From: jma@phoenix.oulu.fi (Jacob Matthan)
Subject: PBk Unadulterated Junk/Repost Apology
Organization: University of Oulu, Finland
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 18:17:07 GMT


Dear Netters,

A sincere apology for posting the last version without formatting for
smaller machines. It was four freezes, inability to get to the DAs for
formatting the TeachText document, and the rush to post before another
freeze. Because of the mail that I have been inundated with, I repost
as was requested. Already many interesting comments and so I shall
summarise after the weekend.


Dr. Richard Wolfson USA

Dear Dr. Wolfson,

I read the review of your book "The PowerBook Companion" published in
Tidbits with great interest. I am looking forward to buying your book
when it is available in Finland. Knowing how things work, I shall
probably get hold of it only by about the beginning of February. I was
also glad to note the comment that you are very active on giving advice
about the PowerBook on Compuserve. I would therefore like to recount my
experience with the PowerBook as it may be of interest to you and I am
sure you may give it some weightage when writing the update for your
book. My credentials - I am a specialist in Polymers, Rubber and
Plastics, I was Chief Engineer, Microelectronics Llaboratory, University
of Oulu 1987 to 1991, and my special field of research is in Fineline
 Techniques for Microelectronics. I am also a journalist, author and publisher.

I have been a satisfied Mac user ever since 1984. I have worked on all
the possible Macs (from the Apple II c to the Mac fx) and have
introduced it to the laboratory where I worked for all sorts of
scientific tasks from data acquisition for High Temperature
Superconductor cryogenic measurements to micropositioning control of
the translation stage of a laser system. There is no doubt the
Macintosh is a great system.(PS I also work on PCs and Unix machines).

I delayed buying my personal Mac till the arrival of the PowerBook.
Since I started with an Apple IIc I knew that Mac would someday come
out with a portable which was convenient. When the PowerBook arrived I
thought that the day had come.

I was one of the first in Finland to get a PowerBook. As it was not
available here I had to buy it in the US. I must say that it was
probably the worst technical and financial decision that I made. My
experience with the PowerBook 170 is that it is pure unadulterated
junk.

I am not going to comment on the Apple Policy of International Service
because it stinks. I will concentrate on the machine and the problems
that I have had and that I am continuing to have - so you can work on
them as a consultant when giving advice to others.

Let us take the design of the plastic case and some external
components. I have not opened the machine but I have seen the inside on
several occasions. I will not comment on those but I can comment on
items on the outside that have failed miserably. Take for instance the
hinging lid at the back of the machine. This strength is based on two
minuscule pieces of plastic wedged into holes. Even a slight
non-uniform torsional bending force and one of the plastic bumps will
snap off, and there is no chance of repairing this. It shows a very
poor comprehension of plastic design. A portable is meant to be used on
the move. A simple large area integral hinge would have given all the
ruggedness required as attained in the sixties with the Vauxhall
accelerator pedal capable of over a million flexes. Or go to the
retainer ring around the mouse. The locking mechanism is based on again
a minuscule piece of plastic, extremely badly designed that a slight
over force when reassembling the mouse after cleaning ensures that this
wedge is broken off. Less said about the battery design the better. The
less said about the mouse mechanism even  better. It is fraught with
problems being based on a piece of sticky rubber to get the movement. I
had problems with the mouse of my previous machine, the MacPortable,
and I was sure that Mac would have improved the design for their
prestige machine the PowerBook 170 - not so, it is only worse. I think
enough has been written about the Caps Lock Key that I need not repeat
that story. Luckily the little control panel configurable Caps Control
saved the day, but it only shows that there was not much thought into
designing of the keyboard.

Now let us come to the machine itself. Within three months my FHDD drive
failed and had to be replaced. Being away from the US I had to pay over
$500 to replace it and then wait three months to get the money back. Take a
look at my screen. It has black spots, one near the Balloon Help icon above
the working area, so that can be forgiven, but two others in the working area
 I am now told that Apple will replace this free but that means I have to
send this machine back to the US and hope and pray till it comes back. This
shows that the Quality Control by Apple was just shoddy to have released
this machine. The 40 MB Hard Disk was much too small and before it gave
too much trouble I had it replaced with a 120 MB one. I hope the new one
functions reasonably. 

