Pismo G4 Upgrade Review
From Lincoln Benedict
Pros: Significant boost in overall performance, especially in
OS X. Real-time effects in Final Cut Pro. Added lift to the best
laptop Apple ever made :-)
Cons: Long turnaround, a month. That's a lot of time to be
missing your laptop.
For Christmas I was lucky enough to receive the NuPower G4 upgrade
for the Pismo. I
decided on Newer because I had previously bought an upgrade from them
that worked out well. I started out with the base Pismo, the 400 MHz
model with 576 MB of RAM. I could not even run Final Cut in OS X
without frame stutters and eons of rendering time. While this was
frustrating, I use my PowerBook mostly for taking notes in class, so it
wasn't a major issue.
With much anticipation I packed my beloved assistant off to Chicago
to receive a new soul. The paper accompanying Newer's upgrade told me
that I should expect to wait 8-10 business days before getting back my
newly G4'ed Pismo. 10 business days later I was still waiting. I called
Newer and was reassured that the PowerBook would arrive the next week.
A week later, still no PowerBook. So I called again. They told me it
would arrive next week. The next week, I finally had my Pismo back.
There is definitely a performance boost. Before I ripped at about 4x
in iTunes, that's up to about 7-8x. The most noticeable difference was
in Final Cut Pro. Long gone were the frame stutters; full, pure,
uncompromised digital video flowed like water through my laptop. I was
even running real-time effects (although limited to fades and sound
tracks).
I was slightly worried about heat and battery life with the new G4,
but neither have been an issue. It does run a bit warmer than it did
before, with constant processor usage the bottom gets warm, but never
uncomfortably warm. As for battery life, I don't think there has been
an effect. I just watched The Bourne Identity and still had 33%
battery left (in 10.2, set my screen on the lowest setting and energy
saver to DVD playback).
One more thing, some people in the xlr8yourmac.com
forums said they had received a different processor card back than
their original one. I have the original one that came with my machine;
there has been no change.
In retrospect, I'd definitely do it again, but probably not with
Newer. With the large wait time, I think I'd go with PowerLogix. To all
Pismo owners who want to extend their machines life, don't want to
worry about paint flaking off or frying their legs, get this upgrade!
$300 is a very reasonable price for the performance boost.
Thanks,
Lincoln
Thanks for the review, Lincoln. The wait is too long,
but I'm glad to hear it's working well for you. As a happy Pismo owner,
I have to agree with your contention that it's the best 'Book Apple
ever made (so long as you don't get one with "pink screen disease" or a
bum DVD drive, anyway). ;-)
Charles
iceBook HD upgrade pages - need URL
From Jeffrey Harris
Hi Charles
Just for genl knowledge, I'd like to see G. Cox's upgrade pages. But
your column the other day does not
have a link in it. Can you post the URL?
Thanks
Jeffrey Harris
Hi Jeffrey,
Very weird. The draft I sent to Dan definitely had a
link, but you're right, the posted article doesn't. Not sure what
happened there. I'll notify Dan.
Anyway, here's the URL:
http://uk.geocities.com/ibookupgrade/
Charles
Editor's note: It was there. I accidentally deleted it while
editing. We've already fixed it. dk
PowerBook 1400
From Tom MacDougall
Mr. Moore,
I have a PowerBook 1400 which
is presently gathering dust because as of late I use my iMac (500 MHz)
for most of my work. I miss using my faithful companion, so I was
thinking of buying the 466 MHz upgrade card from Sonnet. But before I
put out $500 Cdn, I wanted to read the reactions of people who have
opted for this upgrade. If you can help me in my search for
information, I would appreciate it.
Tom MacDougall
Hi Tom,
I invite readers who have G3 upgraded 1400s to
comment.
