From: torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie)
Subject: Re: Duo 230 lack-of-power-Book ...
Originator: torrie@Xenon.Stanford.EDU
Organization: CS Department, Stanford University, California, USA
Date: 22 Nov 92 03:55:14 GMT

morgan@leland.Stanford.EDU (RL "Bob" Morgan) writes:

>So there I am bloating with pride as I go to the Stanford Bookstore to
>pick up my new PowerBook Duo 230 which will change my life.  
>And there I am, getting more and
>more puzzled and worried as I keep pushing the Power button and
>nothing happens.

  Well, I picked up my PowerBook Duo 210 from the Stanford Bookstore
just over a week ago.  I got it home, pulled it out of the box, tried
pressing the Power key, and nothing happened.  Having been used
to a Powerbook 100 and 140 which both started up out of the box, 
I was a bit worried.
  So I read the manual, and it says "plug it in before starting it".
So I plug in the adapter, press the Power key, and it works OK.  I decide
to play around a bit more with the neat features, so I take out
the battery while it's asleep, put it back in (* - see later) etc.

  Then, I unplug the adapter, and try and start up the Duo.  No luck.
No response from the Power key at all.  I plug it back in, and it
comes up.  I put it to sleep, unplug it, and try and start it up from sleep
with a keypress.  No response.  At this point, I was mildly worried, 
especially since I'd never seen anything like this on my 100 and 140.
  * Then, I noticed something.  The front left of the case, (i.e the
front of the battery) was ever so slightly jutting out further from the
base of the trackball button than the right hand side.  I could turn
the machine upside down, twirl it around, and the battery wouldn't come
out, but it wasn't FULLY latched.  I pulled out the battery again, and
this time slid it in, making sure that it was exactly flush (this
requires pushing towards the back as you slide the battery to the
right).
  I tried waking the machine up from sleep, and this time it worked
fine.

  I took the Duo away with me the following weekend, and once again, 
I had this problem where it wouldn't respond to the Power on key.
I checked, and yes, the battery which I'd been showing to people, 
wasn't completely latched.  I put it back in, and I haven't had
a single problem since.

>When I get home it has a little trouble powering up again, but then
>it's OK.  I plug in the power adapter and do some work.  Imagine my
>chagrin when the "Battery is low.  Plug in power adapter now!" message
>comes on the screen.  I shut down, fiddle with the power cord, move it
>to a socket that I'm sure is working.  Now the Mac doesn't start up
>from the Power button, but does when I wiggle the power cord.  I'm
>beginning to get the picture, and it isn't pretty.  Eventually the Mac
>gives up the ghost when the battery runs down completely.

  I'm not sure if you have exactly the same problem, but it wouldn't
surprise me.  Did you play around with the battery when you were showing
its features?
  My guess is that in some cases
1.  Out of the box, the Duo battery isn't charged, and the machine won't
    start up without being plugged in and recharged.
2.  The battery can appear to be latched, even though it isn't, and when
    this happens, no power is being supplied from the battery, so the
    machine will appear to be dead until plugged in.
3.  It's possible that with a mislatched battery, it thinks power is
    coming from the battery, and even when you plug in the power adapter, 
    the response to the Power On key etc is fickle.

>Today the shipping guy arrives with a special shipping box designed to
>take a PowerBook DuoCorpse and its PowerLess adapter.  I comment that
>they must have quite a few of these if they have gone to the trouble
>of making special packaging.  He says "more than you want to know."
>So my next question to the masses is: Have others had this sort of
>problem with Duos?  Are their failure rates known to be high?

  I'd be interested in what the Repair Centre's assessment is, but
in my case, it all seemed to be a case of operator error (combined with
a dubious battery latching mechanism).

Evan.
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu 
Embrace rationalism, reject superstition.           Break away from the past.
"...there is only one thing worse than having marketing people on a project,
 and that is having no marketing people on a project."  - Larry Tesler.