[- - e r i k - -]

So, I finally got my 17" PowerBook that was bought in Orlando by a friend of mine (saving me enough money to get a leather sleeve and a 15 GB iPod and still have plenty money left).

And it's a gorgeous machine. The best piece of equipment I've ever owned! There's not a single dead pixel on the screen.

But with only five days of light use (I've been on vacation) it's already crashed three times. And I mean a solid system hang, not even a kernel panic. Just like the good old OS 9 days.

The last time this happened I was using FCP and I got an unexpected quit. Nothing unusual there, applications sometimes do that on OS X. And with FCPs autosaving every 2 minutes, I don't lose any of my work. I just restarted the app and...

...it wouldn't start. Just bounced for a while, stopped and showed no splash. Then I tried to force quit it. Nothing happened. The GUI was locked, without even a spinning ball. I still had control over the mouse, but I couldn't click anything.

The machine was running pretty hot now, and the fan started to come on.

And when I say started to come on, that's exactly what happened. The fan made this slow irregular spinning up sound. My girlfriend pointed out that it sounded like it was going to explode.

I've had three other Mac OS X machines since I started using 10.1, and not one of them has seen anything like this. I've had a few kernel panics over the years, but nothing like this. And one of the macs was the original TiBook 500 - that I had several mishaps with and dropped a few times.

Oh, and I get a whining sound whenever my browser access my online bank, but not other websites. Weird huh?

So, what's going on here? Do my spot-free* 17" have a hardware problem? Mis-aligned fan? Won't you please, please help me.

* Well, it does leave a black streak from the monitor on the left palm rest, I probably should buy a few of those clear buttons that helps against that.

[Sean Li]

I'm not sure what could be cause of the system crashes / kernel panics. I still get them if I remove a CF/PCMCIA card before it's been properly recognized by the system, but I've learned now that it's just a very lengthy process and to wait for it. I guess it depends on how you transferred your information and old applications over to the PowerBook; sometimes a clean install is necessary to get rid of older conflicting files.

As to the fan, that irregular spinning is normal. I don't even notice it anymore.

The whining sound seems to be related to secure web connections; I get it with any website that uses https://. For the record, it's also present on the 15". Not sure about the 12".

In other words, it doesn't seem you have a hardware problem, except for maybe some faulty RAM. If you increased the RAM, I'd take the additional card out to see if you still get the same system crashes. If not, then it's most probably software related.

I hope this helps

[naphtali]

Sounds like bad RAM.

My Pismo locked up rather frequently till Apple recently isolated the problem to one of my 512MB modules and removed it.

[- - e r i k - -]

Since I just got it, I haven't even opened it yet. So it's just stock Apple RAM in any case (original 512 MB). I have done all the software updates and copied my software from my Tower. I only have about 9 gigs left now after copying my MP3s. I seriously need to buy some DVDs so I can burn out all the disk images I have I think...

Thanks for the fan and https thing. I suspected that was normal. Well, weird but common in any case. Anyone know why that happens?

[AssassyN]

The fan "problem" is actually covered in the instruction manual to your 17" PB. It's a different type of fan that's "constantly variable" so that it constantly adjusts itself between fast & slow to converse battery power, rather than just being "On" and full blast all the time when the machine really doesn't need it. Because of the constant speed change, it sounds like a whir that's about to explode, as you put it.

The banking clicking is a long-known issue; it happens primarily under Safari, however other browsers have been known to exhibit this issue as well. Don't let it grate you.

I'd run the Hardware tests from the main DVD included w/ the system to ensure your RAM is good. And I'm guessing your crashes were just from working with major apps like FCP. The 2nd day I had my 17" PB the whole thing locked up so bad that it wouldn't even boot, and the only thing I was doing was using Samba transfers when it froze, thus I had to wipe my HD and reinstall. That irked me, but it's been flawless since. Good luck w/ it!

[Pierre B.]

1. Who installed MacOS X on the powerbook? You or it was already there? In the second case I would reinstall the OS to make sure all is OK and to know what has been installed. In any case, I would try a clean reinstall.

2. Run the Hardware Test. Even if it does not find faulty hardware, persistence of your problems after a clean system install, would probably mean hardware problems that HT cannot detect.

