Thursday, January 26,2006 @ 10:55am
PowerBook audio defect causes uproar
A group of PowerBook owners are crying out to Apple, hoping the company will answer their pleas with a solution to an audio defect in its 12-, 15-, and 17-inch PowerBook models. According to the website, the problem manifests randomly in Mac OS X as a looping/echo sound that magnifies itself for approximately 4-5 seconds, apparently stemming from Apple's internal hardware, as some PowerBook owners report that the problem disappears when they connect an external sound card to the laptop. One upset customer recently launched a website--PowerBook Defect Info--in an attempt to recruit other users experiencing the same issue. Apple has officially acknowledged the issue, but suggests that users run only one audio application at a time on their high-end notebooks as a remedy. Apple however has noted that it will provide updates as more information becomes available, suggesting that it is working to resolve the issue. Earlier this month we noted that Apple launched a PowerBook G4 Warranty Extension for some models affected by a defective memory slot.