[jessejlt]

I purchases my PB February of this year. A couple of weeks later, I had to take it back to the Apple store because the screen had developed a large dark area. The inverter was replaced. When I got the unit back, I opened the box and noticed a large gash in the bottom left hand corner. I took it down to the Apple store to show them and they said that it was either dropped at the repair depot or while in transit and that they would repair it. Well as a CS student I need my laptop while in term, and since it was the beginning of Spring term I told them I would take it back at the end of term ( 10 weeks later ). When term ended I took it back down there for repair, but over the 10 weeks the laptop had developed more problems; the screen was separating from the bezel, screen hinges were blown, I had developed over a dozen dead / stuck sub-pixels, the mouse movement was totally sparatic, and the bottom case had begun to separate from the hand rest. Well, the Apple "Genius" assured me that there was no problem, that Apple would fix everything. So I gave it to the guy and 2 weeks later DHL came knocking and delivered my laptop. I opened the box, popped the lid on the unit, and was so excited. They had replaced the screen, screen bezel, track-pad, top-case, bottom-case, bezel, and hinges, and the unit worked like a champ. Guess what I just noticed... The keyboard is separating from the unit! In the back left hand corner of the keyboard ( by etc key ) the keyboard is peeling upward. So... guess I have to take it back down to the Apple store, for yet another repair.

I bought my PB as an upgrade from my iBook because the iBook had nothing but problems. Turns out it was because of a logic board thing, and Apple replaced it after many months of bitching at them ( see logic board repair problem ). I thought the PB was a much more sterdy, well built unit. Guess I was wrong. You know, what irks me most, is that I could have spent half the cash on a friggin' POS Dell and you know the thing would have worked flawlessly, other than the fact it would be a POS Dell running god damn Windows or some flavor of *NIX. I couldn't be more bummed out. My iMac works like a champ, never had a single problem with it, sure do wish my PB could do the same.
jesse ;-)

[cszar2001]

When it rains it pours.
Maybe you`ll get a replacement unit when they realize that the PB can`t be rescued.
Had mine for a year now-no problems so far.

[dodo_nutter]

I've got 8 Macs lying round the place from SE/30 to my current 1.5GHz 15" PB and haven't had a hardware (or major software) problem with any of them. I Think the minority of cases go bad but wen they do go bad the thing falls to pieces!!!

Good Luck getting it fixed

[d.fine]

that sucks. I've had my first Mac (AluPB) for about 4 months now, and have had absolutely 0 problems with it, no warping, no dead/stuck pixels, no OS probs ... nothing
I hope you get your PB fixed or a replacement unit, I'd recommend the AluPB's to anyone, good luck !!!!

[jessejlt]

Well, just took my unit down to the Apple store and the guy said that the new PBs' keyboards use an adhesive, and that the keyboard was simply not adhering properly. He took it in the back-room to re-seat the keyboard, and a little while later came back out and gave me the unit.

I got home, opened it up, and guess what, some of the keys on the keyboard were melted... Melted! The keyboard is all warped and yes, peeling up again. So I called them up and the guy couldn't believe it. He said he would order a new keyboard and call me when it was ready.

Not satisfied, I called Apple care so that I could file an official complaint. The tech support guy was rather nice about the whole thing, and after taking my complaint he transferred me to a customer service guy. He took a bunch of information, apologized for all the insane problems, and offered me a free gift as a gesture of goodwill. I opted for an Airport Extreme. So not too shabby.

Hopefully the keyboard will be the last repair on this troublesome unit.
jesse ;-)

[rag on a muffin]

my 2 ibooks i had before my powerbook were the biggest buckets of crap ive ever used, not even joking. i was getting ready to switch to a pc, when they finally agreed on a replacement. 34 repairs on the first ibook g3 500 mhz, 5 repairs in a row on my ibook g4. i got this powerbook flawless, and i hope it stays that way.

[Dr. Dastardly]

Doesn't Apple completely replace the laptop when three seperate "catastrophic" problems happen with the computer? I know problems with the logic boards and such that the computer needs to actually run count as these, but do the problems mentioned above count? Those are alot of problems!