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Wife needs a decent laptop while she is laid up with the broken leg. I have found a few good deals on Pismos and Lombards that would do what she needs to do which is just internet, and some writing on our book (about birds). I thought about a clamshell but prices seem inordinately high, and the G3 ibooks seem to have problems with motherboards, etc. Are there any problems that are commpon the that generation of Powerbook that I need to know about? She will be using OS X on it if I cannot find a compatible PCMCI card for OS 9 so that is one known issue, the other is battery cost but for a low enough intial buy I do not mind.
Thanks in advance,
Birdmanjeff
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Major things about the Pismo -- pink screen issue, occasionally the hinges... dunno about the Lombards.
Yes, Clamshells sell for more because of the form factor.
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I think they are one of Apple's best designs. My love my Pismo 500. I installed a larger, faster hard drive, added 512 megs of RAM. I use a Belkin 802.11g (Broadcom based chip) wireless PMCIA card. Currently, I am running 10.3.9.
There might have been a few issues with the Pismo but nothing like the iBooks (all white). Some people have had the power adapter port loosen. I think that is a case of being careful while plugging and unplugging the power cord.
The performance is adequate for your wife's needs. I use mine for wireless surfing, web site work and light Photoshop use.
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I vote for a Pismo. Had my for 5 years. The only problem was the known CD/DVD drive. Other than that it had served me well. Upgrade the RAM to 320 and hd to 40 (5400). Gave it to my brother. It's his first laptop and a Mac for that matter. He's overjoy
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This ol' Pismo of mine...
OK, OK... I won't sing.
But I'm running 10.3.9 on my Pismo and it is a fine couch surfer. It is getting to the point where it can't run the latest Quicktime movie trailers, though.
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Oops, forgot about the CD/DVD drives... yes, those tend to go bad, BUT... and this is a big "but"... you can easily replace with a nice Combo drive from ebay for about $25, and then get burning capability.
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Lombard! Actually I love my Lombard but you should consider a Pismo.
I use my Lombard at work everyday. Thing just keeps plugging along.
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If you aren't going to buy her a nice refurb iBook from the AppleStore, then I vote Pismo.
Here are the pluses.:
1 GB RAM
Easy HD swappability
Dual battery bays
Built like a rock
Minuses.:
Screens are getting old
Hinges (rare)
If you have the LG CD/DVD drive, it is probably already broken
USB 1
Great machine, the best portable Apple ever built. Get the 500 MHz.
BGnR
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BGnR, if he really wants USB2 (?not sure what the advantages of this would be over Firewire), can always get a PCMCIA card for that, those can sometimes be found for $20-25...
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PeterB Wrote:
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> BGnR, if he really wants USB2 (?not sure what the
> advantages of this would be over Firewire)
Because sadly, the industry once again chooses cheap over better.
Yep, PC card would be good, hopefully the drivers are out there.
BGnR
