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Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / March 2008Any luck in repairing failing Powerbook wireless?
The wireless in my two-year old powerbook G4 (bought just before the Intels came out) is starting to get flakey. It'll work fine for awhile (no clear pattern in how long) and then shows a big drop-off in signal (when a nearby mini is showing no change) and eventually won't carry any traffic. Rebooting may or may not get it working again, although generally a period of rest (sleep) will. I've read of others that seem to have similar problems, although it's not clear if they are all of the same cause. What luck have people had in getting them fixed? I'm mostly concerned that if it is "the antenna wire through the cover problem" that can't be fixed, but if it's the internal card or how its seated that can be. Ted Lee Minnetonka, MN In article <e7efd54a-60b4-489f-a7f3-550d9ff2bcff@h11g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, > The wireless in my two-year old powerbook G4 (bought just before the > Intels came out) is starting to get flakey. It'll work fine for [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > through the cover problem" that can't be fixed, but if it's the > internal card or how its seated that can be. I don't know what that unfixable problem actually is. But based on your description I think I wouldn't hesitate to open up the laptop and make sure both card and antenna are seated properly. Your description suggests a problem related to temperature, which might be fixed as simply as re-seating things.  SignatureTom "Tom" Harrington Independent Mac OS X developer since 2002 http://www.atomicbird.com/ On Mar 4, 2:40 pm, Tom Harrington <t...@pcisys.no.spam.dammit.net> wrote: > I don't know what that unfixable problem actually is. But based on your > description I think I wouldn't hesitate to open up the laptop and make > sure both card and antenna are seated properly. Your description > suggests a problem related to temperature, which might be fixed as > simply as re-seating things. I'm not too keen on the idea of opening it myself -- I've read some of the instructions and it does not look very easy -- a gazillion little screws (well, at least eight... possibly several more) and you have to push and slide it just the right way -- like a puzzle box. But the idea of paying somebody $100 or so to do it when I'm generally competent with electronics seems stupid! The "unfixable" problem refers to reports that some people have had problems with the antenna wire itself failing, presumably where it flexes going to the lid, and that really looks like a major repair job, not one I'd want to tackle myself. (for those with slightly older powerbooks reading this, the airport card is accessible through the battery compartment in the older ones -- but not in the newer ones where it was factory installed and you have to disassemble the case to get at it.) I've thought of using a PCMCIA card instead to replace the internal one, but it looks like most of them require that the internal one be disconnected. I have found one (by Quickertech) that has its own software and doesn't need the internal one to be disconnected (just not turned on) but I don't know much about it yet. Ted Lee Minnetonka, MN > I'm not too keen on the idea of opening it myself -- I've read some of > the instructions and it does not look very easy -- a gazillion little > screws (well, at least eight... possibly several more) and you have to > push and slide it just the right way -- like a puzzle box. But the > idea of paying somebody $100 or so to do it when I'm generally > competent with electronics seems stupid! The gazillion estimate is closer than the eight. I consider myself reasonably competent with such things; I've built quite a few custom Windows/Linux systems from components, and while I'm a bit of a klutz with my soldering iron, I do have one and use it on occasion. But disassembling my daughter's G4 powerbook to replace its DC-IN board was one of the worst disassemblies I have *EVER* done. Before I even finished getting it apart, I was figuring that the thing would never work again and I was contemplating options for replacement. I was quite surprised when it actually did work after I got it together. I did break one fragile and critical connector in the process and had to use my marginal soldering skills to tack the thing back onto the main board. Apple would have charged about $700 to repair the darn thing, which is why I ventured doing it myself. (It was under warrantee, but they claimed that this kind of problem was caused by "abuse". I disagreed, but what's a guy to do? Hire a lawyer? Over $700? Nope, I happen to know what lawyers charge.) After I was done, I began to have at least some appreciation for why the charge would have been so high, though its still hard to justify $700. But if you can get someone to repair the thing for only $100 or so of labor, I'd say that it is a lot more than $100 worth of work and frustration. (As to whether you actually can get someone to repair it sucessfully, and whether other workarounds might be better, those are questions I don't have any useful comment on.) SignatureRichard Maine | Good judgement comes from experience; email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgement. domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain > > I'm not too keen on the idea of opening it myself -- I've read some of > > the instructions and it does not look very easy -- a gazillion little [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > thing for only $100 or so of labor, I'd say that it is a lot more than > $100 worth of work and frustration. Actually, I don't have a real estimate -- that's just the minimum a local long-time Mac shop charges. ("Tier 1 service"). Just for the fun of it I ought to call them and asked. You convinced me it's not worth the hassle of doing it myself. > (As to whether you actually can get someone to repair it sucessfully, > and whether other workarounds might be better, those are questions I > don't have any useful comment on.) I've found and am about to order a PCMCIA wifi card from Quickertek that they say works even with an internal card still installed and connected. (They've discontinued their b/g card, now that they have a b/g/n card, but the b/g is still available from resellers -- I'm not about to convert everything to n.) The Quickertek comes with its own drivers, so it doesn't use the Airport software (I get the impression from some trouble-shooting instructions that it looks like an ethernet port to the OS). They also say that it works with Leopard. OK, so it'll stick out of the case an inch or so, but that's the side with the power connector and even when I'm running wireless I often have that plugged in, so it won't make much difference. Ted Lee Minnetonka, MN In article <a95e0f75-852e-44b2-8f15-d2f22f1f0677@m34g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>, > I'm not too keen on the idea of opening it myself -- I've read some of > the instructions and it does not look very easy -- a gazillion little > screws (well, at least eight... possibly several more) and you have to > push and slide it just the right way -- like a puzzle box. Er... there are screws to get tot he airport card? Isn't it under the keyboard like other Mac laptops? SignatureBart: This is the worst day of my life. Homer: This is the worst day of your life SO FAR. > In article > <a95e0f75-852e-44b2-8f15-d2f22f1f0677@m34g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>, [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Er... there are screws to get tot he airport card? Isn't it under the > keyboard like other Mac laptops? Ignore this, I replied without reading the whole message, doh! SignatureBart: This is the worst day of my life. Homer: This is the worst day of your life SO FAR. In article <e7efd54a-60b4-489f-a7f3-550d9ff2bcff@h11g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, > The wireless in my two-year old powerbook G4 (bought just before the > Intels came out) is starting to get flakey. It'll work fine for [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > Ted Lee > Minnetonka, MN This is a remarkable coincidence. I just got off the phone with Verizon complaining about slow speed in downloading big files (from Adobe.) I also have the G4 PB (pre Intel) and Airport Extreme. Skipping all the details here, the rep directed me to speakeasy.net where you can test the speed (download and upload) of your connection. Click on SPEED TEST in the lower right hand corner. The next page brings up numerous servers. Click on any one and you'll get your measurement. In my case I found that the separation between the PB and the router was important. Just a start, perhaps, in diagnosing your problem. HFL SignatureChange hlockwood to hflockwood in email address > carry any traffic. Rebooting may or may not get it working again, > although generally a period of rest (sleep) will. I've read of Same here, but quicker than rebooting is just clicking airport off then on (helps about a third of the time for a while anyway) or if that fails, going to the router web page and flicking to another channel (ditto kind of success). Please report back if the reseating approach works... |
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