FireWire Sleep Issues and a Dead Pismo
From Scott following up on Dual
USB iBook Keeps Going and Going:
I accidentally discovered another clue in the mystery. I noticed the
600 MHz iBook only keeps
the FireWire hard drive powered up when the AC adapter is plugged in
while it's asleep. When it's on battery, it shuts the FireWire hard
drive down when the computer is asleep. This FireWire hard drive is
powered through the FireWire bus by the computer.
A couple of days ago I responded to an advertisement on Craigslist for a PowerBook for sale. It
turned out to be a 500 MHz
Pismo in barely used condition. It's had so little use that the
buttons on the keyboard aren't even shiny. It has no AC adapter and, of
course, the battery is completely dead, so there's no way of knowing if
it runs. The guy delivered it to my house in person, and I gave him $50
cash for it. I figure it's worth that just as a parts machine if it
doesn't run. The guy said it does run, and I believe him. I hope so,
cuz I've always wanted a Pismo, but until now they've been too
expensive for me.
Scott
Hi Scott,
Thanks for the follow-up about the iBook FireWire
power-down issue.
Sounds like you got a great buy on that Pismo.
Shouldn't be too hard to find a power adapter. A fairly comprehensive
selection will work. The Pismo came with the same "flying saucer" or
"yo-yo" adapter that shipped with the original iBooks. You can also use
the compact rectangular adapters that came with the WallStreet and Lombard, and the bulkier ones from
the PowerBook 1400 and 3400/3500. I'm using a 1400 adapter with
one of our Pismos these days.
FastMac will also be happy to sell you one of their
really great and quite reasonably priced power adapters. I'm using one
of those with my 17"
PowerBook (they're available with either the older or newer type
power connector jack).
Charles
Editor's note: I currently have a bus-powered FireWire
drive connected to my "Mystic" Power Mac G4, and when the computer goes
to sleep, it also stops powering the FireWire drive. As FireWire
provides up to 1.25A at 12V (vs. 0.5A at 5V for USB) and Sleep is an
energy saving setting, it makes sense that bus power would be cut in
sleep mode. BTW, most USB ports on notebook computers also stop
providing bus power when the computer is sleeping, and most USB PCI
cards in desktop computers also do this. dk
I bought a yo-yo adapter from someone on the LEM swap list. I don't really know if it's
working though. It's a little bit warm to the touch, but there's no
green or orange glow on the tip of the plug like the newer ones. The
Pismo won't do anything. I tried it with and without the main battery
and with and without the PRAM battery installed. I tried a PRAM reset
[Cmd-Opt-P-R at startup - ed], and I tried reseating the CPU.
There's no sign of life at all with the Pismo; that's what makes me
wonder if the yo-yo is good. Is there an easy way to test it without
getting another laptop to plug it into?
Scott
Hi Scott,
Testing for output with a voltmeter is theoretically
possible, although difficult because both electrical contacts are
coaxial on the connector plug's central prong, which is shrouded by the
outer collar. You would need voltmeter leads that are very small.
The best solution would be if you could find a
known-good power adapter that you could try and see if the Pismo would
boot from that. I'm a bit leery of yo-yo adapters, because one of them
is my prime suspect in frying the Power Manager Unit in one of my
Pismos last year, although I can't categorically affirm that.
There are at least two different series of yo-yo
adapters, and I'm informed that the more problematic ones are the units
made by Dongguan Samsung in China.
Charles
Orinoco PC Cards in AirPort Base Stations
From Chris:
Charles,
Just to clarify one of your
letters today, the original Graphite AirPort Base Stations have
WaveLAN Orinoco Silver PC Cards in them, and the Snow AirPort Base
Stations have original 802.11b Apple AirPort cards in them.
Chris Kilner
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the additional info.
Charles
Editor's note: After posting that Miscellaneous
Ramblings Mailbag column, I found a Graphite AirPort Base Station on
eBay for $15 shipped. It arrived a few days later, and when I
disassembled it, I indeed found an Orinoco Silver WaveLAN card inside.