Good luck.

[mgehman]

Originally posted by - - e r i k - -:
So, I finally got my 17" PowerBook that was bought in Orlando by a friend of mine (saving me enough money to get a leather sleeve and a 15 GB iPod and still have plenty money left).

And it's a gorgeous machine. The best piece of equipment I've ever owned! There's not a single dead pixel on the screen.

But with only five days of light use (I've been on vacation) it's already crashed three times. And I mean a solid system hang, not even a kernel panic. Just like the good old OS 9 days.

The last time this happened I was using FCP and I got an unexpected quit. Nothing unusual there, applications sometimes do that on OS X. And with FCPs autosaving every 2 minutes, I don't lose any of my work. I just restarted the app and...

...it wouldn't start. Just bounced for a while, stopped and showed no splash. Then I tried to force quit it. Nothing happened. The GUI was locked, without even a spinning ball. I still had control over the mouse, but I couldn't click anything.

The machine was running pretty hot now, and the fan started to come on.

And when I say started to come on, that's exactly what happened. The fan made this slow irregular spinning up sound. My girlfriend pointed out that it sounded like it was going to explode.

I've had three other Mac OS X machines since I started using 10.1, and not one of them has seen anything like this. I've had a few kernel panics over the years, but nothing like this. And one of the macs was the original TiBook 500 - that I had several mishaps with and dropped a few times.

Oh, and I get a whining sound whenever my browser access my online bank, but not other websites. Weird huh?

So, what's going on here? Do my spot-free* 17" have a hardware problem? Mis-aligned fan? Won't you please, please help me.

* Well, it does leave a black streak from the monitor on the left palm rest, I probably should buy a few of those clear buttons that helps against that.

The other thing this could be is a permission problem. I found that when I moved all my data from my previous powerbook to BigAl I had several kernal panics and crashes. Some of the crashes, mainly with M$ programs (go figure), sound just like yours. I did all kinds of diagnostics and fianlly ran disk utility to fix the permissions and viola, no more crashes. I've had the 17" for 1 1/2 months now and with the exception of the first week have had no further problems. Hope this helps

[- - e r i k - -]

OK, so I've gone through the extended hardware test (nice of Apple to include everything on one DVD), without finding any errors.

I'm hoping this is just glitches that will go away.

What are my options if it doesn't go away? The PowerBook's purchased in USA, while I reside in Norway. The warranty says USA, Canada, Latin America and the Carribbean. Do I have to send it to Apple or will they ship a replacement chip to me for me to install?

[chris v]

What does DiskWarrior have to say? I've had directory problems with factory installs before.

CV

[Mastrap]

My PB did a freeze on me the day it arrived. I reinstalled the system from scratch and it has been fine ever since. Hopefully yours will be as well. Factory installs tend to suck in my experience and reinstalling everything might just be your ticket.

You bought the machine in the US and you live in Norway? No offence, but that way madness, and possible expense, lies.
It really is false economy to buy in the US and have no warranty where you actually live, IMO, especially on a laptop.

See if you can get European Apple Care for it. You might have to bend the truth a little, say you've studied in the US when you've bought it or somesuch thing.

[Pierre B.]

Originally posted by - - e r i k - -:
OK, so I've gone through the extended hardware test (nice of Apple to include everything on one DVD), without finding any errors.

I'm hoping this is just glitches that will go away.

What are my options if it doesn't go away? The PowerBook's purchased in USA, while I reside in Norway. The warranty says USA, Canada, Latin America and the Carribbean. Do I have to send it to Apple or will they ship a replacement chip to me for me to install?

It is good that HT found no errors. Now the warranty question is strange, I think normally it is worldwide. Anyway, if you have no apparent hardware problem, you can erase the hard disk and reinstall the system from scratch. It is the only really efficient method before contacting Apple.

[- - e r i k - -]

Well, so far so good. I'm now sitting on my porch, surfing along on AirPort Extreme with no problems yet. Although I haven't actually used my computer that hard lately, still I take it as a good sign.

I hope the warranty is really worldwide and availible upon request from Apple.

And buying the computer in the US is definitly not false economies. I saved approx $1350 on a 17" PB, a leather case and a 15 GB iPod.

Mmmm... PowerBook lovin'