E72 Great hardware Terrible software WHY?

I bought an E72 last weekend, because I needed a phone that has long battery life. I have to say I'm really disappointed with Software on the E72. My last 2 smart phones were Treo 650 and Apple iPhone(s). I'm still hanging onto my iPhone after this whole experience with the E72, and I'll still keep my E72 and hold out Hope that Nokia will improve. Given Palm Os not Web OS over the current Symbian OS on my E72 I'd take Palm OS.
The problem is not the Hardware, Nokia phones are gorgeous infact I would say better looking than RIM's or HTC for devices with physical keyboards. The problem is Software, having used the E72 for about a day and a half I realized that my iPhone didn't really come with an instruction manual... after trying to figure out how to configure the E72 I resorted to Google and the Manual that came with the E72, there are still some unanswered questions.
The main problem with the software is that there is NO flow... when I use it, it feels like the people who developed it each when in their own direction. For example updating software... the first thing I did when I started the phone is I plugged it into the charger, and tried to check for software updates... I found out via google there is a separate way to update firmware and actual software the SWUpdate program doesn't do firmware. Why not? and if it doesn't why don't you tell the user? to update the software you can download it via pc and upload it, punch in some key combo on the device and check for over the air updates.
Another problem is the software introduces the idea of "profiles" fantastic something I wish the iPhone had...there are different ways to change profiles "Mode" (work/personal) "Destination" (for connection profiles) are these 2 things linked??? I don't know it doesn't feel like it... I thought if I created a work destination and a home destination I can link it to a mode. I'm not sure if I can or can't do that. This leads to the problem of Applications always BUGGING you when it needs to connect to the internet. Why can't apps be smart and use the data connections set in the DESTINATION based on priority?
User interface of even the Nokia apps is terrible... for example the Nokia Messaging application that connects to Ovi, Gtalk, Yahoo and MSN.... the Tabs at the top of the screen to switch between services takes up 1/3 of the screen space WHY? Why can't you just combine all the lists or atleast provide an option to combine all the user lists into 1 big list?
Other problems that I had to google... when trying to update the OVI Store application I got a certificate error during the install process... The root cause of the problem was that the date/time was set incorrectly on the phone it took a good 30-40 minutes of googling to find that.
Is there a way to quit programs in your task manager or application switcher without actually switching to them?
The file manager for seeing files on your phone and SD Card are in OFFICE again what kind of logic is that?

blee4 wrote:
I bought an E72 last weekend, because I needed a phone that has long battery life. I have to say I'm really disappointed with Software on the E72.
Is there a way to quit programs in your task manager or application switcher without actually switching to them?
The file manager for seeing files on your phone and SD Card are in OFFICE again what kind of logic is that?
Welcome to Symbian. I have been using it for over 5 years now and the answer to many of those questions is "there is no logic". To the location of the file manager, to the details about the firmware updater or to many, many interface and usability details.
My personal favorite is the fact that you cannot tell the difference between a folder (e.g.: Office) or an application (e.g.: App. Manager) just by the icon.
But this is Symbian 9.3 and with time you will realize that many of it doesn't appear to make sense and isn't obvious. Usability is typically poor. There is no way around this and anyone comparing to an iPhone or other modern gadgets will feel confused.
The positive aspect is that despite all the visual mess and lack of coherency, the E72 and other Symbian toys still provide a lot of functionality and power you will not find in other gadgets. The good profile flexibility is just a minor example.
I suggest you install JBakTaskman (at 1.35 now if I recall correctly) as it makes things easier when it comes to finding applications. You can just type part of the name and they will be located quickly without having to look around in folders. It also helps manage open Applications, Processes and Tasks or even define rules to auto-close them as needed.
Another good application to make things easier on newbies is Voyager Home Screen (again, allows you to quickly find any app and makes things a bit easier).
Keywords here are: Ugly and confusing? Yes. Powerful and productive? Yes. If you get past the first impact, you'll love it and realize that it actually packs a lot more punch than fancy touchy devices that are now popular.

Similar Messages

Kernel Panic - Hardware or Software?

