[TFunkadelic]

So, I made the switch from PC and ordered a Powerbook 15 inch yesterday. I've been reading around the forum since then and it seems these powerbooks have more than their fair share of problems, i.e. the main board failing, and problems with the displays. However, many of these posts seem to be rather dated. Do the current powerbooks exhibit these same problems in the same frequency?

[ryushe]

Hi there,

First of all let me stress that I absolutely love my powerbook. I had a lumpy 17" Dell D800 before this one, and I would never switch back. It's not only the hardware which looks very nice, and on average works very well, but it's also OSX itself, which I think is a lot easier to work with once you get to know it a bit (coming from a windows background that is. In my case, coming from a linux/gnome background, which helps).

Anyways, the powerbook evidently DOES have it's fair share of problems, as shown in this thread.

Another thread over at the apple.com support forums, which for some odd reason is not listed in the main topics listing for that forum, altho it does contain very recent posts, which is located here, details a fault found in some 15" powerbooks, namely the lower memory slot ceasing to function. This will require a new logic board (all-in-one motherboard the powerbooks use) to be placed. Usually this falls under the standard warranty, but some people mentioned getting after warranty ran out. A new logic board goes for around $800-$900.

Then again, I had my fair share of problems with the Dell as well, from a broken DVD drive to a new screen being fitted. This just goes to show that any laptop can have problems.

Hope this helps.

[TFunkadelic]

I suppose my question is how consistant are these problems? For example, with this new PB am I certain to experience these problems or do the majority of PB's run smoothly? I switched over from PC after getting sick of hardware conflicts and spyware in search of a smoother running PC. I'm just hoping I didn't get suckered into something equally frustrating.

[ryushe]

Well, the company I work for has around 8 apple laptops, ranging from an iBook to the 15" Powerbooks. As I mentioned in the thread I linked to in my previous post here, by coincidence my collegue and me both had the same problem with our 15" powerbooks, ie. the memory slot failed. Besides from us two, the rest of the apples never have had any problems at all. The mac store I went back to with mine even said they had never actually seen this before, only heard it sometimes happened.

To ease your mind a bit tho, my take on it is that most of the powerbooks are indeed fine. They definatly run smoother, quieter and besides that, look a whole lot better too. Stuff like hardware conflicts and spyware are unknown to apple users, as the hardware is made only by Apple, and the OS running on it (Mac OS X) is made to run on that specific piece of hardware. The OS itself id based on a BSD kernel, which is (like Linux) another Unix clone, meaning way more security on your machine. As far as I know there are only a few known virusses that target mac, and most of these virusses have been rendered useless thanks to Apples timely software update feature.

[ericssonboi]

I've gone through 3 Powerbooks and havn't really had many "major" problems with them

12" 1.33Ghz Rev C ... deal pixel which rubbed out ... sold it to upgrade for a 15"
15" 1Ghz Al. Rev A ... poor Aiport Extreme signal (from same places as the Rev C) ... sold it to buy a 1.67Ghz
15" 1.67Ghz Rev D ... no problems at all ... this one's a keeper

[TFunkadelic]

Thanks for the info. I'm hoping my first trek into mac land in almost 10 years will be a nice one.

[Autumn]

I made the switch in 2003 and have never had a single problem with my PB. Love it!!

[TheIceMan]

Remember, this forum is a "support forum" and as such, you will see/hear about problems more so than in general. Imagine if you were to stop by one of the Windows site or Dell? I'm on my second PowerBook and so far so good.