PowerBook G4

[34534534534555]

Hi

I have just purchased a PowerBook. I have a few questions:

1. Is it usual for the fan to be on so much? It hardly ever seems to be off and i am working at normal room temperature?

2. Applicatons (the help system) and Office and Mesenger seem to crash fairly often, is this normal, i thought macs were renound for thier stability, and AOL crashes also.

3. I am using the powerbook at home in the evenings, and at the moment during the day also. is it bad for it to be plugged into the mains for long periods of time?

4. Is it usual for the powerbook to take a long time to start-up?

TIA

 

[Ecaboodle]

1. I tell you what you should here the noise the new dual G4 1Ghz makes when it kicks in its fan (WOW). I should the fan will stay on for a while. There it goes again.

2. Sometimes on new machines they take a while to settle in. Give office some more memory.

3. Don't worry about the plugging it into the mains all the time, this is ok.

4. There are a few thing you can do to make the machine boot up quicker. Make sure the correct HDD is selected in the startup control panel. Disable test memery on bootup. (hold 'option + Command' down and launch memory in control panels). Have you rebuilt the desktop file? (option + Command at startup)


If you can't fix it in 20 minutes call someone who can.

 

[34534534534555]

Thanks for your reply.

I am a windows man so please be patient;

1. How do i give office more memory?
2. Re-built the desktop file ?? I changed a few items in the dock ..lol


TIA __________________________________
Create like a God, Command like a King, Work like a slave..

 

[Ecaboodle]

Ow ok, so you are running OS X not classic.

I think thay are the same as classic (OS 9), go to a application, click on the icon and the do command + I this should bring a window up to change the memory.

Not sure about the decktop rebuild under OS X! If you can't fix it in 20 minutes call someone who can.

 

[34534534534555]

Thanks, will give it a go, all is well unless i post here again !

.. __________________________________
Create like a God, Command like a King, Work like a slave..

 

[abaruz]

PowerBook G4, huh? You mentioned Dock, so I presume you're using OS X.

1. There are off, low fan, and high fan modes, I believe, based on the processor temperature. Try elevating the back of the PowerBook to allow heat to circulate out from under. At home I use a little platform; at work I use a Post-It notepad.

2. Hm. Office X doesn't crash on me. How much memory do you have? Are you using the OS 9 Office? If you are, then you can increase the memory by loading Classic (in Preferences), clicking the application icon in the Finder, command-I, clicking Memory in that window, and increasing the number there. (I haven't run any Classic apps in a while, so this sequence may be wrong.)

3. There are Apple TechNotes on this subject, but despite the fact that I have a PB G4 myself, I can't remember whether it is or not. I tried doing the deep-drain to prevent battery memory, but was told by someone non-authoritative that for G4 this is not required (Your Mac is NOT a cell phone). Check the Apple help site and look for PowerBook battery or somesuch.

4. You really should not have to shut down or restart the PowerBook unless OS X panics, you install some annoying third-party driver, or you switch between OS X and OS 9. If it takes a long time to start up, your file system may have a problem. On startup, hold command-S down until it goes into a white-on-black console. Type "/sbin/fsck -y" (no quotes). If it reports *****FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED***** then fsck again. When it stops reporting this, restart.

Rather than restarting your PB G4, try just closing the lid or selecting (Apple menu)->Sleep. No need for a two-minute startup/one-minute login, just open the lid, and hey presto you're working.

The rebuild desktop advice is for OS 9. Not necessary in X.

 

[34534534534555]

Hi abaruz

heh OSX it is..

Thanks for all the tips, i think i'll try a post-it pad!

512mb RAM. I cannot figure out this classic thingy, being a windows man, OSX is a lovely change.

4. Will try this when i am feeling a bit more confident.. for now it is a beast that i need to control before i go poking at it!

I don't like just closing the lid because sometimes i leave it without using it for a day or two, but i guess this is just because it is new.. we'll see whether i shut it down properly ina few weeks.

I have just remembered, OSX crashed and gave me a windows blue screen; saying error you must restart. when i tried connecting to the network of my PC. using the SMB,,

Thanks for all your comments. _________________________________________________
Create like a God, Command like a King, Work like a slave..

 

[macgeneral]

Wow this is one messed up thread. YIKES.

Number one...obviously a "new" powerbook is shipping with OS X. Additionally, application memory is handled by the unix core in X and to my knowledge (which is limited) you are not able to self manage the memory to your individual applications the way you could in 9.x.

In number one are you asking about the hard drive spinning or the fan? Spinning down the hard drive when idle WAS possible in earlier OS releases but I am uncertain if you can still do that with native Mac software. You could check Apple's Knowledge base for articles on Spinning Down the Hard Disk in OS X.

You have warranty left on this machine?
If so, I'd certainly give apple a call and get your free support. I'd be surprised if there's an issue that needs hardware attention but you never know.

What version of X are you running?
(Apple Menu | About This Mac)

You have 512MB on board?
What processor speed in that PB?

I run Some of the office apps and, while I'm not an AOL fan, I've tested the PB with AOL. No troubles. You've had to force quit the Applications or you're getting spinning beach ball at the cursor.

You are also asking about keeping your machine plugged in to power in the evenings? Well no worries on harming the PB but you do want to periodically completely drain the battery then recharge it. Prolongs the life.

And finally you ask about the start up time. Some longer than others. IN previous OS releases there were aliases stored in the Startup Items folder. These would launch, obviously, at start up. Plus there are some recovery functions in Word and Applework. And AOL was notorious for placing pre-launch item in the system folder. Frankly, I haven't been using X enough (about ayear now) to say if these issues carried over.

I hope this aids you in some way.

Macgeneral

 

[bsodmike]

when you plug your lap to the ac adaptor, it goes green then orange. now does it stay orange, get to 100% and stay green then?

What version of OS X?

Thanks, Mike