Kernel Panic - Hardware or software?
Mac Pro Early 2008. 2 x 2.8 Quad Core. 16 GB RAM. OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
This morning my Mac Pro Refused to start.
It goes into an endless cycle of the grey panel message "Your computer needs to restart etc. ...... " with each restart failing.
Here is what I have done and discovered so far:
1) Disconnected all peripherals and network and secondary monitor leaving only principle Apple monitor, Apple Keyboard and Apple mouse. No help - Problem remains.
2) Done a recovery start up and repaired disks and permissions (nothing significant found there). No help - problem remains.
3) I can do a safe boot and have tried rebooting from this. No help - problem remains.
However inspecting the system from Safe Boot starts to show some interesting things.
4) If I open Acitivity Monitor and look at RAM it is completely clogged with Page Ins (Over 14 GB of them). The Pie Chart is completely red. This would look like a RAM issue. There is almost 160 GB of free space on my startup disc and 16GB of RAM Installed.
5) "About this Mac" Memory tab correctly finds and identifies all the DIMMS and shows their size and slots correctly.
No. 4 would seem to indicate a memory problem but No 5 would seem to indicate that the DIMMS are functional and the system able to address them.
I have tried removing the DIMMs and trying them pair by pair and in various different combinations. No change. The system can consistently identify them and their slots but the Only Safe Boot works and the Page In log jam is always present.
I am mystified as whether I have a hardware or software problem here. If it is software then a full clean re-install followed by a time machine restore may solve things. What worries me is that if I have a hardware problem and attempt this I may end up with no OS as well.
Any suggestions for further analysis? Any wisdoms greater than mine can explain the significance of the Page ins? Should I try re-installlng first or is it time to visit the repair shop?
Any help welcome please.
David Mac

Sorry to be late responding. I have been unexpectedly bedridden since posting and only able to try your suggestion today.
Sadly I cannot get Apple's hardware test to run at all. Holding down the D key does nothing at all. Accessing the test by internet isn't going to work on a 2008 machine. Tried the original installation disc as suggested by apple. Doesn't work. Since Lion install I cannot start up from any disc pre Lion- it causes a black screen 'You need to restart ......".
So stymied for now.
Looks like I'll have to try ans see if a full clean re-install will work. If it doesn't then back to the shop.
I have the whole system fully backed up externally so nothing to lose in the long run. Just don't want more chaos than necessary ;o)

Hardware or Software Problem?

Hi
Every six weeks or so, my IMAC G5 slows down until it doesn't respond (pinwheels galore).
Ultimately I run disk utility from the Leopard Disk, but verify disk and repair disk both fail. So I erase the hard drive and re-install. Everything is then great for about six weeks until I start waiting for godot again...
How can I tell if this is a hardware or software issue? I'm sick of doing this, so if the solution is hardware I'd be willing to get new hardware. I don't want to get new hardware, and then have the same problem when I transfer of the data.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rob
Message was edited by: RKS1971

How much free space do you have on your hard drive? Do you allow the computer to perform its regular maintenance tasks? You can use OnyX to clear your caches, and how much RAM do you have? Increasing that might speed things up as well. Make sure your trash is emptied as well.
These are a few things you can do to speed your machine up, you can also clear out deadwood, run [whatsize|http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/44018] to see if anything you don't use is taking up lots of space.

Lion 10.7 Only Boots in Safe Mode. Is This a Hardware or Software Issue?

