This is Hardware: Do Not Enter
The rise of truly mobile computing is a good thing, most would agree. Instead of lugging around heavy racks of gear and a bundle of cables, we might be able to do everything we need to with a laptop and wireless networking. But when you're dependent on a single piece of kit, there's a downside.
I've just been trying to get a friend's PowerBook working again, after it failed to power up and the battery had gone flat. It's fault is a typical one for any electronic gear - the PCB-mounting DC socket on the back panel had worked loose with repeated plugging and unplugging of the lead from the power supply. With traditional electronic equipment this would be a trivial matter of maintenance; you'd unplug from the mains, unscrew the cover, identify the loose component on the underside of the PCB and re-solder. You'd be back up and running in five minutes.
Laptops are a different story. I've had to fix them before, and it's not a job I look forward to. Firstly, all the screws have non-standard heads. This might be regarded as a sensible precaution, because - let's face it - some computer users have to be protected from themselves. But I am the kind of person who keeps the special Torx screwdriver required to remove them, so within a minute or two I've located and unscrewed all of them on this particular PowerBook.
However, the cover won't come away from the underside of the laptop to allow access to the power input module with the faulty socket. So I carefully prise the corners of the case to see what's holding it together. Is it a further hidden screw, or does the case clip together in a way that was only ever designed for assembly, not disassembly? It turns out to be both - once I've removed the keyboard, I find the hidden screw which runs in the opposite direction to all the others. I then carefully pop open the case, trying to avoid breaking the paper-thin strips that form the electrical contacts between screen and motherboard, keyboard and motherboard, and in several other places besides.
I finally get the case open enough to see the power module, a small PCB on its own, easily identified at the rear. There's the loose socket that caused the power problem - the solder connections are completely broken, but at least it's the kind of repair job that can be achieved by a steady hand. Then I see that the power board is riveted in place. There's no way it's going to come out without breaking the case. At this stage I give up, having spent about two hours in the repair attempt.
I hate to think what would happen if the fault had become apparent on the way to a conference or a critical meeting. I've had other kinds of electronic equipment fail on me before, but it wouldn't have taken more than a few minutes to plug in a spare. Even assuming you could get hold of a spare laptop in time, it could take quite a while to get it set up to the point where you were ready to get going. Of course, we all back up our laptops every day, and never ever lose any data.
The problem is that consumer electronics devices - which is what nearly all laptops are - are a fundamentally disposable, non-maintainable technology. It is possible to buy a 'ruggedized' laptop with a tough metal case, but the inside is still full of tiny, fragile parts, with boards designed under a microscope and soldered by robots with a precision that humans can't achieve. For all their utility on the road, one careless drop on the floor is enough to finish the average laptop - they are not meant to be repaired or tinkered with, let alone improved.
Contrast this to free software, where maintenance and improvement are positively encouraged. Having got used to source code access as a matter of course, merging patches and infinitely tweakable configuration files, could we ever go back to software that behaved as a sealed black box, with a sticker saying 'Do not enter'? On the hardware front, the signs are not good, as machines get ever smaller and proprietary chipsets continue to dominate fields including 3D graphics and wireless networking.
Next to the broken Apple laptop sits a Leak valve amplifier, a TL/12 Plus. This example dates from roughly 1958; similar amps were used in both BBC studio monitor systems and early hi-fi's (at least, by those that could afford them in austere post-war Britain). The Leak needs a new capacitor or two, but still sounds great. It's infinitely repairable, to the point that many Leak valve amps in use today have few original components. It's a stark contrast to the laptop which was made over forty years later.
Daniel James
Comments
Apple vs. Laptops in general
I think you're making a mistake on laptops in general vs. Apple laptops specifically. Apple laptops are horrible -- they're explicitly designed to keep users out, and to break during user maintenance. In contrast, my Dell laptops are relatively straightforward to open, and Dell publishes complete service manuals for all of their laptops on-line. If you want to swap out the motherboard, you just follow Dell's instructions, which tell you which screws need to be removed in which order. Everything uses standard Philip's head screws. This is true of all Dell laptops -- even the bottom-of-the-line $500 ones.