I can report that it works just fine with Apple's AirPort drivers in
the 266 MHz "WallStreet"
PowerBook I was recently given, although I have also discovered
that it is incompatible with RAM Doubler 9.0 and 9.0.1, at least under
Mac OS 9.2.2. (I only have 64 MB of RAM at present, so RAM Doubler
would have really helped. I hope to acquire 512 MB of RAM, install my
old 20 GB Travelstar drive, and get Tiger up and running in this
machine.) dk
Safari 3.2.3 vs. Safari 4 Beta
From Tom:
Hey Charles,
I installed the Safari 3.2.3 update mentioned in your Mac News Review and want to let you
and the LEM readers know about the results.
I had the most recent previous Safari version running on my 500 MHz
Pismo in "Tiger" (Mac OS X 10.4.11) and had pretty much stopped
using it because it was so slow loading pages in direct comparison with
Camino and Firefox.
But I've tested 3.2.3 on some of the slowest pages to load (such as
eBay), and even on a good wireless connection, it is a quantum
improvement - I mean fast, faster even than Firefox, which in
subjective comparison on my machine is the fastest. Could Apple have
taken some of the speed improvements in the Safari Beta 4 and used them
in this upgrade?
I don't know, but if it keeps up like this, it'll be my default
browser from now on!
Keep up the great work!
God Bless,
Tom Gabriel
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the report.
I must get around to downloading and installing the
update myself. I'm still using whatever version of Safari installed
with OS X 10.4.11 on my Pismo. It's respectably lively - at least
as good as Firefox/Camino on my dialup setup, but not nearly as fast as
Opera 10 Turbo Alpha
with Turbo compression activated.
Charles
Oops - I may have been mistaken. As I used the new Safari for
several minutes more, it began freezing even on pages I had visited
before - wouldn't upload them, wouldn't tell me it quit and couldn't
load, nothing. Checking my wireless connection on another browser
yielded nothing; Firefox worked as it always did.
I ran normal maintenance with Onyx to no
avail.
I've no idea what's going on, but it is not working properly -
everything else in the system does, and it is very disappointing.
Has anyone else experienced this?
God Bless,
Tom Gabriel
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the quick follow-up.
It may be premature to condemn Safari 3.2.3, but there
seems to be an issue. As I noted, I've not installed this version, and
I'm even running version 3.1.2 (the default install with "Leopard"
OS X 10.5.6) on my Unibody MacBook.
Charles
Charles,
This is getting ridiculous, but here is my further and (I think)
final experience with Safari updates, i.e. how I resolved the issues
with Safari 3.2.3.
To make a long story short, completely on a whim (and a shot in the
dark) I upgraded to Safari 4
Beta, and it fixed everything! When it becomes a final release, I
will surely download that too, because it (a) solved the repeating
freeze in loading pages, and (b) it's just as fast and (c) after hours
of use is flawless in operation and rock-solid stable.
With my limited video RAM in the Pismo, a couple of fancy features
are missing, but I don't mind. It's Safari, it works, it's fast, and I
like it a lot.
So, I can only advise that those who are having troubles with the
3.2.3 update need only go to Apple and download Safari Beta 4 and
install it, and their troubles should be over!
God Bless,
Tom Gabriel
Hi Tom,
Glad to hear that it's sorted out. I downloaded and
installed the Safari 4 Beta on my 17" PowerBook a couple of months or
so ago and liked it, although Opera Turbo is still the speed king for
those of us still in dialup land by a wide margin.
Charles
Pinkish iBook Screen
From Michael:
Hi Charles,
I am a big fan of Low End Mac. I read new content almost every day
on either my 12" PowerBook or my iPod
touch. I have also seen a few well worn 500 MHz iBook G3s keep chugging
right along. It would be a shame to see a pinkish screen cause somebody
to end the career of such a great computer. The pinkish tint is caused
by a dying florescent backlight lamp. It should be replaced so that
this low-end Mac can stay useful.
While it is open, I would recommend slapping a 160 GB hard drive
into it and possibly a Combo drive, if the budget permits.
eBay is my iBook parts supplier of choice. All of those 600-900 MHz
G3s that have failed over the years have left a glut of used parts for
sale at bargain prices.
I find it very sad that these 500s are no good at Internet video,
Flash, iChatAV, or Skype, but they are still very useful for
most else. How many people just want to use iPhoto 5 with their camera,
iTunes for their iPod, and surf the Web? Do I sound like a Low End Mac
reader or what? :)
Michael Voigt
Hi Michael,
You do! ;-)
The Pismo screen backlight CCFL tube is
user-replaceable, provided the user is handy at taking things apart and
doesn't mind doing a bit of soldering. I haven't priced replacement
tubes recently, but as I recall, they used to be under $20. I'm told
that it's a good idea to buy two, as there is some risk of breakage
during the installation process.