Here are a few thoughts of mine. The 1400's internal
architecture (which is based on the even older PowerBook 5300) is getting pretty long
in the tooth. It has a slow, 32 MHz internal bus and supports a maximum
of 64 MB of RAM, which is marginal for OS 9 - and forget about
OS X, the 1400 is technically a NuBus machine, and therefore the
prospects for running OS X on a 1400 are about nil.
There are other PowerBook 1400 limitations. As a nod
to economy, no video-out jack for an external monitor was included with
the 1400. An internal expansion slot could accommodate video-out or
Ethernet upgrade cards (no standard Ethernet either), but not both.
Ethernet could also be supported with a PC Card, which is also the only
choice for an internal modem with the 1400. The 1400's PC Card slots
are not CardBus compliant, so USB, FireWire, and wireless networking
cards are not supported. Video support in the 1400 is sluggish by
today's standards.
Consequently, unless you really, really like the 1400
(and there's plenty to like), you might be better off putting the
Can$500 toward a more up-to-date PowerBook or iBook.
My 2¢
Charles
Could it be that Que! is just *crap*?
From Brian
Hi Charles,
Serious bummer 'bout your drive. FWIW, I have a Que M3 80 GB
FireWire HD that crapped out recently. I did get some info from a tech
about how to *maybe* recover it, but right now I am too pissed and
afraid to risk screwing up the rest of my system to try his
suggestions...
I had a system lock-up (rare) and rebooted. The lock-up occurred
during a folder-sync operation that was writing to the FireWire drive.
Boom! When I rebooted, I had all sorts of problems . . .
strangely similar to what you described with your CD drive. I booted
from the 9.1 CD and was able to fix some crud using Disk First Aid (on
my boot drive, not the FW drive). After that, I was able to boot but
could not get the FireWire drive to mount.
Interestingly, [Norton] Disk Doctor could (initially) see the drive
as a "missing" drive. I let the machine run for *hours* while it looked
for FileSaver info, etc. Nuthin'! Besides possibly losing *countless*
files (backup strategy? We don't need no stinkin' backup strategy), I
cannot even get the drive to mount, so I can reformat the damn thing!
It won't even show up as missing with Disk Doctor anymore...
I will try the voodoo chants, etc. at a later date, but needless to
say I do not have a favorable opinion of FireWire! I have used
SCSI for years and never had any problems. Ever. This thing is
as bad as those Zip and Jaz drives! BTW, I will dance around the room
like a ninny the day Iomega croaks. I would beat myself with a baseball
bat before giving them (or Que!) another friggin' dime!
Well, sorry for the long rant. Suffice it to say 'I feel your pain'.
Hopefully companies that make crappy things will fix these kinds of
problems, get sued and/or go out of business so we can get back to
using and enjoying our Macs.
Cheers!
Brian
Hi Brian,
As you may have seen in my follow-up article last
Thursday, I got both the FireWire card and the Que CD burner
percolating again.
However, My Que M2 6 GB FireWire drive also died
suddenly last summer with very few hours on it, but it wasn't Que's
fault. What failed was the Fujitsu 2.5" hard drive. The M2 is now a 10
GB FireWire drive, by virtue of the Toshiba HD pulled from my dead
WallStreet PowerBook
being ensconced therein, and it's working fine. That may not be the
problem with your M3, but it might be worth swapping another HD unit in
to check it out. I tried an IBM 2 GB HD in the M2 and it worked
fine too.
Charles
FireWire Boot Problems
From Fred Goff
Charles,
Read your article on your FireWire problems with interest. I wanted
to verify that you actually plugged in the drive during the boot
process, not before or after.
If you did, I'm not surprised you munged the FireWire card. You
should never change a system configuration during the boot process,
even a plug and play configuration. The computer is basically talking
to all your hardware, getting its configuration information, and
registering it with the system. If you plug in a FireWire device, you
can muck that all up. Remember that FireWire is not a client-server
model like USB, but a peer-to-peer system like ethernet.
