My PowerBook's right fan has been making loud noises, skipping on occasion, and choking on dust bunnies half the time it's on. I run Seti@Home, so the fans run quite often. Since I already had experience opening up my PowerBook thanks to iFixit's helpful guides to replace my hard-drive (details in previous blog entry in March), I decided to do something about the loud fan before my notebook died for good.



I ordered both left and right fans (you can never be too sure) from iFixit. Today they arrived, so after backing up my hard-drive (while we ate dinner), setting up a workspace (Ricky free due to the puppy fence we have setup in the computer/Ricky room), and making sure all my tools were in easy reach, I began my deepest surgery yet into my PowerBook. You can see the gory details from the example iFixit pics above and can read the process from iFixit's guide here. As you can see, I had to actually remove practically everything inside the PowerBook including the logicboard. There are about 17 different ribbon/thin cables to disconnect and tons of screws. Luckily, just like the last PowerBook surgery, I used iFixit's excellent screw organization system with some tape to prevent any mixups. One of the things I had to do when putting it all back together was scrape old heat transfer material from the CPU and heatsink...and also from the ATI graphics array/heatsink. After cleaning with isopropyl Alcohol and letting it dry, I re-applied new thermal paste from a little Heatsink tub I had from my Overclocking PC days. It's actually the best Heatsink material available according to old [H]ardOCP tests, so I figured it's probably much better than what Apple used in the manufacturing process.



Once everything was back together, I booted up and tested everything I could. Everything from the keyboard/trackpad, to all the ports and the Airport/Bluetooth worked perfectly. Not only that, but everything seemed to be running smoother/quicker. Even bootup was much quicker. The CPU Temp was actually running about 5 degrees cooler even with Seti@Home on; and, I could not hear the fans (though I knew they were running). So far it looks like it was a successful transplant and should tide me over until it's next replacement (probably not until next Winter with a 2nd rev MacBook Pro).

And just so it doesn't look like I'm TOTALLY out of sync with what's going on out there in Apple land... yes I know about BootCamp. It is pretty cool (though those who used the previous hack to do pretty much the same thing have to do a full reinstall). I still think that true Virtualization using the kernel optimized Qemu would be a better solution to run necessary windows apps on top of OSX. Then again, it is a good idea for when you want to play the occasional PC only game.

UPDATE:
I guess I spoke to soon... Parallels Workstation was announced today. It's a new piece of software that provides full Virtualization support under OSX. This means you can run at "near native" speeds multiple OS's like Linux and Windows XP on top of OSX on a MacIntel and be significantly faster than Emulators like Qemu and MS Virtual PC (which is still PPC only). Though this would make a great way to test out Windows Browsers while developing on top of OSX... and use Corporate mandated PC software, it is probably not an ideal environment for running the more demanding PC games. When I eventually get a MacIntel (probably not until next winter) I would mostly stay in OSX, run Parallels Workstation for the occasional Windows/Linux test or NBC Remote Access, then use BootCamp to play any Windows only heavy games. Of course, it would be better if those games were available for OSX (like Star Wars Empire at War, but at least there will be a way (or multiple ways) to play them on the same box now.




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Tags: fan, apple, powerbook, macbook, repair, mac, ifixit, bootcamp

I received my new 160GB 2.5" perpendicular HardDrive and an mobile firewire/usb case yesterday via FedEx. Once I had my PowerBook cleaned up with Cocktail and Diskwarrior, I initialized the new HD through the external case/firewire and ran CarbonCopyCloner for the rest of the day.

Last night after having a little Battlestar Galactica mini Season Finale gathering, I swapped the new drive into my PowerBook. It wasn't exactly a difficult process, but it wasn't for a novice either (and definitely not for the faint of heart). The detailed instructions on iFixit.com were a GREAT help, as were their "Screw guide" PDFs which when printed, provides a nice way to organize the different sized mini screws I had to remove from the PowerBook. Good thing I opened it up because there were dustbunnies and embedded crud everwhere. Some of the screws were loose too from long term temperature creep.



The operation was a success and now I'm blogging from my newly re-invigorated PowerBook! The fit and finish weren't marred (which is important with the Alu PB) and it even seems "tighter" and more "solid" now since I was able to make sure all the screws and fasteners were factory tight again. The new HD is much quicker feeling then my old dying one, and it's dead silent (old one became loud, whiny, and clanky).

This should definitely hold me over until the next revs of the MacBook Pros come out, hopefully with a proper DL-DVD drive (or even BlueRay), a faster larger perpendicular HD, and most importantly, the Merom based duocores.

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Tags: crash, apple, powerbook, macbook, repair, ifixit, merom

I finally discovered the primary problem with my PowerBook's HardDrive. During the times it made the loud screeching start/stop noises (usually when I was moving the laptop), I also had to hard reboot a few times from a crash. This results in a corrupt Spotlight index sometimes. A corrupt Spotlight index will keep trying to reindex in a never-ending cycle that results in the pauses I've been seeing with the "eternal spinning beachball." Others in various forums also experienced Spotlight index corruption from the 10.4.4 OSX update and carried it over to the fixed 10.4.5 (which fixed most people's spotlight corruption problems). It's from those forums that I found the answer to my short term problems.

To fix the corrupt Spotlight Index, I used a utility called Spotless which let me delete and rebuild the Spotlight Index and reenabling any messed up settings for Spotlight. After that and a reboot, all was (mostly) well again...