Hi. On my iMac late 2009 i7 8GB bought last March only. I reinstalled Lion (I didn't erase the whole disk because I have Boot Camp Windows and I have filed there) and it can only boot in safe mode if I use the Mac's built-in EFI bootloader (where you have to press option on restart) menu then press shift after choosing the iMac OS X hardisk. I've been trying to fix it for around 4 days now today. I'm tempted to take it to the authorized Mac shop but that could take weeks to months in our country. If I let it boot normally, it would seem to have a kernel panic and would stop at the white/gray screen. Verbose mode showed that is stopped at something 10 of these like: nstat fail.
Is this a GPU hardware problem, specifically the 3D element of this 4850M GPU? I'd like to do load each kext, each extension manually but I can't find them in Lion. When I use the Lion DVD or the Lion Recovery partition, it's very sluggish, every click and process takes 20 seconds to minutes. If I try to boot in Linux, Snow Leopard DVD or Snow Leopard external hardisk, there seems to be a kernel panic. It's either just a black screen or a garbled screen.
I want to erase/format the iMac's hardisk but in Safe Mode, it can't be mounted even if I use Disk Utility. If only there's a way to force it to mount, I can save some Windows 7 file to one of my external hardisk or flash drive. Does anyone know of an app or program that can mount NTFS files on Lion's Safe mode?
If it's a Lion bug, has Lion somehow corrupted the Mac's built-in (hardware not the EFI partition in the hardisk) EFI or somehow corrupted the Mac or GPU's ROM? Could it be a new OS X virus? Should I then perform in Safe Mode to flash the GPU ROM and the Mac's ROM again (I have the latest)?
Do you think if I erased the whole drive, reinstalled it again with either Snow Leopard (assuming it doesn't boot into a garbled screen) or Lion things will go back to normal?
Has anyone experienced something like this? What was the culprit (was it a hardware or software issue) and what was the solution?
Gbu.

Hi thanks for all the concern and replies. I've tried all that.
I had just got it back from the shop last Friday. It was there for around two weeks. It was a faulty GPU (when you see garbled display that's consisten when booting it the GPU). I have a strong feeling it's related to the Lion install 10.7 or 10.7.1 and may be similar to reports of Mac laptops overheating. It's good the GPU is removable, it might have taken 3 week or a month if it had been the whole board.
It's a blessing in disguise though as with all or most cases because I also got to have the LCD replaced for excessive backlight bleeding (in my opinion), the dead pixel from the previous LCD isn't there anymore (though under the glass there're some smudges but nothing crucial). The backlight bleeding is still the same though in my opinion but at least it's new.
It's a great thing I bought Applecare. I didn't buy it for the iPhone because that's more durable (my iPhone 3G's 3 years old now and it's still solid. Although there are scratches and a crack at the back at the bottom, got sqeezed under the table I think when I sat). I think Applecare is a good recommend for things that get hot like desktop and laptop Macs(are the iOS considered Macs btw?) which are twice or thrice the price of iOS devices.
Gbu.

The Playbook great hardware and os made useless by RIM

This is me ranting as I spent £400 on a blackberry playbook great hardware and os is impressive but you cannot do much on it becasue:
To this day the Native SDK is not available.
RIM them seleves have mentioned that they need more apps for the playbook and when IM+ requested approval of their app they are still waiting now close to 3 months.
EA Games are laughing at you, they have developed many games for apple and only three for playbook.
You guys at RIM should be sacked and get people that can do their jobs.
And why are you not clear if the Playbook has GPS, yes or no simple answer.
I used to be a huge Blackberry fan, but I think that they are going down. I cannot recommend this product to anyone which makes me feel like a fool for buying it myselve.
Regards
Tahid (personal content removed)
RIM please sack people in your company for there incompentancies.

grissom, are you saying that RIM is still supporting the Playbook? I had no idea!
Well, I missed out on Betamax. No one in my family ever owned a Tucker. But I'll be able to tell my grandchildren that I once owned a Playbook...

Update hardware and software Qosmio G30-198 for hight performance

Good morning,
I have a Qosmio G30-198.
I Have to use Autodesk Civil 3D program in the laptop.
It is a CAD program that requires a lot of ram and a high speed data transmission with the HDD's.
For this, it is absolutely necessary to update hardware and software for to use Civil with good performance.
I need to buy and install SSD HDD, install more RAM (what is the maximum allowed in this computer?) and I need to install Win 7 Professional 64 bit.
Please,
if someone can tell me how I can further improve performance of the laptop, please tell me.
I do not know what steps I have to keep.
Can you help me?
Thank you so much.

