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

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