PowerBook G4 failure woes

Numerous PowerBook G4 owners are crying out to Apple for recognition of an apparently unfixed memory slot failure. Thousands of PowerBook owners have already signed an online petition requesting that Apple acknowledge the issue and repair it, and many users report that they previously had their PowerBooks repaired to fix the same problem but that their notebooks failed a second time after the alleged fix was administered. The problem seems to affect PowerBook G4 15-inch models with 1GHz, 1.25GHz, 1.33GHz, 1.5GHz, and 1.67GHz processor speeds.

Apple has posted a frequently asked questions page regarding its PowerBook G4 15-inch 1.67GHz/1.5GHz Memory Slot Repair Extension Program which, according to various users, worked for some time but ultimately resulted in the failure of their lower memory slot again, listing symptoms as well as those PowerBook models entitled to repairs by the Cupertino-based company.

Symptoms of a PowerBook G4 lower memory slot failure include:

• The computer does not start up; instead, there are three short beeps (typically) followed by the the sleep LED flashing periodically.
• When both SO-DIMM memory slots are filled (populated), only one slot's memory is recognized.
• System performance may be degraded because the memory in only one slot is not recognized.

Apple notes that the symptoms may only occur intermittently and lists the 1.5GHz as well as 1.67GHz PowerBook models as candidates for its Memory Slot Repair Extension Program, notably leaving out other models which are experiencing widespread failures, according to owners.

by MacNN Staff