>.. what a disappointment
Why? How old is your notebook? At this time 4GB was the same when you use 8GB today.
We have mobile machines with limited upgrade possibilities.
> It is better to install hardware or soft ware? (Win 7 Proffesional)
To be honest I dont understand this question. You should upgrade RAM to the maximum level and install Win7. Im pretty sure it will work well on this old Qosmio.
If you need your notebook for some specific operations like usage of Autodesk Civil 3D program you dont even need all drivers or specific Toshiba stuff. the main thing is you have most important drivers, tools and utilities.
> I read in a post that it is necessary to change the video driver and install a diferent that the original one.
Fact is that Toshiba recommends usage of own drivers only. Toshiba offers tested and adapted drivers for usage on mobile machines. These different drivers can help notebook owner to have better graphic performance and this new driver will force graphic card to offer more power but at the same time you must understand that more performance results with more heat. Due to specific design it is very risky for notebooks.
Have you ever cleaned up your notebook? I can imagine it is pretty much dust inside.
> Do you think if I install G50 driver it will work in my G30?
Unfortunately I cannot comment this. Just be careful with this.

Is the Hardware and Software enough/good for my needs

I've been reading these forums and a few others and am concerned about somethings and hope some of you can help with these concerns:
Some background and info:
1. I've ordered a Dell XPS 720 H2C which as a Intel Core2 Extreme processor QX6700 (3.46GHz,,Overclocked) w/Quad Core Technology and 8MBcache, 4 GB RAM, Dual 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX, 1.5TB RAID 0 HDD and a secondary 500GB SATA 3GB/s (No option for a RAID 0 secondary HDD, Windows VISTA ultimate OS.
2. Will be buying/upgarding the Production Premium CS3 package. (currently only use PhotoShop CS3 and Flash CS3).
3. I have a Canon XH A1 prosumer video camera (I'm an amature photographer/videographer not a professional. Software is my forte).
My questions at this moment are to do with hardware software capabilties and workflow.
My first project (of many I hope) is a make some corporate videos in HDV format for online marketing purposes (kind of like the videos Adobe have for CS3 - http://www.adobe.com/creativelicense/) and possibly to produce DVDs of the same.
My first question is; Given the hardware and software, will I be able to do what I need? I really hope I don't have to go buy any more hardware. I don't mind having to do one or two more steps. to achieve the end goal (initially).
Starting with the mode to shoot in (for the purpose stated above), what is my workflow going to be?
i. What is the best mode to shoot in? (24f, 30f, 60i)
ii. How do I get the video from the MiniDV tape onto my HDD and then into Premier Pro.
iii. I need to be able to compisite multiple HDV clips to produce the final cut. Is the hardware and software good for this? On a scale of 1 to 10, what can I expect in terms of productivity.
I've heard elsewhere that Premier Pro just don't produce true HD quality results. Is this earlier versions.
What format/compression and dimension is the best for online viewing (I want to retain the HD quaility as far as possible.)
Thank you all for listening and hope to hear your opinions.
Shiv.

Steven,
Thank you for your quick reply and information there in. The video is very nice too. Great angles and composition.
So I guess, I'm going to have swap my drive and re-install my OS when the machine arrives.
I'm not going to be able to capture directly to my desktop (due to poratability reasons). So is there I way in Premire CS3 to uncompress the HDV from the camera and store it in my HDD in uncompressed format? I don't mind having to do this extra step each time if the post production experience is going to be better.
I've heard a lot about Aspect HD from you and others here as well as other forums. I'm not very video savvy yet and don't understand a lot of the vocabulary used :). I've been to their website and don't get what their products are supposed to give me either (I guess their audience understands exactly what they are saying).
What I do get is it decompresses the MPEG 2 to saves it to yout HDD for editing purposes. However, I would have thought the Premier Pro CS3 would have that capability as part of the product, no?
I'd also like to use footage that is not HDV as well as photos/images (composits) but still retain the final cut to be HDV quality. Is this possible and if so, what does it do to the editing experience/performance?
Will I be able to output the final cut back to my camera's Mini DV tape (without having to buy Aspect HD)?