Another practical alternative is to just swap over a
complete display lid assembly from another, defunct PowerBook. I have a
dead Pismo with an excellent display, and my intention is to use that
to replace the one that's going pink when I can find the time.
Hard drive replacements in G3 PowerBooks are so easy
that one need not wait for a major disassembly job. Takes me about 20
minutes to change a Pismo hard drive without hurrying, and even less
with WallStreets and Lombards. I have a Seagate 100 GB drive in my
workaday Pismo. It's pleasantly quiet (although not as silent as the
160 GB Hitachi drive in my Unibody MacBook) but a tad
slow.
Being stuck with a dialup Internet connection thus
far, the Pismo's shortcomings with handling streamed video, et al., has
not been an issue for me yet. Daystar at one point was
considering developing a video upgrade for the Pismo, but nothing ever
came of it.
I use Photoshop Elements 4 with my Pismo, and it works
fine.
Charles
Wegener iBook Repair Experience
From Josh:
Charles,
In response to the gentleman who was considering having his iBook repaired, I would echo
your recommendation that he leave it be and just get a new (used) one
for $170. Two years ago I sent my G4
iBook to Wegener for a video board repair (it was on its second
logic board, and when it broke the second time, the warranty had
already expired). I paid Wegener the $150 or so, got it back, and the
problem was still there. I sent it back to Wegener, and they informed
me that mine was an "unusual case" and they were sorry that the repair
didn't work. They didn't offer a refund, but did offer to put in a new
logic board for the cost of the board itself ($350). Having already
sunk money into it for no return, I decided to approve the repair. It
ended up taking them 4 months to get the computer back to me, because
they were having a difficult time locating a new board.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that I got my 1 GHz iBook back, but only
after sinking $500 into it ($150 for the flawed repair and $350 for a
new logic board). They'd also gouged the screen at the top during the
repair - nothing that a little Vaseline applied periodically can't fix,
but frustrating nonetheless. The computer has worked fine since then,
but I don't know if it was worth the cost. (That $500 would have gone a
long ways towards getting a used or refurbished MacBook.) After my
experience with Wegener, I'd say don't bother with the $150 repair -
it's a crapshoot whether it will actually work. Instead, you have to
decide if it's worth the cost of a new logic board or not. In
hindsight, considering the actual market value of a used iBook (G3 or
G4) these days, I'd say it's not. Take it for what it's worth.
Many thanks for a great column and a great site!
Regards,
Josh
Hi Josh,
I agree. If you can find a good logic board on the
cheap and install it yourself (a daunting task with the iBook, to say
the least), then repairing a defective machine might make some sense,
but with the heavily depreciated prices and still-robust supply of used
and refurbished iBooks, buying another computer would almost always be
the way to go.
Last year, I managed to fry the Power Manager Unit in
my best Pismo thanks (I think) to either a faulty yo-yo power adapter
and/or a damaged extension cord. I opted to buy a stripped down Pismo
from Wegener Media and swapped in the hard drive, processor
daughtercard, RAM, battery, and optical drive from the malfunctioning
Pismo, which took about half an hour - a low-hassle fix.
Charles
iPhone Tips for Teachers
From Andrew:
Howdy,
A long time ago, I contributed to Low End Mac with the Mac to the Future column (writing as Kel
Taylor). Wow, going back and reading those was weird! Since then, I've
actually worked for Apple twice, as a Campus Rep in college and at an
Apple Store last summer. But I've been a teacher now for five years,
smack-dab in the middle of Dell country (Round Rock, TX), and have
still managed to hang on to my Apple enthusiasm.
I've started a website, www.iphonetips4teachers.info.
Sadly, my writing skills haven't improved much, but at least I have a
specific target audience.
I just need help getting the word out. If you can't mention it on
your site, please share it with any teachers you might know (whether
they have iPhones or not).
Thanks for allowing me to write for your site all those years ago.
I'm glad to see its still there!
-Andrew Morris
Hi Andrew,
Glad to hear you're still in the game, and best
swishes for the new website.
Charles
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