Apple PyroBook G4

It's been quite a while now since the Powerbooks have been replaced by the Macbook Pro we have all grown to love. Despite the teething problems the Macbook Pro had, it seems as though there may be many potential problems with the Aluminum Powerbooks, many of which can take a few years to develop.

Let's start off with the heat problems that the Powerbooks (and the Macbooks, in many cases) seem to have had from the start.

Ever since installing Tiger, my PowerBook has been scorchingly hot. I often run Marcel Bresink’s Temperature Monitor to keep an eye on the internal temperature of my notebook and had never seen numbers so high as those I saw after installing Tiger (and by “high” I’m referring to temps north of 145° F). Consequently, my fan had never been on as much either, which was incredibly annoying.

High temperatures can be quite damaging for any piece of electrical equipment. But could this dramatically shorten the life of a Powerbook?

Then there was the battery recall.

On the 14th of August, 2006, Dell and Sony admitted to major flaws in several Sony batteries that could result in the battery overheating and catching fire. As a result, they recalled over 4.1 million batteries in what was the largest computer related recall in ever. Ten days later, Apple recalled 1.8 million batteries after receiving 9 reports of laptops catching fire. The models affected were: the 12-inch iBook G4, the 12-inch PowerBook G4 and the 15-inch PowerBook G4. Later on, Toshiba, Lenovo and IBM, Hewlett Packard, Fujitsu and Acer.

This video shows how dramatic a battery fire can be.

It is also becoming more apparent that a design flaw in the Powerbook power adaptors can cause them to become damaged and spark and smoke and potentially cause a fire.

This video shows the potentially dangerous adaptor in action. The internet isn't short on videos of burning adaptors! Here is another one.

I have experienced this before as well. My power adaptor was sparking and smoking - and the cable was melted. Fortunately, Apple replaced it despite it being out of warrenty.

The moral to this story?

Keep a fire extinguisher handy at all times