Welcome to Wallyworld

My iBook died 3 weeks ago.
Deceased. Expired. Demised. Kicked the bucket. Shuffled off its mortal coil. Run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile. An EX iBOOK.

It worked one minute then froze. On repeated restarts it just booted and then hung when the GUI came up. For a while it worked in single user mode, so I did all the usual tests and fixes. Then it would just get to a Blue screen of Death.
Wait a minute. Isn’t the Blue Screen of death a Windows thing?

I took it to my local Apple centre and after they did some tests pronounced that its Logic Board is Kaput. And, of course, it is NOT covered by the Apple Logic Board Repair Program.

“Would I like to repair it?” Cost AU$1200 for parts alone. A new iBook 1.33MHz is not much dearer so I said “Thanks a lot Apple. No.”

So eBay for "iBook 800 Logic Board". AU$350+ from sites in the USA and the UK. I will not bother with French or German sites. Plus freight.Plus GST. Plus Johnny Howards Xmas present and a hand out to various other free loaders.

Should I buy a newer, faster iBook on eBay?

I miss some ex-demos which go over my "budget".

Then I decide to do a Google on "iBook G4 Logic Board". Wow. Lots of hits. It appears many iBook G4 owners are discovering that their prized possession seem to croak it just after the warranty expires.



So I replaced my searches on eBay with "PowerBook G4 15in". I found one at an Apple Centre in Sydney. Supposedly a "demo" machine. 1.5MHz. The just superseded “combo drive” model. They would give me a 3 year Apple Care Warranty and transfer the 1GB of ram from my old iBook into the shiny "new" PowerBook.

…. “power management: received emergency overtemp signal”.

In other words a temperature sensor is malfunctioning and putting it to sleep. I know it is not overheating. It is only warm to the touch. The fan has not even come on.

The shiny new PowerBook is totally unusable.

Also in the log files I found that the AMS sensor (Apple’s Motion Sensor) is also misbehaving. It appears in the log files and in single user boot with various ERROR messages. Now this could be a software problem. Maybe Apple just didn’t get around to updating the driver in 10.4.3.

I wonder how many other PowerBook owners don’t realise their shiny pieces of wonder will not be protected in the case of a fall, as Apple’s advertising suggests.

Life Can Get Bumpy
Apple equips PowerBook computers with an extra measure of data protection. Should an unexpected elbow send your PowerBook flying, the Sudden Motion Sensor technology built into every PowerBook detects the accelerated movement or sudden position change — and instantly parks the heads on your hard drive. Once your PowerBook is level again, it unlocks the drive heads automatically.

Am I pi**ed with Apple?

I don’t know. My Quicksilver G4 has never missed a beat. With its Sonnet 1.4MHz processor it is fast enough for most things I do.

So the PowerBook is back at the Apple Centre awaiting Apple’s pleasure.

Would I buy another Macintosh?

I hate Windows with an undying hatred. I dont want free viruses, trojans, key loggers and to have to reinstall the OS every six months.

Do I have any choice?