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KenDallas · Apr 11, 2005, 12:07 AM

Greetings,

First, I would like to thank everyone on here for their help. I have not been posting much, but have been browsing various thread for a number of months.

I have been a PC user for ever (15+ years), and had recently started considering Apple as a viable candidate for a potential "switch." This process started a year ago and I started asking question on here regarding various issues. Throughout this lengthy process everyone here has been wonderful.

After much research, I have finally taken the plunge and have been a proud owner of a brand new PowerBook 15" for 4 days now. The configuration for this Powerbook is 1gb Ram, 100GB HDD, and 128mb VRAM. I realize 4 days is not enough to have an objective opinion, but thus far I have been nothing short of impressed with its performance and the simplicity of the migration process.

Moving all my Word, Excel, and PDF documents (a whopping 1.6 gigs worth) was a breeze. Not to mention all my emails from the past 10 years (another 1.3 gigs worth of pst files) imported into Entourage without any problems. I have not migrated to the Powerbook 100% yet, but at this pace I do not think it will be long before I start using the powerbook 100% of the time.

I am running into somewhat of a problem with the track-pad and mouse. The track-pad seems to behave erratically and I am not able to use it very much due to this. As a matter of fact, it has been a source of frustration. Because of this I been using the mouse I have trusted for a while with other PC laptops I have used. The mouse I use is a Logitech Mouseman Traveler and it has served me very well.

The mouse, once installed (yes I downloaded the latest MAC drivers from Logitech web site), also behaves as badly as the trackpad. I have to SHUTDOWN the computer and reboot for it to work properly every single time. I have read posts here and elsewhere mentioning that the trackpad problem is a known issue for apple and that they are looking into this. I wonder if the mouse issue is also related to the trackpad issue and perhaps its more of an i/o problem. I am only speculating here.

This is where I am going with this, do ALL powerbooks have a bad track-pad? if not, would it be worth my while to go back into the apple store and demand that they swap my powerbook with another one since its only been a few days?

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

jamil5454 · Apr 11, 2005, 01:06 AM

In my experience, the Logitech drivers for OS X are crap. They made my MX300 behave erratically. Moving the mouse sometimes activated Expose and scrolling sometimes activated right click. It was annoying. Just stick with the default Apple drivers for the mouse unless you really need that extra functionality.

sworthy · Apr 11, 2005, 01:51 AM

I've heard that the most recent pb's have had some trackpad issues (which are certainly atypical and you should not have to live with it). You have hardware support for free for 90 days (even without applecare), so it would be definitely worth it to take it in.

Ruahrc · Apr 11, 2005, 05:24 AM

90 days? I thought the warranty ran a year?

And how about Applecare- do you need to buy that within 90 days or 1 year from purchasing the PB?

Ruahrc

Randman · Apr 11, 2005, 05:27 AM

The warranty is for a year but you get special treatment in the first 90 days. And you have 1 year from the date of purchase if you wish to purchase the extended AppleCare, which gives you 2 more years of coverage.

bleee · Apr 11, 2005, 09:58 AM

Originally posted by KenDallas:
Greetings,

First, I would like to thank everyone on here for their help. I have not been posting much, but have been browsing various thread for a number of months.

I have been a PC user for ever (15+ years), and had recently started considering Apple as a viable candidate for a potential "switch." This process started a year ago and I started asking question on here regarding various issues. Throughout this lengthy process everyone here has been wonderful.

After much research, I have finally taken the plunge and have been a proud owner of a brand new PowerBook 15" for 4 days now. The configuration for this Powerbook is 1gb Ram, 100GB HDD, and 128mb VRAM. I realize 4 days is not enough to have an objective opinion, but thus far I have been nothing short of impressed with its performance and the simplicity of the migration process.

