Flaming 'Books

Flash back to August 1995, where Apple just began to ship a new PowerBook, called the 5300, featuring larger screens and Lithium-Ion batteries, giving longer life. Just after 1,000 of these PowerBooks shipped to the distribution channel, word reached CEO Michael Spindler and Steve Andler, Apple's PowerBook marketer, that two machines had burst into flames at Apple. Thinking this was just a prototype problem, production continued at two of the three PowerBook plants. Next a PowerBook burst into flames on the Singapore production line, forcing Apple executives to recall the 1,000 5300s in the channel. It turns out that a defective circuitry in the battery caused the fires, though only in 1 in 350,000 batteries was affected. Though the recall was successful, as only one machine ever made into a customer's hands, the 5300 became the butt of jokes on Saturday Night Live and other late-night talk shows. Batteries were replaced with the older Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries, limiting the running and sleeping times of the 5300. Later case design issues plagued the 5300, prompting Apple to extend the warranty to seven years. Certainly a chapter in its history Apple would like to close.

Fast forward to 1999, where reports are beginning to surface around the Internet at respected outlets like MacInTouch that Apple's much-vaunted PowerBook G3 Series might have similar issues as the 5300. Obviously this is a very delicate topic as well over 125,000 PowerBook G3 Series machines have already shipped into the hands of users, rather than the 1 of the 5300 fiasco. This website would like to explore the issue as far as is possible right now, to see if there is any substance to the murmurings around the Internet.

It appears the whole of this issue is this: On some PowerBook G3 Series machines, usually soon after a user plugs in to AC power, this machine either goes dead, smokes, or completely starts to burn. This is caused by two things, one more serious than the other. The first is easy to blame. A batch of bad capacitors was put into G3 Series machines, and causes problems with burning under the palmrest. This is a known issue Apple has only acknowledged to authorized service centers in a bulletin. If this is the case, the entire power supply in the PowerBook must be replaced. This cause is most likely the cause of any smoking or burning. The likely cause of shorts of the motherboard is the following issue. The power adapter receptacle can sometimes be misadjusted where a small piece of metal shielding touches the other metal of the adapter port. Usually this fault simply causes batteries not to charge or to charge slowly In more moderate cases, the entire motherboard is "fried" with absolutely no response from the computer. This case usually happens directly after plugging the AC adapter in. The problem with the shielding is one recognized by Apple in their PowerBook support forum with this post.. While digging through the forum, two more posts confirm that there have been other incidents. This one tells of charred innards after an electrical short. This one tells of smoke pouring from the keyboard. These two posts tell of charred areas in the expansion bay, giving more support to the first cause of the bad batch of capacitors, just like MacInTouch reported.

This certainly seems like a serious problem. However, before the situation gets out of hand, everything must be put into perspective. The more serious problem with the bad batch does not affect all G3 Series machines, only that batch. The second problem with the power receptacle does not seem to have caused an epidemic of problems, and Apple has recognized it as a problem for a while now. However, Apple has NOT publically recognized the smoke, sparks, and flames issue, indicating that it has been taken care of or is not a large issue. Next you must consider that the other reports are all user experiences and could be exxagerated. Rest assured that if this was a major problem, it would be addressed on a wider scale by Apple.

Next, we have to cover what isn't this problem. If you hear a loud pop coming from your computer, it's a known problem with the modem, and the Modem Update 1.2.1 solves this problem by changing the sound-input source to 'none' while powering the modem on and off. If you have other power problems, don't immediately assume your motherboard is fried. Try to reset the power manager by hitting shift-function (fn)-control (cntr)-power while the computer is off. Read about every model of PowerBook and how to reset it here. If you have a PowerBook G3 Series, I can tell you that it gets hot. Temperatures in excess of 180 degrees Fahrenheit are not out of the norm for 292 and 300 Mhz users. However, I can assure you that this is well within the normal operational limits of the machine, and the G3 processor shuts itself down well before any irreversible damage is done. These PowerBooks are well-known for getting hot, and there are several products available with which you can attempt to cool your machine, and we intend to write a special report on them soon.

So what can you do if you own the G3 Series? The only thing you really can do is be very careful when unplugging and plug in your power adapter. If you have some feedback or your own flaming PowerBook story, we urge you to write in. Having read all this background, please continue on to our user flaming feedback page, including the email from the one user whose PowerBook did "spark, flame, smoke" If you're not too worried about combustible PowerBooks, please visit our report on 101, the next-generation PowerBook, on our main page. Thanks for reading!

Written/Edited/Published by Doug B. Landry
Logo by Jon Iverson
Apple, Mac, Macintosh, Mac OS,The Apple Store, and Powerbook are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
©1998 Doug B. Landry. All rights reserved. All or part may not be reproduced or distributed without prior consent.
Coded on a Apple Macintosh Powerbook G3 Series from Baton Rouge, LA