MAC GEEK HELP NEEDED

[danaeris]

Well shit. One second I'm getting a mail notification from gmail. The next second, the cursor won't move and the keyboard wouldn't respond. So, I eventually decided to power down and power back up. Now it boots to a blank screen. It's ON. It makes turning on whirring noises, and the blank black screen is somewhat greyer than when it is off. But it doesn't make any "I'm on" digital noises.

I dug out the hardware disk, and put it in, and booted up the way you're supposed to, holding down the c key. No go. Still a black screen. May be the disk can assess my problem, but if so I won't be able to see it the way this thing is running.

Next step:
Bring it into the third party Mac store down the street (about a thirty minute walk, and my parents are out right now) to see what they have to say, but I fear that it may be fried. It HAS been acting very sluggishly lately.

I bought it just under two years ago after frying my previous iBook:
http://danaeris.livejournal.com/425885.html

If it's fried...

Mac geeks
iBook, or Powerbook ... how do you decide what the difference is for you? And, if the repairs will be expensive, how much would the upgrade from my current specs (Panther, airport extreme, CDRW/DVD drive, 358 SDRAM, 30 Gigs hard drive, 800 MHz) to a low end iBook or Powerbook be worth?

Non Mac geeks
I COULD go back to PC. ::shudder:: If I were to do so, what would you recommend for a laptop that was equivalent to a 12" iBook?

*sigh* I may not be paying off that loan after all... At least, not all of it.

Comments

[aberrantvirtue.livejournal.com]

You may just have a logic board issue, which Adam had. They know the logic boards in this model are faulty, and should be offering to replace it.

See: http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/ (if that's not the direct link, search Logic Board iBook, it should be the first result.)

[aberrantvirtue.livejournal.com]

That one only lists the G3's, but my iBook (which used to be A's) was a G4, and they said they knew about the issue. So make sure you ask the Genius Bar guy.

[nathanjw]

A current low-end iBook, which tops all of those specs, is about US$999 new. I paid a little extra to get the biggest hard drive possible, since replacing them is very annoying. Used/refurbished models between your model and that new one should be avaliable in the $700-$900 range.

That probably means it's worth repairing, though.

[eetmewithtoast.livejournal.com]

It will be a Powerbook for me, once I have $3K in my pocket. Or some large fraction thereof.

But I do things with animation and video and other things that can cause gigantic files. I need the speed and the processing power. And I need the highest-end one for its larger screen, which will give me the maximal space to draw and keep my palettes open.

If I was just writing and going on the internet, I'd probably get an iBook or the lowest-end Powerbook.

[etherial.livejournal.com]

light candles around it and sacrifice a goat.

[chiefted]

If your not doing large multimedia files (editing, them etc) then you could go with a low end power book or Hi end iBook.

Mine is a 1.33g G4 with 1.25Gigs of ram in it, the newer iBooks come with 512mbs standard so you could upgrade to 1.5. I have the 60gig hard drive and the DVD/CD burner.

The only reason I mentioned going with a low end power book is bigger hard drives.