Charles Moore's Mailbag

FireWire Sleep Issues, Safari 3.2.3 vs. Safari 4 Beta, iPhone Tips for Teachers, and More

Charles Moore - 2009.05.20 - Tip Jar

FireWire Sleep Issues and a Dead Pismo

From Scott following up on Dual USB iBook Keeps Going and Going:

I accidentally discovered another clue in the mystery. I noticed the 600 MHz iBook only keeps the FireWire hard drive powered up when the AC adapter is plugged in while it's asleep. When it's on battery, it shuts the FireWire hard drive down when the computer is asleep. This FireWire hard drive is powered through the FireWire bus by the computer.

A couple of days ago I responded to an advertisement on Craigslist for a PowerBook for sale. It turned out to be a 500 MHz Pismo in barely used condition. It's had so little use that the buttons on the keyboard aren't even shiny. It has no AC adapter and, of course, the battery is completely dead, so there's no way of knowing if it runs. The guy delivered it to my house in person, and I gave him $50 cash for it. I figure it's worth that just as a parts machine if it doesn't run. The guy said it does run, and I believe him. I hope so, cuz I've always wanted a Pismo, but until now they've been too expensive for me.

Scott

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the follow-up about the iBook FireWire power-down issue.

Sounds like you got a great buy on that Pismo. Shouldn't be too hard to find a power adapter. A fairly comprehensive selection will work. The Pismo came with the same "flying saucer" or "yo-yo" adapter that shipped with the original iBooks. You can also use the compact rectangular adapters that came with the WallStreet and Lombard, and the bulkier ones from the PowerBook 1400 and 3400/3500. I'm using a 1400 adapter with one of our Pismos these days.

FastMac will also be happy to sell you one of their really great and quite reasonably priced power adapters. I'm using one of those with my 17" PowerBook (they're available with either the older or newer type power connector jack).

Charles

Editor's note: I currently have a bus-powered FireWire drive connected to my "Mystic" Power Mac G4, and when the computer goes to sleep, it also stops powering the FireWire drive. As FireWire provides up to 1.25A at 12V (vs. 0.5A at 5V for USB) and Sleep is an energy saving setting, it makes sense that bus power would be cut in sleep mode. BTW, most USB ports on notebook computers also stop providing bus power when the computer is sleeping, and most USB PCI cards in desktop computers also do this. dk

I bought a yo-yo adapter from someone on the LEM swap list. I don't really know if it's working though. It's a little bit warm to the touch, but there's no green or orange glow on the tip of the plug like the newer ones. The Pismo won't do anything. I tried it with and without the main battery and with and without the PRAM battery installed. I tried a PRAM reset [Cmd-Opt-P-R at startup - ed], and I tried reseating the CPU. There's no sign of life at all with the Pismo; that's what makes me wonder if the yo-yo is good. Is there an easy way to test it without getting another laptop to plug it into?

Scott

Hi Scott,

Testing for output with a voltmeter is theoretically possible, although difficult because both electrical contacts are coaxial on the connector plug's central prong, which is shrouded by the outer collar. You would need voltmeter leads that are very small.

The best solution would be if you could find a known-good power adapter that you could try and see if the Pismo would boot from that. I'm a bit leery of yo-yo adapters, because one of them is my prime suspect in frying the Power Manager Unit in one of my Pismos last year, although I can't categorically affirm that.

There are at least two different series of yo-yo adapters, and I'm informed that the more problematic ones are the units made by Dongguan Samsung in China.

Charles

Orinoco PC Cards in AirPort Base Stations

From Chris:

Charles,

Just to clarify one of your letters today, the original Graphite AirPort Base Stations have WaveLAN Orinoco Silver PC Cards in them, and the Snow AirPort Base Stations have original 802.11b Apple AirPort cards in them.

Chris Kilner

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the additional info.

Charles

Editor's note: After posting that Miscellaneous Ramblings Mailbag column, I found a Graphite AirPort Base Station on eBay for $15 shipped. It arrived a few days later, and when I disassembled it, I indeed found an Orinoco Silver WaveLAN card inside. I can report that it works just fine with Apple's AirPort drivers in the 266 MHz "WallStreet" PowerBook I was recently given, although I have also discovered that it is incompatible with RAM Doubler 9.0 and 9.0.1, at least under Mac OS 9.2.2. (I only have 64 MB of RAM at present, so RAM Doubler would have really helped. I hope to acquire 512 MB of RAM, install my old 20 GB Travelstar drive, and get Tiger up and running in this machine.) dk

Safari 3.2.3 vs. Safari 4 Beta

From Tom:

Hey Charles,

I installed the Safari 3.2.3 update mentioned in your Mac News Review and want to let you and the LEM readers know about the results.

