My Noisy Fan from Brent Spore on Vimeo.

3 years of owning my Mac with no major issues. JUST after it’s AppleCare expires, it decides to start freaking out.

Fellow iBAM community member Ken, is having some issues with his Powerbook battery and sent me a quiestion for Ask iBAM. Here’s his question:

I have a powerbook G4, info below, and wanted to see if there was something I’m doing wrong to cause my battery problems. I bought a new battery because I thought the last one was getting old and causing the symptoms: no matter how many times I calibrate, it won’t charge past 43 or so percent. So, I’m having the exact same issues with the new battery. I’ve tried to reset the pram and the power management thing, but no luck.

Any ideas???

Thanks for any help.

Model Name: PowerBook G4 12″
Model Identifier: PowerBook6,8
Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
Processor Speed: 1.5 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 1
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1.25 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.9.0f0
Serial Number: 4H5151A2RJ7

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled
Version: 1.0

Battery Information:

Charge Information:

Charge remaining (mAh): 1576
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4209

Health Information:

Cycle count: 2
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1296
Voltage (mV): 11661

System Power Settings:

AC Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 30
Dynamic Power Step: Yes
Reduce Processor Speed: No
Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake On LAN: Yes
Wake On Modem Ring: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes

Battery Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 5
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 1
Dynamic Power Step: No
Reduce Processor Speed: Yes
Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake On Modem Ring: No
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
Reduce Brightness: Yes

Hardware Configuration:

Clamshell Closed: No
UPS Installed: No

AC Charger Information:

AC Charger (Watts): 0
Connected: No
Charging: No

I figured this was a good one for the mega iBAM community mind to tackle. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?

Thanks in advance

- Brent

Our friend and fellow reader John, writes:

So, I bought my iMac *maybe* 4 months ago. The day after I got it, the SuperDrive crapped out on me. I bought it refurbished, but they guaranteed it to be like new. Anyways, my question is this: I fixed it about 4 times after a disc kept getting stuck in there. It was a DVD. Brand new each time. I cannot afford to be without my Mac and cannot send it in. I have an external CD/DVD drive that was originally built for PC but it’s runs on my Mac. I would like to know what would be an affordable Mac friendly external drive that would play DVDs too. I don’t want to buy a SuperDrive for fear it will do the same thing again. Any help would be fantastic!

This one’s out of my league so I thought I’d throw it up the greater minds out on the tubes. Anyone out there got some advice for our pal John? I’m sure he as well as I and most likely many others will be eternally grateful. As always, I thank you in advance.

Brent

Sarah asks:

Hi! I just bought an Imac and am having difficulty transferring my itunes
library from my pc to my mac. I am transferring from Itunes to an external
hard drive using the add to library link in itunes and dragging to
applications. I am copying the library using the export function from the
pc. I seem to only be copying empty folders so no music is being transferred
although the process takes a long time. HELP!!
Also can I use yahoo as the server for mail on my mac. I seem to be having
trouble with the outgoing mail server.

Thank you, Sarah

[Continued]

One of the questions I get a lot is: “I just bought a Mac and how do I…???? I have found the solution for all the mac noobs out there. It is a site from the guys that bring you Lab Rats, Andy Walker and Sean Carruthers, these guys have both done time on Call for Help with Leo Laporte. They have created a site called Butterscotch.com, and have put a tutorial site up, that is predominately for Switchers. The site is here.

Check it out and let me know what you think.