Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

blizzard · 07:37 AM

I just picked one up two weeks ago, and already it's in the repair shop for a fried motherboard. I thought there was an issue with the RevAs that had been addressed, but am I wrong?

I sure hope not! Hardly a great indoctrination into the world of portables.

ibook_steve · Jan 19, 2004, 06:14 PM

Define "fried motherboard." What happened? What were you doing when it died? More details are needed since I can't recall too many problems with this machine.

Steve

blizzard · Jan 19, 2004, 06:40 PM

I was playing around with WindowShade X, namely the minimize in place function. I tried to zoom a window, my machine froze solid, and then when I force restarted it it wouldn't boot any more. No chime, no display...the CD spins up but it won't boot, zapping the PRAM doesn't do anything (even restart the machine like it's supposed to), resetting the PMU did nothing. The only indication that it's actually doing anything is the CD spin and the caps lock key lighting up when pressed.

rambo47 · Jan 19, 2004, 06:57 PM

Try removing any extra RAM before sending it in for repairs. I'm amazed at how many problems stem from RAM that is bad or going bad.

blizzard · Jan 19, 2004, 07:36 PM

Yup, I did that...it's out now, but removing it didn't solve the problem either.

Thanks!

Tenacious Dyl · Jan 19, 2004, 07:40 PM

This happened to me....

The problem that you (probably) have is that windowshade was doing something not ok w/ panther, or something not ok with jaguar (depending). I had this happen.... it just sat there on startup and did nothing... i popped in my system restore disks, powered down, powered up again, held down C key, and reinstalled, it made me delete all my old files... but putting them back on (i back them up) was no big deal. Try that?

madmacgames · Jan 19, 2004, 08:06 PM

did the repair shop tell you it is a fried motherboard?? Because it doesn't boot up or do anything doesn't necessarily mean it's the motherboard... it could be any number of hardware issues.

I've had machines not even turn on before because the hard drive was bad or had a bad connection (PC not Apple though).

blizzard · Jan 19, 2004, 10:48 PM

They said it was likely fried, yeah. I tried to boot from a CD, and that didn't work...the CD would spin up, but then the computer would just sit there, screen black. And when I tried to eject the CD by holding down the trackpad button...nothing. And like I said, PMU reset...nothing, PRAM zap...nothing...battery removal and unplugging...nothing...seemed pretty skunked to me.

Guess we'll get final word from the repair shop pretty soon though...I'll pass on what they tell me.

blizzard · Jan 21, 2004, 01:58 PM

The logic board was indeed fried after two weeks of use...nothing more than note taking and an odd TV show or two.

Is this something I should be worried about? I'm guessing from the lack of responses that there aren't any systemic issues with the 12 inch motherboard, but I don't want to be nursing a problematic computer. If I'm better off trying to return it to get another one, or possibly even a 15 inch should they be more reliable, the sooner I know the better.

Anyone?

eevyl · Jan 21, 2004, 02:10 PM

Dunno about motherboard, but my rev. A pb g4 12" is being repaired. I guess they will replace the hard disk and the display, and also put new rubber feet.

Maybe next time it goes to the workshop is for a motherboard replacement, who knows... sigh

JGoins · Jan 29, 2004, 11:05 PM

I had the logic board go bad in my RevB 12" powerbook about 3 months after purchasing it. I was pretty pleased that Apple had it back to me in two working days though.

typoon · Jan 30, 2004, 08:21 AM

knocks on wood. So far going on 2 months and no problems

blizzard · Jan 30, 2004, 02:13 PM

Took my local shop two weeks to get mine back to me...so far, it seems to be working fine, though it wobbles whenever it's on a flat surface now, which is kind of a pain in the ass.

madmacgames · Jan 30, 2004, 03:00 PM

Originally posted by blizzard:
though it wobbles whenever it's on a flat surface now, which is kind of a pain in the ass.

This is pretty typical of the 12" books because of the small footprint size and construction materials.

A few solutions are to find the corners that are too low and slightly shave the rubber feet until it sits nice.

Another is to find the corner(s) that is too high and stick it out over the edge of a desk and gently but firmly give it a little tug downward to sort of get it back in alignment.

I have done the latter which works pretty effectively.