I can also buy arbitrary replacement parts for Dell laptops. When the main fan assembly in my (at the time) 5-year-old Inspiron 8100 failed, I called Dell up (after Googling for the part number), and they shipped it to me (and it was cheap too!). I'm just a normal user -- I don't have any type of contract with Dell, or business relationship, aside from having bought maybe 3 or 4 of their laptops over the past decade or two.
I've never owned one, but I've heard that Thinkbooks are similar, and that some of the business-level HPs are almost as good.
Now, desoldering SMT, or worse, BGA parts is nearly impossible, and maintenance is often uneconomical (if I take 8 hours to repair a laptop, that comes to $800 of my time, so it's often cheaper to buy a new one and swap hard drives), but on a lot of laptops, it is not discouraged.
Oh, an in terms of proprietary, the latest Dell laptop that I bought had an Intel chipset, with Intel wireless, Intel on-board graphics, etc. Everything was supported by Intel-provided free software drivers. I installed Ubuntu, and other than having to change the resolution, everything just worked. The drivers were not RMS-free, since the wireless required a firmware blob to be uploaded, but everything running on the main CPU was fully free. Even the Intel winmodem had a free driver. That's a heck of a lot better than 5 years ago.
I look for things like that when I buy a laptop. I buy try to buy maximally open hardware supported by maximally free software. If you buy proprietary, locked-down Apple hardware, you'll run into problems. But good stuff is out there.
Portable Computers - Wrong Approach
This is why the concept of storing all data on a web server, like Google office apps does, is such a powerfull idea. You don't carry the computer to the meeting, you cary the data via the internet. Then just use a computer that is there.
$1000 unit made worthless by $0.05 piece of plastic
Happens with printers a lot.
And if Apple's so great, why don't they have a proper mounting for the power socket, instead of it depending on a PC board for it's strength.
Point here: A computer is not like a TV set. The loss of a computer has great costs.
Apple is evil when it comes to ibooks
I don't know if it is because they pack too much in a small form factor or they are trying to keep users out. I recently tried to "upgrade" the dead disk (only after a year) on my ibook G4 and ended up ripping up the stupid power connector which is held to the motherboard literally by hair-thin wires.
And there is no way for the machine to start when hooked up to the power supply. So I was SOL. Somone on one of the helpful mac lists advised me to get a "new part", which meant buying a 699 logic board and about 200 + s&h for maintenance.
I ended up getting a local soldering guru to solder the wires from the button to the motherboard and he did an ingenious solution by putting a detachable jack in the middle so the wire can be easily disconnected the next time I fix it.
This is my second harddrive change on an ibook (the first went better and was on my ibook g3) and while going through the really mind bogglingly convoluted way of opening up the machine to get to the drive, it occured to me on more than one occasion that although Apple could have done it in a more straightforward way while keeping the same form-factor, they chose the vile path of setting up their customers who dare to service their own laptops. There is plenty of useless space in that G4 ibook and it would have been easier if they had installed a removeable panel just under the battery because that is where the disk is, but you have to disassemble the whole frikking machine to get to it.
Shame on you apple.
Toronto Tom
Apple are Evil
I find opening and servicing my family Apple laptops very easy. There are tons of free or pay take apart guides online. Spudgers are harder to find and are necessary (though I make mine out of dense cardboard or cut a plastic food container).
There are many reasons Apple are evil, but the point I would like to make today is the fact that they try to make users buy a new machine when one stops working. Instead of offering upgrade parts, or at least replacement parts with only a reasonable profit, they offer replacement parts at more than half the cost of a new Apple laptop... which is nearly the cost of a new Wintel based laptop. The parts that need replacing most often are the motherboard (logic board in Apple Speak) and the screen. Drives are very easy to replace once you are in the guts of the machine, but they do not fail as often as the motherboard.
There are valid reasons Greenpeace have singled Apple as one of the worst computer polluters. Once you have a trusted laptop you want to be able to repair and upgrade it for many years. In my experience Apple laptops are designed to run for no more than 18 months.
This is true for more laptops than just Apple
The commenter above is wrong thinking that these issues affect only Apple machines.
