pudge's Journal: PowerBook Saga Over

At some point in November, the optical drive on my PowerBook G4/667 stopped ejecting. It was still under warranty. I called Apple, and they shipped out a box. I didn't want to send it out immediately, because I rely on it so much, so waited for Christmas, and sent it in for repair on December 19.

I received the PowerBook on December 23. They received it, repaired it, and sent it back on December 20. Neat. I opened it up, and they replaced half the case, and the optical drive, and it all worked great.

Except that now it wouldn't run off the battery. If you pressed on the battery compartment, the LED on the AC adapter would flicker on and off. Clearly a hardware issue.

I called them, and they went through the whole thing with me, testing it, and I convinced them it needed to be sent back in. They shipped out another box, I got it on the 26th (not the 24th ... don't know why), and sent the computer out on the same day. They got it on the 27th, fixed it, sent it back, and I got it on Monday again, the 30th.

Except that it was not fixed. It still had the same problem.

I called them back and this time they could not reference the last two times, because their systems were down for the week for an upgrade. They couldn't see any of the previous repair issues in the computer. They were able to send out a new box to me, which I received on the 31st, and sent back out that afternoon.

They received the computer on Jan. 2. They did not look at it until Jan. 3. They did not repair it until Jan. 6, because they part the broke twice (the logic board, apparently) was unavailable. I called on Jan. 6 to find out the progress, and the woman I talked to couldn't really figure it out -- apparently they are ironing out problems in the new systems -- but she assured me she would find out what was going on and call me back.

She didn't.

The phone system said they had not received my computer; the web site said it was still on hold; their computer system said it was in testing. Who to believe?

The next day -- today -- I called back. The phone system still said they had not received it, and the web site was down entirely. However, their computer system told them to tell me they had shipped it.

I finally received it today, Jan. 7, about three weeks after this all started. I am none too pleased with Apple repair services. Frankly, they suck. The phone people were OK, but the actual repair people were just horrible. Sigh.

You Are Not Encouraging Me!

[Cliff]

But thanks for the report, nonetheless.

It means I treat my Powerbook like a piece of eggshells. I've run into problems with the Airport not giving me decent reception and think it's related to a car spill I had when returning from Christmas travels. Now I can barely get 2 pips out of the signal strength meter... WHEE.

I'll need to by Torx wrenches now, to make sure the wireless antenna is still properly seated.

Happened to me too (sorta)

[red5]

One day a cd wouldn't eject from my powerbook. I tried a few times and it still didn't work. Then sombody sugested I try putting it on it's side. Which oddly enough worked. It turns out that the drive was not seated properly. This can happen because the drive inside the case does not screw down.

I was able to open it up and pop the drive back into place. It only took me about 15 minutes.