[shef]

Hey,
Well guys, I finally got my first Mac like 2 weeks ago, expect the 15" 1.25 with 5400rpm drive had a scratch on the lower right corner of the screen. So apple decided to give me a replacement, so the replacement finally comes in, no dead pixels, no white spot but the hard drive makes clicky noises everytime it reads or writes. It doesnt make any noise when its idle.

Also the battery life on the replacement is horrible, on the one with scratch I was getting about 3.5 hours without any problems, but on the new one I am lucky if I get 2.5 hours. What the hell...

So do you guys think that hard drive issue is normal....or do I have a bad hard drive??

Thanks

[icruise]

My guess is that the drive noise is normal. Have you tried calibrating the battery? You run it on battery until it goes to sleep and then charge it back up. You can also try resetting the power manager if that doesn't work.

[shef]

Originally posted by Icruise:
My guess is that the drive noise is normal. Have you tried calibrating the battery? You run it on battery until it goes to sleep and then charge it back up. You can also try resetting the power manager if that doesn't work.

I already calibrated the battery and saw no improvement after doing it.

You are saying that noise could be normal, but my scratched up on doesnt make any hard drive noise, but instead it makes the sizzling noise.....

[icruise]

These things can vary from maker to maker, so depending on what kind of hard disk you have, one might be noisier than another. Of course, I don't know exactly what kind of noise we are talking about here.

You have all of the energy-saving options on, and the screen dimmed?

[cambro]

Also, I assume that you mean you can actually run the thing for 2.5 hours until it goes into forced sleep?

Do NOT rely on the "time remaining" estimate. It is just that, an estimate, and it can be horribly inacurate.

For example, my sister was claiming her iBook battery life was terrible once. So I took a look at it. Sure enough, after using it on battery for a while it said 20 minutes remaining, or something ridiculously low. Well, it then proceeded to run for at least another hour and a half! And I was trying to drain the battery (playing music, visualizer, etc.)!!

I'm sure that you really mean you are getting that much life, and that sucks. But I also think a LOT of posts on here about battery life are not about battery life, but are instead about the battery status indicator.

[shef]

The noise coming out of the hard drive is like a click...click....click....when its reading or writing...but when its idle there is no noise...i mean my other is quiet and its the same hitachi drive, So i am thinking its the hard drive for sure.

And when i was saying 2.5 hours...that was an estimate so I will have to do some real test to show that it does die in 2.5 hours.

Thanks

[iWrite]

Sounds like you got the Powerbook I returned to Apple!

Read my thread, "No New Powerbooks Until...End of November?"

Seriously, I had the same problems -- my battery lasted two hours, TOPS.

My screen would also dim after an hour -- without my having set it to do that.

I returned it to Apple...sounds like they resold it!

[shef]

iWrite.....were you having the same problems with the harddrive....


I am getting sick of dealing with Apple on this powerbook....they should recall every single powerbook...and fix all the problems..


Thanks

[SEkker]

The hard drive is not an Apple-specific problem. These parts are pretty standard across the board, and a recall won't help.

I had a modem failure earlier -- this was not an Apple engineering problem, just my luck.

These machines have an amazingly large number of parts, few made by Apple. If even as few as 99.5% of each part were correct, most machines would be DOA. At one time, 20% of all Dell machines were not functional out of the box because Dell did not check their BTO boxes.

The key question is whether Apple's support takes care of you.

[Love Calm Quiet]

I like the enhanced performance and reduced clicking from APM Tuner X (freeware that I've used for couple years but can nolonger find on Versiontracker).

It increases the time until a hard drive (at least on a powerbook) parks its head.

Made a big diff on my orig Pismo drive; less on my Tibook. If you can score a copy, might help with some of what you're hearing.

anybody know if author still makes it avail?

[cambro]

Originally posted by SEkker:
These machines have an amazingly large number of parts, few made by Apple. If even as few as 99.5% of each part were correct, most machines would be DOA.

HUH???? This is totally wrong.