I had the most recent previous Safari version running on my 500 MHz Pismo in "Tiger" (Mac OS X 10.4.11) and had pretty much stopped using it because it was so slow loading pages in direct comparison with Camino and Firefox.

But I've tested 3.2.3 on some of the slowest pages to load (such as eBay), and even on a good wireless connection, it is a quantum improvement - I mean fast, faster even than Firefox, which in subjective comparison on my machine is the fastest. Could Apple have taken some of the speed improvements in the Safari Beta 4 and used them in this upgrade?

I don't know, but if it keeps up like this, it'll be my default browser from now on!

Keep up the great work!

God Bless,
Tom Gabriel

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the report.

I must get around to downloading and installing the update myself. I'm still using whatever version of Safari installed with OS X 10.4.11 on my Pismo. It's respectably lively - at least as good as Firefox/Camino on my dialup setup, but not nearly as fast as Opera 10 Turbo Alpha with Turbo compression activated.

Charles

Oops - I may have been mistaken. As I used the new Safari for several minutes more, it began freezing even on pages I had visited before - wouldn't upload them, wouldn't tell me it quit and couldn't load, nothing. Checking my wireless connection on another browser yielded nothing; Firefox worked as it always did.

I ran normal maintenance with Onyx to no avail.

I've no idea what's going on, but it is not working properly - everything else in the system does, and it is very disappointing.

Has anyone else experienced this?

God Bless,
Tom Gabriel

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the quick follow-up.

It may be premature to condemn Safari 3.2.3, but there seems to be an issue. As I noted, I've not installed this version, and I'm even running version 3.1.2 (the default install with "Leopard" OS X 10.5.6) on my Unibody MacBook.

Charles

Charles,

This is getting ridiculous, but here is my further and (I think) final experience with Safari updates, i.e. how I resolved the issues with Safari 3.2.3.

To make a long story short, completely on a whim (and a shot in the dark) I upgraded to Safari 4 Beta, and it fixed everything! When it becomes a final release, I will surely download that too, because it (a) solved the repeating freeze in loading pages, and (b) it's just as fast and (c) after hours of use is flawless in operation and rock-solid stable.

With my limited video RAM in the Pismo, a couple of fancy features are missing, but I don't mind. It's Safari, it works, it's fast, and I like it a lot.

So, I can only advise that those who are having troubles with the 3.2.3 update need only go to Apple and download Safari Beta 4 and install it, and their troubles should be over!

God Bless,
Tom Gabriel

Hi Tom,

Glad to hear that it's sorted out. I downloaded and installed the Safari 4 Beta on my 17" PowerBook a couple of months or so ago and liked it, although Opera Turbo is still the speed king for those of us still in dialup land by a wide margin.

Charles

Pinkish iBook Screen

From Michael:

Hi Charles,

I am a big fan of Low End Mac. I read new content almost every day on either my 12" PowerBook or my iPod touch. I have also seen a few well worn 500 MHz iBook G3s keep chugging right along. It would be a shame to see a pinkish screen cause somebody to end the career of such a great computer. The pinkish tint is caused by a dying florescent backlight lamp. It should be replaced so that this low-end Mac can stay useful.

While it is open, I would recommend slapping a 160 GB hard drive into it and possibly a Combo drive, if the budget permits. eBay is my iBook parts supplier of choice. All of those 600-900 MHz G3s that have failed over the years have left a glut of used parts for sale at bargain prices.

I find it very sad that these 500s are no good at Internet video, Flash, iChatAV, or Skype, but they are still very useful for most else. How many people just want to use iPhoto 5 with their camera, iTunes for their iPod, and surf the Web? Do I sound like a Low End Mac reader or what? :)

Michael Voigt

Hi Michael,

You do! ;-)

The Pismo screen backlight CCFL tube is user-replaceable, provided the user is handy at taking things apart and doesn't mind doing a bit of soldering. I haven't priced replacement tubes recently, but as I recall, they used to be under $20. I'm told that it's a good idea to buy two, as there is some risk of breakage during the installation process.

