Foo - Powerbooks - how long did yours last?

I have a powerbook G4 (12") that I've had for a little over three years. It still works fine
except that there is a single row of bad pixels on one side that show up as a red line. Other
than that I've not had to do much with it except replace the hard drive once.

How long have other peoples' powerbooks lasted?

three (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtEPkRK1tlo)

three (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtEPkRK1tlo)


What are the units? 3 days, 3 months, 3 years,

and the tootsie pop commercal?

Sorry, your question made me flashback to my childhood and the original version of that commercial. Anytime I hear "how long blah blah blah?" all I can think of is the old tootsie pop commercial. Never owned a Powerbook, but I bet if an owl bit it after three licks, it would still work.

I have two power books. One is about a year old and the other is about 5. Both work fine, the older one is just too slow for image crunching and is now the coffee house net surfer.

I have a client with a 4 year old PB and one that I finally upgraded to a MBP from a 5 year old PB that still worked but the casing was falling apart.

I still have my PowerBook-100, circa... 1992 or so...

i have been using the same g4 dual usb ibook for three years, it has been dropped once atleast,
was wearing it on my back in a back pack

)when i got hit by a truck when i broke my leg
)the month + i spent back packing in Europe
)every time i have been cycle touring
)when i rode my motorcycle across country
)most of my photography assignments

it has had a rough life, it still has the orignal battery. I have sent it into apple care only once when the wires in the hinge wore out and caused the lcd screen to burn out in late 06

My 6 year old G4 still works fine, just not as fast or bright as my new machine.

I still have my PowerBook G3 from back in 2000. I love that computer, but the DVD drive and battery eventually died. Still works if I keep it plugged in and I'm not using the DVD, though ;). I sometimes set it up as a wireless base station.

My one-year old MacBook, on the other hand, has been a lemon from the start.

- Battery stopped working, got it replaced
- Trackpad button stopped working, got it replaced (along with the whole wrist-rest area)
- Built-in camera stopped working twice -- I took it in for repair, and it started working again, only to stop a few weeks later
- Ethernet cables didn't fit well into the jack (they didn't "click"), got that fixed
- The bottom-right corner of my LCD is on the fritz -- there's a small blob not displaying colours.

It's the first time since 1989 that I haven't really liked my Mac :(

My sisters have had some back luck with PowerBooks. Not sure why. My first PowerBook was a Duo 230 that I bought used in 1997. Served me for two years before dying. My second was a G3/400 (then top of the line) that served me for six years before dying. My new MacBook Pro, we'll see.

I have a G3/300 (wallstreet) that runs the webcam (http://bitingduck.com). I had to have the hinges and video cable replaced a while back, and it's on its second hard drive, but it's still ticking. I haven't bothered replacing the CMOS battery since the computer just runs the camera and occasionally net radio.

I also have a G4/800 DVI 15" that is now the house media server and internal web server. It too is on its second hard drive, and also second optical drive (optical drives can be gotten fairly cheap on ebay and aren't too hard to install)

Both of the above were picked up new shortly before those models were discontinued, so you can figure out the ages from that.

I'm typing this on a 2 GHz MacBook pro.

On a semi-related note, I've found pro level Apple desktops to be extremely long-lived. My 8600/250 bought in Sept 1997 served actively for 6 years, and now is sitting in its original packaging but fully functional. Last dragged out of retirement to make a bunch of digital photo collages since I only had my SCSI scanner. I keep it around in case I ever in a pinch need a machine that has a scanner, analog audio in/out, or analog video in/out (all of which I've used for small projects at some point or other).

My family's Mac SE served for about seven years before becoming semi-retired, though I continued to use it for typing papers once in a while. (At the time it got semi-retired, we got a laser printer, and I went ahead and networked it to a newer Mac and to the printer.) Ten years after semi-retirement, it got pressed into some rudimentary spreadsheet work for my dad's office. Funny thing is, it never was a business machine in our family back when it was a state of the art machine, but now that calling it obsolete would be way too kind, it's actually helping to run a business. But hey, my dad's needs are minimal, so why buy a copy of Excel for his office if the old copy of Cricket Graph works just fine? And why press my sister's college Mac desktop (with a copy of Excel) into service if an older machine draws less power and the speed of the task is limited by how quickly my dad can type?

On a semi-related note, I've found pro level Apple desktops to be extremely long-lived. My 8600/250 bought in Sept 1997 served actively for 6 years, and now is sitting in its original packaging but fully functional. Last dragged out of retirement to make a bunch of digital photo collages since I only had my SCSI scanner. I keep it around in case I ever in a pinch need a machine that has a scanner, analog audio in/out, or analog video in/out (all of which I've used for small projects at some point or other).

My family's Mac SE served for about seven years before becoming semi-retired, though I continued to use it for typing papers once in a while. (At the time it got semi-retired, we got a laser printer, and I went ahead and networked it to a newer Mac and to the printer.) Ten years after semi-retirement, it got pressed into some rudimentary spreadsheet work for my dad's office. Funny thing is, it never was a business machine in our family back when it was a state of the art machine, but now that calling it obsolete would be way too kind, it's actually helping to run a business. But hey, my dad's needs are minimal, so why buy a copy of Excel for his office if the old copy of Cricket Graph works just fine?

Yeah, I had great luck with my desktops, even the non-professional ones. I've had a Plus, an LC475, and a beige G3/233. The SEs were fantastic machines, and I'd kill to get my hands on an SE/30. I still have the Mac Plus at my parents' place, and play Dark Castle whenever I get the chance :)

I still have the Mac Plus at my parents' place, and play Dark Castle whenever I get the chance :)

I played that game quite a few times back in the day. Don't remember on whose machine since it's not on our SE. I was never very good at it. Probably a cousin's PC or something.

Yeah, it was a hard game... I mostly ended up in the dungeon trying to steal the keys from the henchman over and over again :D

My one-year old MacBook, on the other hand, has been a lemon from the start.

- Battery stopped working, got it replaced
- Trackpad button stopped working, got it replaced (along with the whole wrist-rest area)
- Built-in camera stopped working twice -- I took it in for repair, and it started working again, only to stop a few weeks later
- Ethernet cables didn't fit well into the jack (they didn't "click"), got that fixed
- The bottom-right corner of my LCD is on the fritz -- there's a small blob not displaying colours.

It's the first time since 1989 that I haven't really liked my Mac :(The MacBooks aren't made at the traditional Apple facilities in Ireland. It's actually made by ASUS who sells a similar model under their own label. Interesting thing is the ASUS laptop costs more than the MacBook.