Hardware and Software inventory data shows blank in SCCM 2012

Hi All,
I have this issue. When i try to view the inventory data for hardware and software it shows blank data. Below is the screenshot of that. Mine is a lab setup and i have only 2 clients configured.
I am using the default client settings which comes with priority of 10000. I altered the inventory setting to pull .dll and .exe files with changing the interval. But still the same issue. I analysed the InventoryAgent.log and found the below error on both
the clients.
Inventory: 1 Collection Task(s) failed.
InventoryVersionNumber for '{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000003}' not found.
CInvState::CheckInventoryAgentConfig: Get() failed: 80041002
Can any one please help.
Gautam.75801

Hi Garth,
A reboot just fixed the issue on that system in which the options are not coming to run the setup manually.
As i had hibernated the VM's and the server in which those options were not coming is the physical box hosting the VM's (SCCM server and one more client). The physical box is also acting as a client and the SQL server holding the SCCM Database.
Now things which need to be troubleshooted are:
1. Why is it Hardware inventory report appearing after running the setup manually and not appearing automatically.
2. The software inventory report is not appearing at all even after it is being run manually.
Below is the screen shot of the default client settings policy i am using.
Software inventory:
Hardware inventory:
My LAB setup is as follows:
SCCMSVR.labtest.com - Is the SCCM server and Fail back status point, Asset intellegence sync
point and etc.
Server.labtest.com - Is the Domain controller, SQL server
SCCMTEST.labtest.com - A testing machine to push the client and to deploy patches in it.
Site code is LAB
Grath - What do you suggest is the next Plan of action which you suggest ?
Gautam.75801

My ipad 1 is suddenly tossing me out of apps, is this a hardware or software issue?

My Ipad was working fine until a few weeks ago, after ugrading to the newest IOS. Lately about a third of the time I open a browser, (different browsers), or some other App like Netflix or Zappos, or even photo editing program, the app abruptly closes and throws me out to the desktop. I'm getting very frustrated, does anyone else experience this and know why it might be happening? Is it hardware or software?

Try closing all apps completely and then do a reset and see if that helps. To close all apps : from the home screen (i.e. not with any app 'open' on-screen) double-click the home button to bring up the taskbar, then press and hold any of the apps on the taskbar for a couple of seconds or so until they start shaking, then press the '-' in the top left of each app to close them, and touch any part of the screen above the taskbar so as to stop the shaking and close the taskbar.
To do a reset : press and hold both the sleep and home buttons for about 10 to 15 seconds (ignore the red slider), after which the Apple logo should appear - you won't lose any content, it's the iPad equivalent of a reboot.

Strange Drive Behavior - Hardware or Software issue?

Our xServe has three drive bays. Bay 1 is the system drive, 2 is our file data and drive, 3 is has an empty 250 drive.
Over the network, users can access the file data, however when I attempt to open the hard drive at the server (by clicking on the icon) the window opens but it does not display all the contents. I get a spinning beach ball and am forced to relaunch the Finder. The same thing occurs with attached FW drives.
Disk Utility and Disk Warrior show the drives to be fine (although I'm not sure I completely trust the reports).
As a hardware test I swapped the data drive to bay 3 and the blank drive to bay 2. Clicking the bay 3 icon seemed to work initially until I tried to open bay 2 and got the spinning beach ball.
I have repaired permissions on all the drives.
It is not clear to me if it is a hardware or software issue. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this would be a great help.

Thanks for the reply, Camelot. This is a weird one.
I don't know the exact number of files, but it only totals 84gb out of the 120gb available. The amount of data hasn't significantly changed recently and this problem is a recent one.
I have let the beachball spin for several minutes and it doesn't resolve itself. I am afraid to let it go for much longer because I fear the data will get corrupted. Because of the external firewire drive issue as well, I don't have a recent back up .
I have backed up the data in its current state to other networked computers and am doing a random test of the files to see if there has been any corruption, but with so many files it is hard to say.
The whole thing makes me nervous, to say the least. I have years of troubleshooting desktop macs but the Xserve seems like a different beast so I'm wary of doing the usual types of troubleshooting. Guess it is time to call in the pros!
Thanks again for your help.

New 15" Screen Issue: It's NOT a Hardware or Software Problem!!

