I got my Powerbook G3 Lombard last night, and let me tell you this thing is rife with problems, so I'm just gonna vent.
1) Heat! This thing gets HOT. At first I thought it might be because there was a high-performance top-of-the-line chip stuck inside a case so sleek and streamlined that clearly Apple couldn't put in the same cooling as a desktop. But then I was reading that there may be a problem with the application of the thermal paste, so I'm thinking of cracking open my brand new (to me anyways!) computer to see if this is indeed the problem. I mean, I bought this 6 pound machine as a LAPtop, and I'll be damned if I'll get stuck putting it on a table or desk. That's for DESKtops! Laptops are for crotches only!
2) I love the black, but it seems like I paid a premium for it, when I could have bought a cheap grey Powerbook 1400 for a lot less instead. Not to mention that this thing has fingerprints visible on it EVERYWHERE. Who knows if I'll be able to get them all off, without using some sort of cleaning mechanism. As far as I know, no such mechanism exists. Oh, and what if it should scratch! I know it's made of hard, black plastic, but what if I drop it in the lion's den at the zoo, and the lion bites in to it? Surely the white plastic underneath would show!
3) Finally, a weird creaking sound comes from my computer when I move it around. Specifically, when I pick it up using two fingers on the very edge of the laptop while it's open, it creaks like it's under stress or like maybe it's going to snap in half! If you do it just right, it even kind of sounds like a 'moo', or, actually, scratch that. What's a good barnyard analogy that a bunch of tech-savvy people could easily agree on... like an extended "baaaaaa" from a sheep. My Powerbook sounds like a sheep. As far as I know, computers aren't meant to sound like sheep!
All in all, I think Apple really dropped the ball on the Powerbook G3. There are heating problems which they refuse to address as being a legitimate concern, the case is prone to scratches and fingerprints, and there's a weird creaking sound that should only be emitted from a medium-sized barnyard animal. What's most frustrating to me is that there are (or could be!) clearly a ton of people on a Macintosh advice forum who are having these same problems, and yet Apple will not accept a return on this product or even acknowledge that there may be something wrong, no matter how many dozens of times a day I call Applecare! I even got told by the so-called "Geniuses" that since the G3's not been sold in years, there's nothing they can do.
I'm giving serious thought to returning this and just getting a Dell or Compaq, because even though they won't run OS X, at least the laptop will stay cool while I play Minesweeper or run AdAware!
1) Heat! This thing gets HOT. At first I thought it might be because there was a high-performance top-of-the-line chip stuck inside a case so sleek and streamlined that clearly Apple couldn't put in the same cooling as a desktop. But then I was reading that there may be a problem with the application of the thermal paste, so I'm thinking of cracking open my brand new (to me anyways!) computer to see if this is indeed the problem. I mean, I bought this 6 pound machine as a LAPtop, and I'll be damned if I'll get stuck putting it on a table or desk. That's for DESKtops! Laptops are for crotches only!
2) I love the black, but it seems like I paid a premium for it, when I could have bought a cheap grey Powerbook 1400 for a lot less instead. Not to mention that this thing has fingerprints visible on it EVERYWHERE. Who knows if I'll be able to get them all off, without using some sort of cleaning mechanism. As far as I know, no such mechanism exists. Oh, and what if it should scratch! I know it's made of hard, black plastic, but what if I drop it in the lion's den at the zoo, and the lion bites in to it? Surely the white plastic underneath would show!
3) Finally, a weird creaking sound comes from my computer when I move it around. Specifically, when I pick it up using two fingers on the very edge of the laptop while it's open, it creaks like it's under stress or like maybe it's going to snap in half! If you do it just right, it even kind of sounds like a 'moo', or, actually, scratch that. What's a good barnyard analogy that a bunch of tech-savvy people could easily agree on... like an extended "baaaaaa" from a sheep. My Powerbook sounds like a sheep. As far as I know, computers aren't meant to sound like sheep!
All in all, I think Apple really dropped the ball on the Powerbook G3. There are heating problems which they refuse to address as being a legitimate concern, the case is prone to scratches and fingerprints, and there's a weird creaking sound that should only be emitted from a medium-sized barnyard animal. What's most frustrating to me is that there are (or could be!) clearly a ton of people on a Macintosh advice forum who are having these same problems, and yet Apple will not accept a return on this product or even acknowledge that there may be something wrong, no matter how many dozens of times a day I call Applecare! I even got told by the so-called "Geniuses" that since the G3's not been sold in years, there's nothing they can do.
I'm giving serious thought to returning this and just getting a Dell or Compaq, because even though they won't run OS X, at least the laptop will stay cool while I play Minesweeper or run AdAware!