Plugging or unplugging a FireWire device during boot would be like
disabling AppleTalk in the middle of a netboot or when the printer
drivers are initializing. All bets are off.
If you wait until the machine has completely booted, you should be
able to plug and unplug to your heart's content.
Hi Fred,
Alas, I did plug in the FireWire drive during
mid-boot, just as the extensions were loading.
If, you read my follow-up article on Thursday, you
know that I was able to get things working properly again, and I will
be more patient about connections in future.
Charles
FireWire Hotswap Issue
From Keith Godin
I understand your complaint with the hardware failure you
experienced with FireWire hot-plugging. Computers should work as
advertised, and FireWire was advertised with the much hyped technology
of hotplugging. However, I think it's unreasonable to expect a computer
to do anything while it's booting besides boot.
I think your provisional moral *is* the moral. Don't hotplug things
in any port while the computer is booting. I also think that your
in-passing assertion that USB2 is somehow better in this respect is
simply unnecessary. There is no evidence to believe so, and I see no
reason to think that USB2 is not also plagued by this issue, which is
probably more related to the order in which software drivers are loaded
than anything else.
Both FireWire and USB were designed to allow hotplugging after the
system has fully booted, however, and so I would think that there is no
cause for alarm and that people can continue to use this feature as
they have in the past.
Overall, I did find your article to be informative and thoughtful,
as usual.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Kieth,
Thanks. I have no problem waiting for the machine to
boot to plug things in if that's what's required. I had just been
laboring under the misapprehension that hot plugging meant that you
could plug in any old time, and the advertising for FireWire has never
in my recollection said not to plug in while booting.
However, Fred's letter above seems to imply that USB
might not share this restriction.
Charles
FW hotplugin
From Ralph Kuschke
Hi, Mr. Moore!
Never touch a booting system is the first computing order.
There is nothing to argue about this, never ever, it doesn't depend on
the manufacture of hard- or software.
I say this as I find the article a bit too confused whether FW is
good for hot-plugin. It definitely is, but you need to behave in terms
of the basic set of rule(s). Like with SCSI. Remember: Any person with
some basic knowledge or any printed advice said clearly: don't
attach/detach devices while the machine is powered on (even in sleep
mode). It's a basic rule. Don't ever break it, because you will destroy
something.
So, what you experienced, is the breaking of the first amendment of
FW, let's say.
The article is delivering the wrong content. You behaved wrong, but
there was no malfunction of the system.
I am sorry for my noisiness, but I thought it was needed to clarify
this.
Other than that, keep on burning (and writing, of course)!
Best wishes from Germany,
R
Hi Ralph,
No argument from me on the point. That "first
amendment" should just be more widely publicized and clearly
articulated amidst all the hype about hot plugging.
However, Apple specifically says that USB and FireWire
devices can be hot plugged without putting the machine to sleep or
shutting down, and even ADB devices were approved for
connecting/disconnecting when the machine was asleep. I did it for
years with no problems. I always shut down before attaching/detaching
SCSI devices (unless the machine is frozen and won't respond), however
my son has been hot plugging SCSI stuff for years and has never
experienced any hardware damage (although I don't recommend this).
My favorite SCSI hot-plugging story is the time
Tristan had my old LC 520 dialed
up to the Internet while he was working on a Power Mac 9500 we had. He needed a
hard drive to test something he had repaired on the 9500, so without
bothering to shut down the LC or even a log off the Net, he popped the
Quantum 160 MB hard drive out of its easily accessible bay in the back
of the 520, did what he needed to do with it on the 9500, and then
reinserted it in the LC, which had remained running and dialed up to
the Internet throughout. Never missed a beat throughout. The LC and
hard drive are still going strong more than three years later, in daily
use by my wife. ;-)
Charles
RE: FireWire: Hot Swapping Isn't Always a Good
Idea
From: Michael Zuhlke
Charles,
My friend and I found out the hard way that you should never
hot-swap a FireWire device. I brought my FireWire external 2.5" hard
drive over to connect it to his Power Mac G4/533, and when
he plugged it in, we heard a pop accompanied by the smell of burned
circuitry. Before I could stop him, he plugged it into his running
Pismo, and the same
thing happened! Since he purchased the PM G4 with a credit card a year
and a half before, he was covered on repairs for a full second year (he
didn't and never does buy AppleCare). As for the Pismo, it has 2
FireWire ports, so he'll just have to get by with the one that is left.