So, just brought my PB in to an independent, certified Apple tech.
Bottomline from his perspective was that it is neither a hardware or software issue. His opinion was that Apple is putting in cheaper LCDs!!! To his eyes - ane experience - they look like the cheaper one put in many Wintel books.
That said, we can't expect a software or hardware solution EXCEPT total replacement of the LCD - which personally I don't see happening. Now we know why this version of the PB offered more features at a cheaper price. They skimped on the screen!!!
The good news. it is not an issue for the 17"!!
As for all of us "stuck" with one? I'm afraid, not much can be done or expected from Apple at this point. The techs are not lying to you when they say it's "within spec." For these lower quality screens it is.
So, that's it as far as I'm concerned. Question answered. Not the answer I wanted to hear. But, it is the one I expected. It will be interesting to see if Apple uses these screens on the next release of PBs.

Not sure that the LCD screen is so cheap. The lines are not produced by bad packaging of the pixels units, because they fully disappear when using pure colors, and are just apparent in mid tones.
My guess is that this has something to do with an inadequate coupling btw the video board and the screen. This does not mean that this can be repaired in keeping the same hardware configuration. This rather means to me that the screen deserves a more adapted piece of equipment to work with.
I have an exemple of a low price Dell LCD screen at home (and an exemple of very good Sony as well). The Dell displays faint lines, but they do not disappear on the right sausage boy when moving the crankycat safari window. The Sony is just perfect.
Hope is not totally gone..but I did send back my powerbook for a refund just in case there is none.

Error: Windows Vista failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause

PLEASE HELP!
My Lenovo SL500 is not working at all - I get error: "Windows Vista failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause"
I tried the following on my Lenovo:
Windows repair menu = "windows cannot be repaired"
Lenovo Rescue and Repair
Rescued my files from Hard-drive (copied to external hdd)
Restore System = Failed
Diagnose hardware = HDD passes all tests
Don't know what else to do with = Boot from another device ? Access BIOS?
Because I do not have the windows vista install disks
I purchased and downloaded the recovery disks from neosmart.net
The neosmart windows vista recovery disks DO NOT WORK = Error is "Unable to find any valid Windows partitions on this computer".
The Hard-drive exists because I was able to back-up files from HD through (Lenovo Rescue & Recovery Rescue files). So there is a hard-drive.
I don't know what to do next?
Last resort is to Factory Restore via either the Lenovo R&R or Windows Vista Recovery Disks (neosmart)?
Will I still have windows?
PLEASE HELP!

Hi, Josemne
Yes, if you can restore the system through Rescue & Recovery, then you will still have WIndows on your machine, but all your files will be deleted from the hard drive. Luckily, you have already saved those files elsewhere. I would recommend trying to restore the system and see if that works.
Best,
Adam
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BB Z10 Gone completely black. No LED lights when connected to charger.HOW TO KNOW ITS A HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE FAILURE?

My bb Z10 just went completely blacked while i was using it this afternoon. It had above 70%charge while i was using it. i removed the battery and checked again a number of times. I even tried with another z10 battery properly working and found that its not a problem with my battery since the phone worked well with my battery in the other device.
Since i bought the phone from another country and cant get the service here in India (the phone is still in the warranty period) I m confused what to do.
It would be really useful if I could figure out whether its software or hardware failure. If its a hardware prob, i should ship the device for warranty time benefits of service.But it it where a software prob, i could find out someway to solve this somehow here in India.
HOW TO KNOW ITS A HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE FAILURE?

try this,
connect the device to BlackBerry link.by connecting it the conputer using USB cable(you can use your USB charger here)
then while the device is still connected to the computer do not remove the USB but remove the battery.
if BlackBerry link will be able to detect the device you can perform a back up(to keep the data of the device) then update the device. you need internet connection.
this should fix the issue if the problem is with the software
let me know what happens
1. Please thank those who help you by clicking the "Like" button at the bottom of the post that helped you.
2. If your issue has been solved, please resolve it by marking the post "Solution?" which solved it for you!

Keyboard problems: hardware or software?