Another practical alternative is to just swap over a complete display lid assembly from another, defunct PowerBook. I have a dead Pismo with an excellent display, and my intention is to use that to replace the one that's going pink when I can find the time.

Hard drive replacements in G3 PowerBooks are so easy that one need not wait for a major disassembly job. Takes me about 20 minutes to change a Pismo hard drive without hurrying, and even less with WallStreets and Lombards. I have a Seagate 100 GB drive in my workaday Pismo. It's pleasantly quiet (although not as silent as the 160 GB Hitachi drive in my Unibody MacBook) but a tad slow.

Being stuck with a dialup Internet connection thus far, the Pismo's shortcomings with handling streamed video, et al., has not been an issue for me yet. Daystar at one point was considering developing a video upgrade for the Pismo, but nothing ever came of it.

I use Photoshop Elements 4 with my Pismo, and it works fine.

Charles

Wegener iBook Repair Experience

From Josh:

Charles,

In response to the gentleman who was considering having his iBook repaired, I would echo your recommendation that he leave it be and just get a new (used) one for $170. Two years ago I sent my G4 iBook to Wegener for a video board repair (it was on its second logic board, and when it broke the second time, the warranty had already expired). I paid Wegener the $150 or so, got it back, and the problem was still there. I sent it back to Wegener, and they informed me that mine was an "unusual case" and they were sorry that the repair didn't work. They didn't offer a refund, but did offer to put in a new logic board for the cost of the board itself ($350). Having already sunk money into it for no return, I decided to approve the repair. It ended up taking them 4 months to get the computer back to me, because they were having a difficult time locating a new board.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I got my 1 GHz iBook back, but only after sinking $500 into it ($150 for the flawed repair and $350 for a new logic board). They'd also gouged the screen at the top during the repair - nothing that a little Vaseline applied periodically can't fix, but frustrating nonetheless. The computer has worked fine since then, but I don't know if it was worth the cost. (That $500 would have gone a long ways towards getting a used or refurbished MacBook.) After my experience with Wegener, I'd say don't bother with the $150 repair - it's a crapshoot whether it will actually work. Instead, you have to decide if it's worth the cost of a new logic board or not. In hindsight, considering the actual market value of a used iBook (G3 or G4) these days, I'd say it's not. Take it for what it's worth.

Many thanks for a great column and a great site!

Regards,
Josh

Hi Josh,

I agree. If you can find a good logic board on the cheap and install it yourself (a daunting task with the iBook, to say the least), then repairing a defective machine might make some sense, but with the heavily depreciated prices and still-robust supply of used and refurbished iBooks, buying another computer would almost always be the way to go.

Last year, I managed to fry the Power Manager Unit in my best Pismo thanks (I think) to either a faulty yo-yo power adapter and/or a damaged extension cord. I opted to buy a stripped down Pismo from Wegener Media and swapped in the hard drive, processor daughtercard, RAM, battery, and optical drive from the malfunctioning Pismo, which took about half an hour - a low-hassle fix.

Charles

iPhone Tips for Teachers

From Andrew:

Howdy,

A long time ago, I contributed to Low End Mac with the Mac to the Future column (writing as Kel Taylor). Wow, going back and reading those was weird! Since then, I've actually worked for Apple twice, as a Campus Rep in college and at an Apple Store last summer. But I've been a teacher now for five years, smack-dab in the middle of Dell country (Round Rock, TX), and have still managed to hang on to my Apple enthusiasm.

I've started a website, www.iphonetips4teachers.info. Sadly, my writing skills haven't improved much, but at least I have a specific target audience.

I just need help getting the word out. If you can't mention it on your site, please share it with any teachers you might know (whether they have iPhones or not).

Thanks for allowing me to write for your site all those years ago. I'm glad to see its still there!

-Andrew Morris

Hi Andrew,

Glad to hear you're still in the game, and best swishes for the new website.

Charles

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Charles Moore has been a freelance journalist since 1987 and began writing for Mac websites in May 1998. His The Road Warrior column was a regular feature on MacOpinion, he is news editor at Applelinks.com and a columnist at MacPrices.net. If you find his articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

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