These are however trivial problems. Let us come to the real interesting stuff.
About 6 months after I got the machine, after my FHDD had been replaced, 
the machine began freezing at every opportunity. The periodicity between 
freezes became shorter and shorter till the PowerBook no longer functioned. 
I took it to the Apple Dealer who had a look at it and passed his opinion that 
the Motherboard was probably gone. As I was on my way to England I said I 
would take it along there for service and get the Motherboard changed if 
necessary. Here in Oulu we have to wait several days to get any parts and 
the repair costs are really prohibitive. At that time the $500 was already 
outstanding to be received from Apple.

As soon as I reached England I took the equipment in to the local Apple 
Dealer and after examining the problem the technician recommended that 
the Motherboard be changed. Hence a new motherboard was ordered from 
London and I waited to see what would be my financial damage. When I 
went into the shop to collect the machine on the appointed day I was told 
that before putting in the new motherboard they had reassembled my unit 
for a spot check and it was working perfectly - so there was no need to 
change the motherboard. I counted my blessings and came back to Finland 
hoping that now I had a working machine.

This was not to be. About a couple of months later the machine began its 
freezing problem again. Now the power button did not respond and the 
programmers button also was inactive. If I wanted to restart after a freeze I 
had to jiggle the reset button. Kept in its normal working position the 
chances are that the PowerBook will not restart. If I tilt the machine 
through 135 degrees, the chances of starting are considerably improved. If I 
place it on its side and use the reset button, again the chances of starting
are improved. After it starts I have to very very carefully lower it back into
the working position. Any hasty move will cause the machine to freeze again, 
necessitating the whole operation to be repeated.

This happens even if all extensions are off, whether I start with a floppy, 
whether I have a RAM disk with the start up system on it, etc.

Just about this time I decided to change my Hard Disk to a 120 MB from a 40 
MB as the first suspicion was a Hard Disk problem. Disk First Aid, Norton and 
Silver Lining all gave perfect results for the Hard Disk although prior to the 
change there were errors reported, bad catalogue extents, but all these were 
corrected and I posted a couple of articles in comp.sys. mac. hardware on this 
subject - with no help from anyone.

When I gave the unit to the dealer to change the Hard Disk they were unable 
to start the machine. They changed the 2 MB RAM and found the machine 
worked OK. They therefore analysed that I had a defective 2 MB memory. 
As my 6MB memory was on its way from the US (the Apple price for even a 
2 MB being atrocious in Finland) they did not change it, but have returned 
the machine to me to perform my daily acts of jugglery. While writing this to 
you the machine has only frozen four times in the last hour for I do a little 
trick. If I log in to the net through my built in modem, the chances of 
freezing are greatly reduced. Then while I download files from the net to 
keep the CPU active I can use multifinder and work on my text processing 
programmes. Even so, today while I was doing this, it froze twice. As I, 
however, have installed Save-o-Matic with a 2 minute auto save value, I am 
less annoyed now than previously.(Yes, my last telephone bill was a whopper).

The PowerBook is supposed to be a hardy movable machine - a portable. The 
PowerBook is a carelessly put together bone china type machine. I would not 
recommend anyone to buy one till Apple cleans up its act and puts some 
decent designers on the job of creating a worthwhile portable machine. The 
concept is good - the product is bad, and my look at the new machines show 
that they all suffer the same defects.

Yes, I regret the day I bought this machine. I will probably have spent as 
much as the original cost before I get a machine that will work sensibly and 
as it should. I have now started redesigning the whole unit and after the 
guarantee period is over I shall probably have to start redesigning the 
interior as well. Or maybe I will just junk this after having spent $10550 on 
the hardware ($4000 + $1000 purchase price, $500 new FHDD, $800 new 120 
MB HD, $2000 new screen, $250 6 MB RAM upgrade, $2000 new 
motherboard). I will have to spend money on replacing a defective Power 
Adapter and of course the battery is rubbish.

All experiences are first hand.

Regards

Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland.

PS: I wonder whether Mr. Sculley would come up to me at the airport
to see why I was behaving like a contortionist with his Powerbook -
trying to get it started and then freezing like a statue so that I can
get to work on it!!