It used to happen very rarely. The screen on my PowerBook would go blank, or flicker away. I would then try to restart, but it would not work. It almost worked. The power button would activate the little green under the Caps Lock key, but nothing more. So the PowerBook was getting electricity, but apparently not enough to restart. I would then connect the computer to the power supply and things would start up in a proper manner. Since yesterday or so, not even this works anymore. Being connected to the outlet does not help. I can press the restart button several times and the only thing I am able to control is the little green under the Caps Lock key. It goes on as soon as I press the power button, it goes off if I hold the power button for several seconds. It goes on again, and so on. I tried removing all batteries, disconnecting the computer for a while, reconnecting, various tricks. (Yes, I held the computer upside down for a while too...)
The mac restarted again. I am writing this on my computer. I am just not sure if it will stay on long enough for me to post this into the blog.
I will need to give this more thought. Could it be the internal battery? Maybe there is a problem with the power supply connector? Some shortcut must knock out the computer at random times. Not a pleasant situation. I am not ready for a new Computer.
have you tried the 45 degree angle ?
:) Apple store.... SOHO apple store.
maybe it is under the weather, because you are under the weather also. :)
no worries.
you might be onto something here. it is really a bit like a part of me after all these years.
: )
I dug around in Apple's discussion boards and found this:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?14@236.fANFayS7ceI.11@.3bb79b3d
I hope it helps.
Thank you so much! I have a Pismo G3 PowerBook, but I followed your link and found the following discussion:
Apple Discussions - My computer shuts down unexpectedly. This is really helpful. Thank you so much for pointing me towards help. Thank you! : )
have you tried the friendly guys @ tekserve? they might be able to fix it...
I think its funny that the blog posting that has elicited the most response of late is bascially a tech support discussion... ;-)
So I was writing this entire post on my PowerBook and it was like, pliplipliplipllip And then, like, half of my post was gone.
And I was like...
ghngh?...
It devoured my post. It was a really good post. And then I had to write it again, and I had to do it fast, so it wasn’t as good...
It’s kind of...
A bummer...
You should bring it by to Tekserve. Come in at 9am and get an estimate on it...Could be a number of components..battery, sound card, PMU. bring your AC adater and your battery and your PowerBook. Repairs are typically done in under 10 days.
I did not really want to mention it ever but my experiences with Tekserve are not of the best sort.
I once brought them my PowerBook 100 (yes, I have one, as well as a Portable Mac), and asked them to please check the internal battery. When I picked up my little friend, which I had bought in Mint in Box condition on eBay, half of the PowerBook was yellowish and pretty abused. I demanded an explanation, but they did not want to give me one. I asked for the original part, but they would not give it to me. (Until maybe 15 Minutes of New Yorker convincing later.) Turns out they had torn a cable to the original display and just replaced it with one they could find, a yellowish one. So now I have a PowerBook 100 that has been “fixed” by Tekserve. They eventually gave me the broken display. (Which is apart from having been ripped out of the computer in fine condition.) I asked them why they would replace the part in such bad way and not even tell me about it. They just replied: “What do you want, this is an old computer.” Yeah, sure it is.
There are some more pretty sad stories. “At this time there are about 19 PowerBooks ahead of ya, that’s gonna take a while.”
I just think that at this point I might need some good convincing to return to 23rd street and to leave my sick computer with Tekserve.
I love the free soda though. And the iMac sculpture they build a few months ago was pretty cool too.
Does anybody have experience with PowerBook ResQ?
Hmm, maybe I need to try, just to break the spell. I want to tell good stories about Tekserve. So why not..
: }
My initial visit to TekServ was also less than impressive. I had the somewhat common problem of a shorn video connector cables inside the hinge of a Wallstreet Powerbook (though i didn't know it at the time.) The crazy-haired , 16-year-old wiseass who was helping me took it in back and when he returned he said the technician estimated it would cost $1200 to replace the screen.
I left.
I came back another time and got a new answer from someone else. $120 to replace the internal cable. But now the hinge wobbles some.
Hmm... she might have been the one who “repaired” my PB100?... hmm...
that was like a ..... bummer....
I also have had repeated bad experience with Tekserv. So bad in fact, that I've been considering going PC. They charge an arm and a leg, and refuse - it seems - to actually repair anything - just replace components (at very high margins).