Moving all my Word, Excel, and PDF documents (a whopping 1.6 gigs worth) was a breeze. Not to mention all my emails from the past 10 years (another 1.3 gigs worth of pst files) imported into Entourage without any problems. I have not migrated to the Powerbook 100% yet, but at this pace I do not think it will be long before I start using the powerbook 100% of the time.

I am running into somewhat of a problem with the track-pad and mouse. The track-pad seems to behave erratically and I am not able to use it very much due to this. As a matter of fact, it has been a source of frustration. Because of this I been using the mouse I have trusted for a while with other PC laptops I have used. The mouse I use is a Logitech Mouseman Traveler and it has served me very well.

The mouse, once installed (yes I downloaded the latest MAC drivers from Logitech web site), also behaves as badly as the trackpad. I have to SHUTDOWN the computer and reboot for it to work properly every single time. I have read posts here and elsewhere mentioning that the trackpad problem is a known issue for apple and that they are looking into this. I wonder if the mouse issue is also related to the trackpad issue and perhaps its more of an i/o problem. I am only speculating here.

This is where I am going with this, do ALL powerbooks have a bad track-pad? if not, would it be worth my while to go back into the apple store and demand that they swap my powerbook with another one since its only been a few days?

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

For your mouse problems try checking off "ignore trackpad when mouse is present" see if that helps.

For your trackpad issues I think we need more information, does the erratic behavior happen all the time or is it intermittent?

You could have a defective trackpad, Apple recently changed trackpad supplies from what I've heard and there are issues with the new "two finger" scrolling trackpads.

here is a small example of what I'm refering to I myself have experienced the static problem described in the article

http://apple.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000793032699/

you can probably find more on apple support forums.

StonedRose · Apr 11, 2005, 08:55 PM

Dood. Get AppleCare. For new users w/o applecare you get only 90 days phone support (unlimited-Any issue SW or HW or 3rd party SW) and 1 year parts and labor for Apple product. If you get AppleCare it extends phone (total 3 years and HW for 2 addl years on top of 1st year coverage).

Glad you are digging the book.

Aloha.

k2director · Apr 11, 2005, 09:54 PM

I have the same config as you, minus the 128 megs of VRAM. Re the trackpad issues: it's a well-documented problem with the newest Powerbooks (the ones that enable 2-finger scrolling). It's a defect in Apple's trackpad, and rumor has it that Apple is working on a fix. You should definitely be eligle for service once that's available.

In the meantime, the temporary fix for wacky trackpad behavior is to cover the entire trackpad with the palm of your hand for about 3-4 seconds. That should reset the trackpad, and allow it to function normally for a while.

I do this multiple times a day when I'm sitting in my office, which has carpet. The carpet tends to create little static discharges when I touch the trackpad, which makes it unresponsive until I reset it with my palm.

Good luck. Hang tough. You have a great machine otherwise.

KenDallas · Apr 11, 2005, 10:58 PM

Originally posted by bleee:
For your mouse problems try checking off "ignore trackpad when mouse is present" see if that helps.

For your trackpad issues I think we need more information, does the erratic behavior happen all the time or is it intermittent?

You could have a defective trackpad, Apple recently changed trackpad supplies from what I've heard and there are issues with the new "two finger" scrolling trackpads.

here is a small example of what I'm refering to I myself have experienced the static problem described in the article

http://apple.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000793032699/

you can probably find more on apple support forums.

Yeap, I have tried checking off the "ignore trackpad when mouse is present" but this does not help either. Initlaly I had tried using my mouse without installing the Logitech driver, and since I didn't see any improvements, this is when I installed the drivers.

As for the trackpad issues, its not all the time, but often enough. Its not something that shows up every 30 minutes or so, more like every 2-3 minutes.

Still working on things... is there a way to uninstall drivers? ie: the logitech driver?

KenDallas · Apr 11, 2005, 11:00 PM

Originally posted by StonedRose:
Dood. Get AppleCare. For new users w/o applecare you get only 90 days phone support (unlimited-Any issue SW or HW or 3rd party SW) and 1 year parts and labor for Apple product. If you get AppleCare it extends phone (total 3 years and HW for 2 addl years on top of 1st year coverage).