I've run into issues with HP and Compaq laptops, and its pianful trying to repair them.
Its the same old story; trying to open them is akin to playing Russian Roulette, wondering if your next move will snap or break some tiny, fragile piece vital to the life of the machine.
You'd think that with adapter jacks breaking all the time, these engineers would focus on trying to build one that can stand up to the wear. Its 2007, people. I've seen solid power jacks on equipment 20 years older.
Sorry for the senseless rant, but this article struck a chord with me.
Apple design serves Apple, not you
If Apple made a computer that was easy to service and upgrade, no one would ever buy a new Apple computer. If they built computers that lasted ten years, users would buy a new computer every five years. Do you see where I'm going on this? (FYI-2.7 years is the average lifespan for Apple hardware)
Apple is in the business of selling new computers, not making sure that their hardware can be serviced by any jackass with a torx set.
You want Apple products serviced, take them to someone who does it for a living. They can do it quicker and better than you, regardless of how many Dells boxen you've opened. I can swap the transmission in my car, but its in my best interests, both in terms of time and effort, for me to pay a professional do it.
Complicated devices break, that's the way life works - back up your data. Seriously.
Maintainability vs portability.
If the TL/12 is so easy to repair, why not use it for all of your portable computing needs?
Because comparing a ~50 year old amp to a 5+ year old PowerBook is simply ridiculous. They are entirely different beasts. (I assume the PowerBook is more than 5 years old since the DC-in board on the recent PowerBooks, like all Apple portables, is a small, simple module that can easily be swapped out. They run about 8 bucks, although they can only be ordered via a parts account with Apple.)
I agree: The PowerBook is not particularly easy to repair, generally. The Power Macs are easier. The iPods are harder. A grandfather clock is easier to fix than my digital watch. Sometimes we trade maintainability for portability.
Problem: things fail. Having a portable computer fail on the road is not fun. Having a car fail on the road is, arguably, less fun. Having a plane fail in flight is – I think we'd all agree – even less fun. I recently lost my voice during an important business trip: this was not fun for me, although others seemed to enjoy it.
Solution: redundancy. Computers are cheap and easily accessible. Carry a spare, or have the means to get one. (At this point if what you're doing isn't worth the replacement cost of the computer, then what you're doing can't be that important.) On my trip I had a colleague who could cover while I recovered.
PowerBooks are not "sealed" out of malice: they are simply built compactly out of necessity. The trend waxes and wanes. The first iMac G5s were very open (by Apple standards): any part, from the power supply to the logic board to the LCD could be easily (even by average user standards) replaced. On the new ones, unfortunately, only the RAM can be easily replaced. On the bright side, the new MacBook's have an easily swappable HDD: you don't even have to crack the case.
Portable computers, especially Apple's, are not designed for hardware hackers. And most people don't care. ;)
k
Shoulda tried ifixit first
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Al-15-Inch-1-1-5-GHz-BT-1-1...
Exactly! That's why I
Exactly! That's why I ditched my laptop on eBay and bought a PC (again). At least if something breaks it's easily and quickly replaced with a minimum of fuss and smaller environmental waste.
You also get RAID to protect against a failed hard drive. And the chance to upgrade bits and keep your main components if they're still doing a good job.
Another upside is that I'm no longer tempted to use my computer at all times of the day, in every room of the house and even sitting on the bed/couch (and no more wireless which is still unproven to be bad for you or not)
When I was growing up in the
When I was growing up in the eighties, my mother was issued a "portable computer" by her company. It was about the size of a current tower, but had a handle and lcd screen. Sure, todays notebook computers are tiny, cramped affairs, but in the space of yesteryear's laptops we could put together a full computer from regular computer parts. If you know what you are doing, a custom built laptop can't be that hard.
I also reccomend Itronix Gobooks in terms of ease of maintainence. I purchased 2 non-functional gobook 1's of ebay a month ago, and put together a single fully working one from the peices. I had never worked with computer hardware before, and figured it all out with only the internet for reference. The only tool I used was my pocketknife. So far all the linux distro's I've tried worked out of the box. Easy as pie for an inexperienced user.