After he had the logic board replaced on the PM G4, he bought a
FireWire PCI card and uses that. If the card goes, it is cheaper than
paying to replace an out-of-warranty logic board. People with notebook
computers should be extra careful NOT to hot-plug, or buy a CardBus
FireWire card.
Michael
Hi Michael,
A good cautionary tale. I've been hot-plugging my Que
M2 FireWire hard drive into my Pismo and iBook (although not while
booting), but I'm a bit spooked after this episode with the Umax,
notwithstanding that all seems to have been resolved now, and will be
much more cautious in the future.
Good point about using PCI or CardBus cards as a port
buffer. If the FireWire card had been damaged in the Umax, it would
have been an inexpensive replacement.
Charles
PowerBook Tech
From Mark Schroder
Hi Charles,
I saw a note that you posted on lowendmac.com in reference to
Powerbooktech.com. Do you know how I can reach them? They don't respond
to email and I can't find their telephone number. Any ideas on how to
reach them?
Thanks a lot.
Mark
Mark Schroder
VP Creative Services
Purple Sage Design, Inc.
http://www.purplesagedesign.com
Hi Mark,
Their Website still comes up:*
http://www.powerbooktech.com/contact.fib
Here's their contact info:
sales@powerbooktech.com
Post:
PowerBook Tech
1404 Spruce St.,
Berkeley CA 94709
No phone number, though.
If you can;t get hold of them, alternatives might
be:
PowerBookResQ
http://www.powerbookresq.com/
There's an email form on the Website.
1-866-Mac-Repair.
PowerBookResQ
1320 Galaxy Way
Suite 200
Concord, CA 94520
Ph. (925) 689-9488
Fax (925) 689-9487
High End Communications of West Nyack, NY, is offering
a new Apple Laptop Repair service built for customers from around the
US who need 'Book repairs done quickly.
For a set price High End Communications covers a 3 way
shipping (box to customer, laptop to office, and laptop to customer),
and a diagnostic report within 24 hours.
For more information, visit:
http://www.highendcommunications.com/
Phone and email info on Website.
MicroDoc
MicroDoc offers a full one year warranty on
repairs
• PowerBook, G4, and iMac repairs.
• Fast turnaround. Most repairs are completed and shipped within
24 hours.
• Predictable fees. All repairs are flat-rated.
• No repair; no charge. If your unit is unrepairable, you pay
nothing but the shipping charges.
• One full year warranty on repairs.
• Exchanged boards carry OEM warranty.
425 Lincoln St.
Eugene, OR 97401
(541)344-5335
(800)203-5337
FAX: (541)344-5020
http://www.microdocusa.com/repairs.html
Charles
* Editor's note: We try to verify every link when we publish an
article, and as I proofread this column, I cannot access powerbooktech.com at all. This may
be a temporary problem. dk
re. Pismo Screen Repair
From Chris Houston
Charles,
Thanks for the link to the Pismo screen repair info. Very
enlightening and hope-inspiring for the screen-hobbled out there! Great
to have alternatives to Apple's astronomic repair costs.
Do you know of any similar site/info regarding TiBook screen
replacements? Including not only instructions, but also compatible
parts? There seem to be lots of screens on
eBay, but knowing which one(s) work is, obviously, essential.
Thanks again,
Chris Houston
Hi Chris,
Not that I know of, and Google didn't turn up
anything. If anyone out there knows of such a tutorial, let us
know.
Charles
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