Probability being bad = 0.005 (your number)
Probability of being good = (1-.005)

Probability of being good with 100 parts = (1-.005)^100 = 61%

Probability of being good with 50 parts = (1-.005)^50 = 78%

Probability of being good with 10 parts = (1-.005)^10 = 95%

The powerbook has far fewer than 50 componets and probably less than 10 really separate components.

[Spheric Harlot]

According to a recent survey, 17% of all Apple computers sold had problems out of the box.

This puts Apple in FIRST place in consumer satisfaction.

Dell came in second with 20%.

This stuff isn't easy to do, and things do go wrong.

-s*

[iWrite]

shef:

Had no hard drive problems, nope.

However, it depends on the drive they're using.

I believe they're using the Hitachis now (now that IBM is no longer manufacturing drives and sold to Hitachi). However, the Hitachis are IBM drives and I have had some really bad experience with IBMs.

The best experience with drives comes from Toshiba.

Toshiba seems to manufacture consistently great drives.

[SEkker]

Well, you DID ask.

Let's count the parts in a PB:

screen, trackpad, trackpad button, keyboard, power button, power supply, 11 ports (each a separate connector), pcmcia slot, pcmcia slot ejector, screen hinge. That's 20, and I haven't gotten inside.

CPU, RAM modules (usually 2), video circuitry (~5 chips including memory, just a guess), Apple ROM, firewire chip (2 in my PB17), usb chip, audio chip, modem, internal power supply circuitry (several chips), svideo chip, ethernet circuitry, CD/DVD interface circuitry, motherboard. Another 20 components minimum.

Add in the various case components, (hinge, palmrest) etc., and we're easily at 50.

Some components have a lower than 99.5% production rate (I bet the screen is one), and manufacturer's try to test these key parts before shipping as a part of QC.

Again, the sign is how the company treats the customer AFTER the purchase that's really critical.

[shef]

Well, I called apple again..and they said that they are willing to replace the one with the hard drive problem.

do you guys think that i should get the hard drive replaced or the whole laptop, as the screen is perfect on this one.

I have an option to do either replace the whole thing or just the drive..



Thanks

[elvis2000]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
According to a recent survey, 17% of all Apple computers sold had problems out of the box.

This puts Apple in FIRST place in consumer satisfaction.

Dell came in second with 20%.

This stuff isn't easy to do, and things do go wrong.

-s*

And thats with a very *fickle* consumer base, unlike (probably) Dell's.

[elvis2000]

Originally posted by shef:
Well, I called apple again..and they said that they are willing to replace the one with the hard drive problem.

do you guys think that i should get the hard drive replaced or the whole laptop, as the screen is perfect on this one.

I have an option to do either replace the whole thing or just the drive..

Why would you replace the entire machine if only the harddrive is having problems?

[romanesq]

I almost hate to mention this as a possible solution but someone had indicated that the Microsoft Office trial package would write constantly to the disk creating a tick tick sound.

If you have it, deleting it may do the trick.

It did for me. Now I just have one of those great 15" 1.25 PBs.

Best regards,

[shef]

Originally posted by romanesq:
I almost hate to mention this as a possible solution but someone had indicated that the Microsoft Office trial package would write constantly to the disk creating a tick tick sound.

If you have it, deleting it may do the trick.

It did for me. Now I just have one of those great 15" 1.25 PBs.

Best regards,

I saw the same kind of post under a different topic, so I took the Microsoft Office Trial package out, but it seems like the noise is still there, so it gotta be the hard drive that making the noise.

[shef]

Originally posted by elvis2000:
Why would you replace the entire machine if only the harddrive is having problems?

Well..the only reason I would replace the whole machine instead of just the hard drive is so that I have a brand new machine, instead of one that has been fixed already..

[The Ginger Rat]

Originally posted by shef:
Well..the only reason I would replace the whole machine instead of just the hard drive is so that I have a brand new machine, instead of one that has been fixed already..

Then you run the risk of a perfect PB EXCEPT for another little problem, such as a dead pixel.

Just change out the hard drive.

[hillcrest]

hey Love Calm Quiet:


I found APM Tuner X with help from Apple forum

http://140.117.11.7/Mac/util/APM_Tuner_X_1.0a2.dmg.sit

[SEkker]

Just have the HD fixed and you're set.