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rjt1000 · Oct 25, 2006, 07:09 PM

I am considering purchasing a hard drive and superdrive to upgrade my 12 inch PB G4. But having looked over the disassembly guide for this model, I am not interested in doing the upgrade myself.

CompUSA quotes a very attractive price for doing the installations:
CompUSA.com - Installations and Upgrades

I would appreciate comments and opinions from anyone who has had CompUSA do upgrades or service on their PowerBook. Did you feel they did a quality job?

Thanks !!

mduell · Oct 25, 2006, 08:07 PM

I had CompUSA do a optical and hard drive swap for a friend back in mid-May in a 12" PowerBook. Took them 2 months to get the laptop back to me, and when I got it back the case was dented all around, so bad the battery wouldn't stay in, and the keyboard was missing a few keys. They told me they'd replace the keyboard as soon as the parts came in. My friend went apeshit when they saw the case, so we went back and asked them to replace the upper and lower case and the battery (they cracked the plastic case in half), which they agreed to. 6 weeks later they got the parts, so I took the PowerBook in for a "1 day" service to swap cases. They ran into some staffing troubles (no techs in the shop) and 1 day became 4. On the fourth day they said they had it assembled, so I drove over. When I arrived they said it wouldn't turn on. They were stumped, send it out to the depot they contract with. Depot takes a week to figure out the lower case is missing a piece, and another two weeks to get the part (they say Apple is slow shipping it). The depot says they will receive the new, complete lower case on Friday and ship the laptop to me.
The short of it is, the owner has had the laptop for 6 weeks since mid-May.

Now, this is largely because none of the local techs are experienced with Macs (literally the tech's first PowerBook upgrade). If your local place has experienced Apple techs, it should go much better.

FYI local Apple techs quoted me $300 for an optical drive or hard drive upgrade. Apple wants $350.

rjt1000 · Oct 26, 2006, 06:51 AM

Thanks for the info mduell. Sounds like a real horror story. That was my concern as well--would the techs at CompUSA have enough Mac experience, especially on relatively difficult models like my 12 inch PB. My book is in perfect condition and I would hate to have it screwed up during the upgrade.

Anyone have positive experiences?

ibook_steve · Oct 26, 2006, 01:08 PM

Holy crap! I think that's the worst horror story I've ever read!

Save yourself time and money. Just use the iFixit guides. Even if you are not comfortable working with your machine, those guides are fantastic. Your machine is a 12", so it's at least a year and a half old. Just do it yourself!

Steve

amazing · Oct 27, 2006, 12:39 PM

Wow, that's a total nightmare experience with CompUSA! After hearing that, I certainly wouldn't risk my 12" PB with them, that's for sure! Plus, I imagine that all Apple laptops are sent off to a service center somewhere, not done locally? So, you could end up with Russian roulette.

I'd suggest going with an external 16X DL burner and fw-400 case from newegg.com, along with a fw-400 2.5" case and 2.5" HD. If you want to be somewhat future proof on the HD side, get a fw-800 SATA case and an SATA 2.5" HD.

That's the way I went, since I don't do any DVD burning on the road, and carrying the 120 GB isn't that hard.

mduell · Oct 27, 2006, 03:39 PM

No, they did the whole thing in-store. That's why I had the problem.

The laptop is now off at a service depot, with techs who actually have done PowerBooks before.

PowerPc = Pwnage · Oct 27, 2006, 04:42 PM

I cannot stand CompUSA, even the Mac techies couldn't answer some of my questions, they put these un-removable giant sticker all over my G5 and Powerbook, (they leave a very annoying adhesive that never goes away). Plus the service is horrible, one little-Windows-preferring- nerd at the counter not knowing a damn about your mac taking hours in line, and when you finally get your mac in, you never know then the mac techie will be there to repair it. We just got a new apple store in mall closer than the CompUSA, THERE IS A GOD.

rjt1000 · Oct 27, 2006, 06:19 PM

Thanks for the replies. So far, no-one has had anything positive to say about CompUSA tech service. Thats a bad sign...

I have felt comfortable upgrading my trusty Pismo, but thats nothing compared to the 12 inch PowerBook. The ifixit guide shows you need to remove nearly every internal component to get at the optical drive. The hard drive upgrade is somewhat less daunting and maybe something to consider.

The frustrating thing is my 4x superdrive (Matsushita UJ-825) works fine, but the firmware is outdated and all the new DVD-R media will only burn at 2x which sorely tests my patience. There is no new firmware on the horizon, and the media that I used to use to burn at 4x (TDK DVD-R 4x or 8x) is no longer available. I've tried many brands of currently available media and they all revert to the 2x default. (of course if someone with a UJ-825 has found in-stock media that burns at 4x, please let me know)

Yes, I could just buy a 16x desktop DVD burner, but I have to frequently burn on the road and eventually I will upgrade to a MBP and then the desktop drive would be superfluous.

I do have a portable firewire case with 40gb 7200 rpm ibm/ hitachi drive which when booted is noticeably faster than the OEM 4200 rpm toshiba (which is kinda pokey). I use the external drive for extra storage at home, but its not very convenient at Starbucks or on a Coach airline tray.

Most of the Apple tech services are too expensive to make sense with a 2 year old laptop. CompUSA is much cheaper, but it seems you get what you pay for...

So, if there isn't a cost efficient way to upgrade the PB, I will just have to wait it out until I am ready to upgrade to a MBP.

romeosc · Oct 28, 2006, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by rjt1000

Thanks for the replies. So far, no-one has had anything positive to say about CompUSA tech service. Thats a bad sign...

I have felt comfortable upgrading my trusty Pismo, but thats nothing compared to the 12 inch PowerBook. The ifixit guide shows you need to remove nearly every internal component to get at the optical drive. The hard drive upgrade is somewhat less daunting and maybe something to consider.

The frustrating thing is my 4x superdrive (Matsushita UJ-825) works fine, but the firmware is outdated and all the new DVD-R media will only burn at 2x which sorely tests my patience. There is no new firmware on the horizon, and the media that I used to use to burn at 4x (TDK DVD-R 4x or 8x) is no longer available. I've tried many brands of currently available media and they all revert to the 2x default. (of course if someone with a UJ-825 has found in-stock media that burns at 4x, please let me know)

Yes, I could just buy a 16x desktop DVD burner, but I have to frequently burn on the road and eventually I will upgrade to a MBP and then the desktop drive would be superfluous.

I do have a portable firewire case with 40gb 7200 rpm ibm/ hitachi drive which when booted is noticeably faster than the OEM 4200 rpm toshiba (which is kinda pokey). I use the external drive for extra storage at home, but its not very convenient at Starbucks or on a Coach airline tray.

Most of the Apple tech services are too expensive to make sense with a 2 year old laptop. CompUSA is much cheaper, but it seems you get what you pay for...

So, if there isn't a cost efficient way to upgrade the PB, I will just have to wait it out until I am ready to upgrade to a MBP.

Check with your local users group, mine has several experienced techs who will change out your drive free using as a demo for other members. We have a "Green Apple" session 1 hour prior to monthly meeting where they help newbies etc!

Mac users are friendly and help other Mac users!