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crazeazn · Dec 22, 2004, 02:39 AM

do alot of you 12" users have this problem? i always have to wedge a piece of paper in between the rubber feet and the surface that im using it on in order for it to be flat, its pretty annoying considering its nearly a 1800 dollar laptop. and apple says its normal, sighs.

iREZ · Dec 22, 2004, 12:34 PM

You got the wobbles. All I do to fix this is find the corner that wobbles and place that corner off the side of the table and slightly push down (not too hard) and it should do the trick.

crazeazn · Dec 23, 2004, 03:38 AM

Originally posted by iREZ:
You got the wobbles. All I do to fix this is find the corner that wobbles and place that corner off the side of the table and slightly push down (not too hard) and it should do the trick.

its still uneven, its the foot of the battery, its too short..

LookSee · Dec 24, 2004, 10:50 PM

Mine's a wobbler too. It's stable when I place it over an uneven spot on my desk, but on any other surface I have to stick a piece of paper under the top left corner keep it stabilized. Most of the time I use it on my lap, so the wobbling doesn't bother me all that much.

mduser63 · Dec 24, 2004, 11:53 PM

Mine 12" PB wobbles too. I usually just put a few sheets of paper under the bottom left corner to fix the problem. It is annoying though. Another thing that sometimes bugs me is the fact that the battery doesn't sit flush with the bottom of the case. I know I'm being picky, but those two things make my PB feel sort of cheap.

tinman831 · Dec 25, 2004, 01:40 AM

Originally posted by crazeazn:
its still uneven, its the foot of the battery, its too short..

do you mean the battery doesnt sit flush with the rest of the bottom of the laptop? most of the time when the laptop wobbles you can do what iREZ said and just press down on that corner while u hold down on the corner diagonally to that one. the case powerbooks seem to be a little prone to warping and doesn't hold its shape well in my opinion. i accidently dropped my laptop once and it started to wobble, but I just grabbed onto one corner and started to bend the laptop slightly and got it to stop wobbling =).

crazeazn · Dec 25, 2004, 02:37 AM

maybe we should all write a letter and tell them not to mess up the next 12" powerbooks.. glad to know its not just mine thats wobbly =) (no ill will of course)

merry christmas!

KidKit · Dec 25, 2004, 07:04 PM

The wobbles can happen to anyone and can just as easily be fixed by flexing the case slightly (see above). I think we can blame most of it on aluminium. That's the price of having the stylish thin and light aluminium casing, as aluminium is inherently soft and malleable.

The ibook in comparison uses a thicker and more rigid plastic casing, like most other notebooks. Plastic casings have to be thicker, but plastic isn't malleable and don't warp as easily.

crazeazn · Dec 25, 2004, 07:24 PM

Originally posted by KidKit:
The wobbles can happen to anyone and can just as easily be fixed by flexing the case slightly (see above). I think we can blame most of it on aluminium. That's the price of having the stylish thin and light aluminium casing, as aluminium is inherently soft and malleable.

The ibook in comparison uses a thicker and more rigid plastic casing, like most other notebooks. Plastic casings have to be thicker, but plastic isn't malleable and don't warp as easily.

i think iblame it on the design... the 15" and 17" powerbooks have the better embedded right? versus having a corner like us.....

Big Mac · Dec 26, 2004, 01:03 AM

Originally posted by KidKit:
The wobbles can happen to anyone and can just as easily be fixed by flexing the case slightly (see above). I think we can blame most of it on aluminium. That's the price of having the stylish thin and light aluminium casing, as aluminium is inherently soft and malleable.

The ibook in comparison uses a thicker and more rigid plastic casing, like most other notebooks. Plastic casings have to be thicker, but plastic isn't malleable and don't warp as easily.

Flexing the case? That doesn't sound right. Isn't that part of the problem that the first generation iceBooks had - flexing of the case leading to motherboard damage? Hopefully by the time I'm ready to replace my iBook Apple will have firmed up the PB cases.

Wiskedjak · Dec 26, 2004, 01:11 AM

Originally posted by crazeazn:
do alot of you 12" users have this problem? i always have to wedge a piece of paper in between the rubber feet and the surface that im using it on in order for it to be flat, its pretty annoying considering its nearly a 1800 dollar laptop. and apple says its normal, sighs.

It's disappointing, and somewhat ironic, that design flaws are normal for Apple

KidKit · Dec 26, 2004, 02:06 AM

While I have 'flexed' my PB once to get it to sit even, I can certainly see how people can accidentally overdo it and inadvertantly damage their precious computer. I certainly wouldn't vouch for the safety of do-it-yourself PB case reshaping!

This case-warping issue has been discussed in various incarnations before, there've been suggestions about what can cause it and how to fix it. My point was that the choice of aluminium as the material and the thin design certainly comes with its own caveats - ie, Alu is soft and probably warps more easily. And that you might be able to do some adjustments yourself if you are careful.

That said, I still think the 12" Alu is a beaut machine to own and use, I'll probably be sorry to see it go when Apple moves on to the next design for PBs.