Glad you are digging the book.

Aloha.

Well Aloha to you as well. Rest assured that I am very much "digging" my new computer, aside from this issue with the track pad everything is great !!!

KenDallas · Apr 11, 2005, 11:04 PM

Originally posted by k2director:
I have the same config as you, minus the 128 megs of VRAM. Re the trackpad issues: it's a well-documented problem with the newest Powerbooks (the ones that enable 2-finger scrolling). It's a defect in Apple's trackpad, and rumor has it that Apple is working on a fix. You should definitely be eligle for service once that's available.

In the meantime, the temporary fix for wacky trackpad behavior is to cover the entire trackpad with the palm of your hand for about 3-4 seconds. That should reset the trackpad, and allow it to function normally for a while.

I do this multiple times a day when I'm sitting in my office, which has carpet. The carpet tends to create little static discharges when I touch the trackpad, which makes it unresponsive until I reset it with my palm.

Good luck. Hang tough. You have a great machine otherwise.

K2Director,

I agree with you 100%, this machine is great.

While moving data from my PC to the Powerbook I was importing about 1800 pictures into iPhoto, playing music on iTunes, importing a massive .mbox file into Entourage... all while browsing the web... what blew me away was that CPU load was less than 20%... my PC would have crashed several times trying to attempt this...

I am extremely impressed.

Spliff · Apr 12, 2005, 02:08 AM

Ken,

Try monitoring your CPU. Does the CPU spike when the trackpad becomes erratic? If so, maybe some background process is misbehaving.

KenDallas · Apr 12, 2005, 09:15 AM

Originally posted by Spliff:
Ken,

Try monitoring your CPU. Does the CPU spike when the trackpad becomes erratic? If so, maybe some background process is misbehaving.

Actually, I didn't think about doing this till last night. But turns out that the CPU monitor is not showing any applications out of sync. The CPU utilization has been consistently between 10-15% with Entourage, Firefox, Messenger, and Preview open.

Spliff · Apr 12, 2005, 12:45 PM

Originally posted by KenDallas:
Actually, I didn't think about doing this till last night. But turns out that the CPU monitor is not showing any applications out of sync.

Have you tried resetting the trackpad as explained by k2director above?

Randman · Apr 12, 2005, 12:50 PM

Create a new user. If the problem persists, take it to a shop for repairs as it'll be hardware.

Spliff · Apr 12, 2005, 12:51 PM

I found this over in Apple Discussions:

Troubleshooting intermittent trackpad issues

If you find that the trackpad cursor on your PowerBook G4 (12-inch 1.5GHz), PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.67/1.5GHz), or PowerBook G4 (17-inch 1.67GHz) temporarily stops tracking or behaves erratically, try the following steps to resolve the issue.

1. Make sure you test all parts of the trackpad surface and be sure you're using just one finger. Multiple fingers could cause erratic behavior.

2. Reset the trackpad by placing your entire palm directly onto the whole trackpad for 3 to 4 seconds, and then remove your hand from the trackpad in one smooth motion.

In most cases, trackpad operation will return to normal. If so, this resolution should work if you ever see the issue again. Apple is aware of this issue and is investigating.

This document will be updated as more information becomes available.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301047

Spliff · Apr 13, 2005, 05:48 PM

Read this today:

When asked about "well documented PowerBook issues" that could potentially impact sales, Oppenheimer said the trackpad-related issues were believed to be "isolated" and were now resolved.

http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/04/...le.q2.results/

KenDallas · Apr 17, 2005, 11:32 AM

Well... I am happy to report that the Trackpad issue has been resolved.

I installed the new update recently release by apple. This was two days ago. I didn't immediately notice the differece, but as of this morning everything seems to be working beautifully.

I couldn't be happier with the outcome !

Thank you everyone for all the help.