I'll still have to upgrade my HardDrive soon, and I'm glad I made the backups I did (I'll have to backup again of course). The fact that my HardDrive had been screeching days before still weighs heavily on my head and I know that it's just a matter of time before it spins its last "Death Spiral." I've decided that the most cost effective option would be to just order a 160GB perpendicular drive 2.5" HD that I can install myself. I'll just use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my current drive to the new one on a firewire connection. Hopefully that will solve my short term system problems. I'd definitely prefer to upgrade to the later MacBook Pros (next revision, probably based on the Intel Merom 64bit mobile chips) than the current one so this HD swap is the best solution for now.

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Tags: spotlight, apple, spotless, corrupt, harddrive, powerbook, carbon copy cloner

Murphy sure likes to lay down the law at the most inopportune times...

For the past few days, my Powerbook has been acting "funny." Strange pauses during normal use/activity, longer HardDrive read/write times... and as of two days ago I started getting loud stop/start sounds from the HardDrive. These aren't the usual "clickity click whine" startup sounds, but actual "SCREECH, buzzzzz, click click whine" sounds. My wife and dog were startled when they heard the sounds from across the apartment. Needless to say that this does NOT bode well for the old portable workhorse. It's had its fair share of bumps, dents, and bruises, but it has always trudged through with aplomb. Now it sounds like my laptop HardDrive is on its last legs. I did the prudent thing and made multiple backups using Apple's Backup utility, made copies of my work files (which I keep on an external portable drive anyway, but I wanted to be safe), and made multiple backup Vaults in Apple Aperture to save my precious photos.

At this point my Powerbook is again running "ok" but with the occasional slowness/hiccup. I know the problem isn't fully gone and am weighing my options. I know what you're thinking, "prime time to get the new MacBook Pro eh?"... but my current budget (saving for a trip to Asia this May) says, "I don't think so." Besides, most of my pro Apps still do not have released Universal versions (most important being Final Cut Studio and Aperture). Luckily my work was in the process of ordering me a Quad G5 PowerMac workstation and Cinema Display already, so if that arrives soon I won't be in a lurch at the office (I've been using my laptop as my primary workstation for the past two years... Video Editing, Photoshop work, Motion and Flash). And with my files backed up, my personal files, photos, emails, contacts, calendars , etc. will all be safe. But it still would suck royally if I had to do without my PowerBook for an extended period of time.



Another option I have is to get the HardDrive replaced/upgraded at MacResQ. They have a good program with 24hour turnaround shipping time. Prices are still fairly high, but at least they are cheaper than a new MacBook Pro. Besides, I really really wanted to get the next revision of the MacBooks which I assume would be coming in 6-8 months. If I do go with this option, I'll wait until the Quad arrives and is setup. I may even wait until after my Asia trip if my PowerBook lasts.... but maybe I shouldn't take the chance. Given the money, I would probably prefer the MacBookPro option, but budgets have a tendency to rear their ugly heads.

Now the reason for the title of this post is that my PowerBook wasn't the only gadget I had that screamed for "Mommy." My new Qtek 9100 phone had a fit yesterday when its battery gave out and I tried to charge it using one of those portable alkaline battery chargers for miniUSB Peripherals. These things are sold as accessories to the HTC Wizard based phones (like my Qtek) at most online phone shops, so I thought it would be cool to have. I don't know if it was the batteries I used (Energizer Max), or the fact that the phone needs specific power requirements to actually charge (5.5v, 1Amp... some chargers for miniUSB are 2amp and aren't suited). It looked like it was starting to charge, but ended up fully discharged instead... and I mean DEEP discharged. As in "won't even startup when plugged to a computer." I wasn't near my AC charger and feared that my new phone was dead, so I went to a T-mobile store to pick up an MDA spare battery and charger (T-Mobile HTC MDA is the same hardware as my phone). They unfortunately didn't have the battery, but they had one travel charger left. After getting back to the "in-laws house" (we were doing laundry), I attached the charger, and suddenly the phone came back to life.... SORT OF.

I wasn't able to go into Phone mode, or even see my programs. It kept giving memory full errors. Checking memory from the system settings said that I had plenty to work with... uh oh. I was freaking out at that point thinking that my phone had gone the way of the dodo. I let it charge for awhile and then did a Hard Reset (brings back factory defaults, and essentially wipes the slate clean by reformatting the storage memory).



Luckily I had purchased SPB Backup earlier last week and was able to restore my software up to that point along with all my settings and contact/calendar info. I re-installed the software I've been playing with the past 2 weeks (after the last backup), and then came up with the same Memory error and dead pda/phone again. A-HA!!! It turns out my RegistryTweaking software was to blame (I recently updated it with a "fixed" version... apparently not). So again I Hard Reset, this time using a deeper Hard Reset sequence that actually formatted the Qtek (it actually brought up a character display saying Formatting FAT... DOS geeks among us would be smiling at this point). After bringing it up to date with the last backup, and installing my programs/games from the last two weeks minus the Registry Tweak program (but including an updated SPB Backup) I made sure everything was working and performed a new full Backup just in case. At that point it was 1 in the morning and I needed sleep. I didn't reinstall my Overclocking utility and the associated programs to make sure it runs whenever the phone comes out of sleep and haven't decided if I should risk using that again. This experience scared me a bit so I think I may play it safe with the system tweaking utilities for my phone for awhile.

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Tags: crash, apple, powerbook, macbook, macresq, windowsmobile, hardreset