A group at Berkeley has begun the PowerBook G3 Series corrective action campaign, which demands free repairs of all PowerBook G3s with defective hinges and reimbursement for PowerBook G3 owners who have paid already, "because this defect is not our fault, so why should Apple force us to pay $300+ for repairs?" [Resexcellence]
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About three weeks ago, Apple repaired my Wallstreet hinge without any hesitation for free. It took about three to four working days and works like new.
I have an extended warranty, but they said this was repaired as part of the original warranty and that the extended AppleCare contract did not pay for "wear and tear" and other such maintenace items.
My problem is that based on this comment, it looks like Apple is taking a very strict interpretation about what they consider "normal" wear and tear. I may rethink my philosophy of buying any extended warranty from Apple if they do not cover repairs short of dropping the Powerbook.
Under their narrow interpretation, virtually any repair such as a worn internal cable, burned out screen pixels or shorted motherboard is caused by excessive user wear or user abuse!!! This does not work for me.
They need to build titanium powerbooks that are tough and made for the road---and GUARANTEED as such for $3000+. Gracious! Plastics and light aluminums are inadequate for heavily used Powerbooks.
I guess this means a bad hinge in another two years on my present machine. This is an engineering flaw if I ever saw one.
If you have the extended warrenty and a hinge problem, if they don't replace it for free just drop the 'book. ;-)
The hinge thing may be a problem, however, there is another issue which Apple should address. And that is the defect within the power charging circuit on Wall Streets. This is a widely known problem. Check Apple's Tech forums and you will see many people witht the same thing. The circuit shorts out and the battery can no longer be charged. I already sent one back that had to be paid for, and now I'm sending back another (which is fortunately covered by AppleCare).
The hinge thing may be a problem, however, there is another issue which Apple should address. And that is the defect within the power charging circuit on Wall Streets. This is a widely known problem. Check Apple's Tech forums and you will see many people witht the same thing. The circuit shorts out and the battery can no longer be charged. I already sent one back that had to be paid for, and now I'm sending back another (which is fortunately covered by AppleCare).
The Hinge is easy to fix, just snap the black wire on both sides back behind the plastic latch. Mine broke, and now it works like a champ! A petition seems kinda like an overreaction to me... :)
When my Duo 2300 hinge got tough to open, and caused the screen bezel/top to start to separate/crack, I was told it was "my fault" even though the only way to stop the cracking was to cease to open the computer (!). Apple refused to fix it under AppleCare. Apple cuts corners in designing plastic hinges and then blames the consumer when the problems start. Keep in mind they only have a one-year warranty when many have three. They depend on dedicated Mac users to keep coming back. And we do.
Apple will not repair a dropped, ran over, wine spilled on, or otherwise user-damaged powerbook, so I highly recommend not dropping your powerbook as others have suggested -- you'll be left with a very expensive paper weight.
And, of course, Apple does not repair items that suffer from wear and tear, as hinges on notebook computers do. Are you're brakes on your car, something which suffers from wear and tear, covered by a car manufacturer for any extended length of time? Of course not. Your powerbook is now 2 years old, and it's time for a tune-up.
Isn't is wonderful that as Mac users, the worst thing we have to b**** and moan about is the fact that the hinges on our Powerbooks don't last as long as we would like? Ah, so glad I don't own a Windows POS laptop! :) (I do, in fact, own a new Powerbook and had problems with my port hinge--I fixed it myself--works like a champ!)
Most of the posters here are clueless about this problem. This is not about the little plastic hinge in the front that holds the laptop shut - it is about the "clutch" which holds the screen up by friction. When that fails, the screen will not stand up. This is a major problem that I have personally experienced, and it is damn embarrassing when you are on a business call to be using an obviously damaged product.
At this moment, my screen has completely separated from the base - yes, my laptop is now in two pieces. My power adaptor failed the week before, and I had to get a new Powerbook (which I can't really afford) just to continue working. Yes, I intend to pursue this issue fully.
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It figures this comes from Berkeley. It's always the other guy's fault. Grow up.