Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

KenDallas · Jun 19, 2005, 01:54 AM

Greetings,

I have been posting on here on and off, mostly about the PowerBook. I wanted to thank everyone here for their helpful posts and also to let everyone know that I finally bit the bullet and bought a PowerBook almost 2 months ago. I have been putting it through its paces and will be posting my detailed review soon. Specs of my new toy.. 15" 1.67, 1gb RAM, 128 VRAM, 100gb HDD, SuperDrive, OSX 10.4.1 (will soon max out the RAM to full 2 gb)

Also, for all you PowerBook users out there, is it unreasonable for me to expect 3-5 years of use out of this little beauty? The reason for my question is that just a few days ago the lower ram slot went out on me and the apple folks told me it was the logic board going out. To their credit, and much to my surprise, they swapped it out with a brand new Powerbook. I was thrilled with the customer service, I didn't even have to raise hell.

How long have you been using your Powerbook? have you had any major hardware issues?

Thanks again for all your help in the past.

Link · Jun 19, 2005, 02:05 AM

Why should it be unreasonable? I have laptops much older than that that still function just fine

wtmcgee · Jun 19, 2005, 09:34 AM

Having a maxed out 15" PowerBook like that will easily last you 3 or 4 years unless you're the type that always has to have the latest and the greatest. That's going to be plenty powerful for years to come.

I'm on my 2nd Powerbook now and I've been nothing but pleased with both of them. You won't regret your decision.

KenDallas · Jun 19, 2005, 02:22 PM

This is good to know. Coming from the PC world (especially DELL) I have learned not to trust hardware to last too long- thats all.

Originally Posted by Link

Why should it be unreasonable? I have laptops much older than that that still function just fine

KenDallas · Jun 19, 2005, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by wtmcgee

Having a maxed out 15" PowerBook like that will easily last you 3 or 4 years unless you're the type that always has to have the latest and the greatest. That's going to be plenty powerful for years to come.

I'm on my 2nd Powerbook now and I've been nothing but pleased with both of them. You won't regret your decision.

Naw, I am not one that always has to have the latest and the greatest technology. It takes me a while to get all the software and hardware set up and working the way I would like for it to work, once thats done I usually dont mess with it. My question was more geared toward hardware failure, software compatibility and such.

Its good to know that you're on your second Powerbook and that you've been pleased with it so far. I have been extremely happy with the PowerBook so far and have had 5 people switch to MACs since my purchase.

iboy · Jun 19, 2005, 02:44 PM

In my opinion Apple Powerbooks are "normaly" durable... but I would recommend you the Apple Care Plan to extend your warranty for sure. I made same really horrible experiences with the repair service provided by Apple here in Switzerland (I already mentioned these issues here) on my present Powerbook!

In the past I made quite satisfied with the support but in general when I compare the service with them in America then it is for sure absolutly poor!

MrForgetable · Jun 19, 2005, 02:50 PM

i bought it at the beginning of this school year, and expect it to last at least until i go to college in fall 2007

tcphoto · Jun 19, 2005, 05:50 PM

I recieved 6 years service from my retired Wallstreet. It was my main computer, but had the dreaded hinge problem at the end of it's life.

KenDallas · Jun 19, 2005, 06:08 PM

Oh wow !! since I am new to the apple products I dont exactly know what the "wallstreet" model is. Is it the same thing as the Pizmo?

Originally Posted by tcphoto

I recieved 6 years service from my retired Wallstreet. It was my main computer, but had the dreaded hinge problem at the end of it's life.

NosniboR80 · Jun 19, 2005, 06:17 PM

I've had my PB for 4 years now. It is a Rev A Ti 500MHz 512MB, and I've loved it for every second. I was a college student at the time, and really thrashed it with games, installs, reinstalls, partitions, moving around campus (can't write papers in my room, part of the reason I got the laptop), several moves, etc etc etc. It has hung in there like a champ. I'm only now thinking of upgrading, b/c I'm about to go on a long trip where I'll take a lot of photos, and I only have 2 GB left on my 20 GB HDD - so I'm upgrading the harddrive.

I'm thinking of getting some more RAM, but really...512 is enough for my purposes. However, if I were doing anything serious on it, I'd definitely be upgrading to a new computer. As it is, I'm holding out til something really strikes my fancy, like a good Intel PB.

scairns · Jun 19, 2005, 06:53 PM

I bought my Pismo powerbook in 2000, and it's still in service.
From a 128Mb, 20Gb (? from memory) unit with a 400MHz G3, it has been upgraded to 1 Gb RAM and a 40Gb HDD and is running, albeit slowly slowly but adequately, OS 10.2.8.
From what I understand, it should be capable of running the most recent OS X, Tiger.

It is getting a bit long in the tooth now, and rather than upgrade the CPU I have chosen to order a 1.5GHz G4 12" PB for general use and video work, with 1.25Gb RAM and 100Gb HDD. I expect this to last at least 4 years.

I'd be curious to see what 5 year old Wintel laptops could be upgraded to run, in any meaningful sense, the XP.

KenDallas · Jun 19, 2005, 07:01 PM

With fears of starting a PC vs. MAC war I have to be cautious making these remarks. Having worked in the PC environment ever since the DOS 3 days and just recently moving over to the MAC side, I can honestly say that a 5 year old wintel would have a hard time with XP Professional and running any meaningful applications. Windows apps keep getting more and more bloated with time.

I was one of those people that waited and waited for the right time to buy the Powerbook, and with the most recent revision being lower in price and the fact that this was a Rev D PowerBook, I was confident that most issues must have been worked out. With the most recent news about Intel processors, I am willing to bet that its probably going to take 3-4 years from now to have powerbook with intel chips with all the kinks worked out.

Hopefully the powerbook that I recently purchased will last me at least that long.

Originally Posted by scairns

I bought my Pismo powerbook in 2000, and it's still in service.
From a 128Mb, 20Gb (? from memory) unit with a 400MHz G3, it has been upgraded to 1 Gb RAM and a 40Gb HDD and is running, albeit slowly slowly but adequately, OS 10.2.8.
From what I understand, it should be capable of running the most recent OS X, Tiger.

It is getting a bit long in the tooth now, and rather than upgrade the CPU I have chosen to order a 1.5GHz G4 12" PB for general use and video work, with 1.25Gb RAM and 100Gb HDD. I expect this to last at least 4 years.

I'd be curious to see what 5 year old Wintel laptops could be upgraded to run, in any meaningful sense, the XP.

mad cow disease · Jun 19, 2005, 07:15 PM

Although it isn't a powerbook, it's just as portable. I have an original and still partly functional Apple IIc I keep in a closet for kicks. It boots and will run a primitive version of a DOS variant. Sure, the keyboard won't respond sometimes and the inputs are all scrambled so when I hit 'c' I get 't', but it still boots and works.

I fully expect the PB I am currently working on and just purchased 3 days ago to last me ~4 years at least.

TailsToo · Jun 19, 2005, 11:14 PM

Most people on this board upgrade a lot more often that most. Usually, a PowerBook can last quite a while for most normal uses. I still use my old PowerBook 540C when I miss System 7.