The Heat Is On

One of my business clients called me in dire straits - his two-year-old 12″ PowerBook G4 wouldn’t boot up. Turns out if you let it sit for a while and cool completely down, you could boot it up, but it would run only for about 10-15 minutes before just freezing up. It sounded like it was either heat and/or hard drive related. I told him repairs wouldn’t be worth it - given that the new MacBook line just came out, why bother dumping big bucks on the old PowerBook? Incidentally, he didn’t want to go with a MacBook Pro, mostly because he wanted the smaller form factor, not so much because of price.

He decided to go to the local Apple Store and pick up a new MacBook (the black one). I arranged to come over and help get files off of his ailing PowerBook G4. Those Mac-heads among us know all about Migration Assistant built into OS X 10.4 Tiger, as well as Target Disk Mode (that’s been around a little longer). For those who don’t know - Target disk mode allows you to connect two Macs via FireWire cable, boot one of them up (holding down the “T” key) and then see it on the other Mac as an external drive. The Migration Assistant takes this further by automating the process for copying data, apps and settings and even user accounts from the “slaved” Mac to the other one. Pretty nifty.

This was my strategy to get the files transferred from the old G4 to the new MacBook. But that weird heat problem reared its ugly head. I was able to boot it up in Target disk mode, but after about 10 minutes, the G4 locked up. I knew this because when running in Target disk mode, you see a large FireWire symbol floating around the screen. It just stopped moving, which is when I knew it locked up (that, and the file copy stalled out as well).

So I let it cool. I took the battery out, because I know batteries are major sources of heat. I booted it back up and tried to copy files over again. I got a little further, but it locked up on me yet again. I really, really didn’t want to have to open up the G4 to get to its internal HDD. I’d done this once on an iBook G4, but never again. You basically have to dissect the entire laptop just to get at the drive. I love the smooth lines of Apple’s laptops, but they are most definitely not made for easy access to certain parts. In the PC laptop world, it’s usually one or two screws and you’ve got access to the hard drive. And speaking of lines, the other thing that annoyed me about the new MacBook was the sharp edge formed at the front of the case, right where you rest your wrists. That sharp plastic edge feels very rough against the skin, and I could actually see red marks at the base of my palm where it touched the edge. Perhaps I need smaller hands.

So here’s the interesting part. For reasons I can’t really explain, other than just having worked with computer hardware for so long, I partially closed the lid, forming a “V” shape, and tilted the laptop up on it’s side. The side of the chassis where the hard drive is located was now sticking up in the air. No obstructions or surfaces to trap and build up heat. After it was cooled down, I booted it back up in Target disk mode and started the transfer process once again. I did it in smaller chunks, copying smaller folders from the user directory on the G4 to the MacBook. It went past the ten minute mark, past fifteen minutes… and it kept going without freezing up. I got bold and selected larger folders. I successfully copied all the data I needed to over to the MacBook this time. And when I was done, the G4 was still booted up.

There are a lot of potential explanations… the one I’m fond of is that when it was in the customary flat position, the hard drive, or the area surrounding the hard drive, reached a certain temperature that caused the drive to malfunction. And by allowing more air flow around that section of the laptop, it was kept from reaching that temperature. I won’t be applying for any NSF grants to scientifically prove this theory, but I’m sticking with it.

In the end, the client had everything ported over to the MacBook. He asked me what I thought he ought to do with the old G4, and I said that’s purely a matter of economics. If he wants it to run reliably, he’ll have to get it to Apple (or an Authorized Apple Repair Center) and have it fixed. Otherwise, it’s a doorstop.

[tags]macbook,g4,migration assistant,os x 10.4,apple repair center[/tags]