On January 31, 2001, I bought the first PowerBook G4 to reach my local Apple dealer. I
also bought AppleCare, which I consider a good idea for anyone buying a
new 'Book. After all, almost any repair will cost more than the
AppleCare policy (currently US$349 on the PowerBook G4, US$249 on the
iBook).
The keyboard alone sells for $165, and mine needs to be replaced.
The space bar gave out on mine, and my Apple dealer has a replacement
en route. Of course, that's nothing compared with the horrible luck my
wife has had with her 600 MHz 14"
iBook; she's on her third or fourth keyboard, and some of the
printed letters are wearing off the current keyboard.
While AppleCare doesn't cover damage to your computer, it does cover
the keyboard wearing out or keys popping off, the hard drive failing
(over the past year or so, most hard drive makers have gone to a one
year warranty on their mechanisms, providing yet another argument in
favor of AppleCare), or screen problems.
The problem with AppleCare on 'Books is screen problems - which is
exactly what I've been dealing with since I brought my TiBook home.
There's a dark section in the bottom center, which I suspect is caused
by the backlight. My dealer tells me that they can't fix it; only Apple
can perform the repair.
The US$650 screen is covered by AppleCare, but even if Apple offered
the kind of service PowerBookResQ
does with overnight shipping each way and no more than 24 hours at the
service center, that means a minimum of three days without my
PowerBook.
Nice as AppleCare is, I really need this computer to run my
business. I can't afford to be without it for three days to a week
while Apple fixes a defect that's been present since the beginning.
What To Do?
That brings me to the subject of this article: What kind of backup
hardware should a laptop owner have?
And I'll answer it with our stock Low End Mac answer: It
depends.
We'll start by looking at my situation. I have a 400 MHz PowerBook
G4 with 512 MB of RAM, a 20 GB internal drive (which also needs to be
replaced, but that's a third-party replacement), and I work under
OS X.
The SuperMac
Mac OS X is the glitch. I have a reliable old SuperMac S900 with a 333 MHz G3 upgrade and
a 19" monitor, so I'd have close to the same speed and a bit more
screen space. Problem is, the SuperMac isn't supported under OS X.
Fortunately it is supported by XPostFacto, the greatest hack for installing an unsupported
Mac OS since Born Again let
us install Mac OS 8.1 on 68030-based hardware.
I could pick up a 4.5 GB SCSI drive from MacResQ
for $16 plus shipping (wow!) and 16 MB DIMMs for $5 each plus shipping
(see ramseeker) or 256
meggers for $26 plus shipping from Other World Computing. This
could give me the drive space and memory I need to get by for about
$60. I could borrow USB and FireWire cards from other machines.
I have an external FireWire drive. I could use Carbon Copy Cloner to
move everything to it, and I will need to do that when I have the 20 GB
TravelStar drive replaced. But I don't have another computer that can
boot into OS X from an external FireWire drive.
Because I depend on Mail for a portion of my work, I have no choice
but to stick with OS X at this point. (This was one reason I
waited to start using Mail until I was sure I could live with OS X
every day. Jaguar made that possible, and I've been an OS X user
since January 2003.)
The Beige G3
I could use the beige G3/333 (upgraded
from 266 MHz) that my youngest son uses. It's already running Jaguar.
The 288 MB of RAM would get me by for the short term. The biggest
drawback I can see is not being able to boot from a FireWire drive,
which might make it more difficult to move everything back to the
TiBook later on.
The beige G3 has a big, fast hard drive as well as USB. I could drop
in a FireWire card. But there's a problem.
I need a screen no smaller than the 1152 x 768 display I have on my
TiBook. That might seem large to some of you, but for someone
constantly switching between programs, running multiple browsers, and
spoiled by 1280 x 1024 monitors in the past, it's the least space I can
work with. (This is precisely whey the TiBook was my first PowerBook -
it was the first to provide the amount of screen space I need to work
efficiently. And I'd love to upgrade to one of the newer 1280 x 854
models.)
Unfortunately, the beige G3 doesn't support any resolution higher
than 1024 x 768 on the 17" Apple monitor connected to it, so I'd need
to look into a very sharp 17" display or a very affordable 19" one.
CPU power isn't a big issue. I suspect I could live comfortably with
a 333 MHz G3 for a week while Apple replaces my TiBook's screen or
repairs the backlight. Still, I'd be depriving my son of the computer
he uses for home schooling - and that's not a good idea at all.
The Blue & White G3
My needs point to a blue & white Power
Mac G3 as the least computer that can replace my 400 MHz PowerBook
G4 in a pinch. The blue & white has FireWire and USB ports as well
as video comparable to what's inside my TiBook. Online prices start at
US$250 plus shipping for a 300 MHz 256/6/CD-ROM setup (cheaper from
some dealers than from some eBay
sellers!). Memory is dirt cheap - I could add 256 MB for US$35 shipped
according to ramseeker.
The small drive isn't a problem, since I'd be using an external
drive in a FireWire enclosure. The next expense would be a 17" or 19"
monitor, which is the smallest that works well at 1152 x 854. Figure
$150 for a 17" or $200 for a decent 19" Viewsonic - and pick it up
locally to avoid shipping fees.
All told, it would cost at least US$450 to have a backup system to
replace my TiBook so it can go in for service.
Although I have some lower cost options based on hardware currently
in the home, picking up a b&w G3 looks like a much better
alternative than taking over a computer used for home schooling or
another one used to build an online business around a virtual pet site.
(Omegapets served 1.5
million pages in the month it was online and may already be the #2
virtual pet site on the Web.)
It's a low-end solution, and with my even lower end budget, I'll
probably check with some local sources to see if I might be able to
find such a setup for even less. And there's always the possibility of
selling it when I get my TiBook back.
What About eMac?
The eMac supports up to 1280 x 960 on
a 17" display, but I haven't taken a close look at one yet. I have seen
prices in the US$650-750 range,
although that varies a bit from week to week. If the display is crisp
enough, would it be worth an extra $200-300 vs. a b&w G3 setup with
a nice 17" or cheap 19" display?
That's hard to say. I could definitely get by with the entry level
eMac, since I have an external CD-ROM burner and don't need a modem,
although not having a modem could make it harder to resell down the
road.
I think the biggest drawback of an eMac would be getting spoiled.
I'm comfortable with my 400 MHz G4 TiBook; spending a week at 700 MHz
with Quartz Extreme and a fast external FireWire hard drive would make
it hard to go back to the TiBook. I'd want to do something foolish like
overclock it, which would kill the remainder of my AppleCare coverage.
(Then again, once the keyboard and screen are replaced, that might not
be such a bad thing. 500-550 MHz would be a nice improvement....)
Other Options?
I'm looking into renting a TiBook from Platypus
and Best PC
Rentals. Based on the few prices I've seen online, I don't
expect this to be a reasonable alternative to buying a b&w G3,
using it for a week, and then selling it.
I can't think of any other options, but maybe if someone near Grand
Rapids, MI, has a spare Mac available short term....
Conclusion
Your needs are probably different from mine, but if you have a
laptop that can't be fixed locally, you should probably give some
thought to what you'd do if it needed to go in for service for several
days or a week. If you depend on your 'Book to get your work done, give
some serious thought to a hardware backup plan.
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