friend just bought a 12" PowerBook also, and it had a dead pixel too.

You can pry this LCD from my cold, dead fingers.

The Placid Casual · Apr 28, 2003, 05:14 AM

Don't everyone rush to thank me at once, but I think I have taken a few people's share of dead pixels

So far I have had:

Wallstreet Powerbook G3 - No Dead Pixels
Pismo - No Dead Pixels
iBook 466SE - No Dead Pixels
TiBook 550 - 10 dead pixels. (Replaced)
TiBook 550 - 3 dead pixles
iBook 500 - 4 Dead Pixels
17" Studio Display - 2 Dead Pixels
17" Studio Display - 1 Dead Pixel

I was beginning to think that QC on the panels had gone down in the last few years, as the iBook has been the last really 'solid' Apple laptop I have had...