The keyboard on my iBook G4 has dead keys, not all in a row but grouped on the right side of the keyboard (they include the enter key, 'l', the comma, and three or four others). There's no obvious damage to the keyboard (I've lifted the keyboard out and inspected the connector, and nothing looks cracked or broken).
Is there any means to tell if this is a hardware v. software problem? I can use my logitech keyboard and mouse with the iBook (in fact, I'm doing that now). I've restarted, repaired permissions, zapped the PRAM and run other maintenance scripts with no success.
Thanks!

I don't have a firewire external hard drive or a bootable backup (I do have a Time Machine backup to a USB hard drive, but I don't see that I can boot from that external drive). I did boot from the OS10.5 disk, but of course there's nothing (so far as I can see) that allows me, once booted, to test the keyboard -- i.e., no text edit.
I can use my external (logitech) keyboard just fine, and nothing else seems to be wrong with the computer, so I'm leaning toward replacing the keyboard (I'm not against that anyway, just on the grounds of preventative maintenance). So, a related question: what's the best way to be sure that I buy the right replacement keyboard for my 1.42 GHz G4? Is the part number on the keyboard itself, or available through System Profile (I could not find it there). As always, thanks!

Hardware or software?

I'd appreciate some views about whether my totally flaky PowerBook is suffering from hardware or software problems, if it's possible to tell.
The computer goes bad in various ways but most frequently some application will stop responding, and soon after that nothing can be saved, error messages appear about disk problems or shared library problems, and so on. Restarting would usually restore everything for a while, but it's been getting worse. This trouble started after I had a new (Apple) hard drive installed, but the place that installed it has twice checked the drive and all my hardware, and all tests were passed.
When the trouble grew constant, I wiped my drive clean, installed a new system, dragged in the contents of folders from a backup, and things were better for a while and then got just as bad and even worse.
What I did next makes me think that it's a hardware problem, like perhaps the new drive or RAM (both under warranty), and I'd like to know whether this makes sense:
My backup is on an external HD, created with Carbon Copy Cloner. I can boot from that backup and everything functions normally-- I don't think I've ever had a problem when booted from the external system. But recently I (again)reformatted my laptop's drive and used CCC to clone from the external to the internal drive, and the resulting system would start up and immediately be frozen. Does it follow from this that either my cloning was imperfect or there is a hardware problem on my laptop?
(I then reformatted the drive again, installed a fresh system and used Migration Assistant, or whatever it's called, to pull in the contents of my backup, and it worked for about a week and then got even flakier than ever. Won't boot up at all anymore. The bootable backup still seems fine, though.)
The place that replaced my HD say the computer is old, just get a new one. But if it's just the drive, or just the RAM...

After about a day and a half with the new hard drive installed, I have yet to see any evidence of my recurring problems. I spent the first evening using only a newly installed system on the new drive (worked fine), then yesterday morning I cloned everything back from my external "backup". So it's been a day of apparent full functioning. Considering that in its last stages, my computer wasn't able to even open Safari, this does point to a bad hard drive. The only other possibility, I suppose, could be some sort of loose connection that had gotten progressively worse, which could have jiggled back into place during the drive swap, in which case it might show itself again gradually as it did before (the problems started a few weeks after the HD was installed). At any rate, I seem to have a working computer at the moment, which is only to the good.
After another day or so I am going to try to open Eudora. This was what seemed to trigger all of my earlier problems (they first began shortly after I made a change in Eudora Preferences, and the HD installers assured me that the problem was not in their new drive and that my "Eudora was toast." After that, it did seem that every time I used Eudora, problems would arise (rebooting seemed to make them okay temporarily) and so I have not used my POP3 email for months, and have about a thousand emails up on the server that will download into Eudora In as soon as I dare to try this.
The guy who installed (in May) the almost-surely-bad HD said that if my experiment proved the drive was bad, I would probably be out of luck because the warranty on that drive had run out, which is a laugh because I came back with a complaint, for the first of about four times, only three weeks after it had been put in. But I don't know if it's worthwhile pursuing justice (assuming my new new drive continues to work). As I said, I do not need another 80GB drive, and don't think I ever will. Should I try to demand a refund for that drive and the labor costs of installing it and transfering data?
Message was edited by: Paul-ny

E72 Great hardware Terrible software WHY?

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