XLR8YourMac.com is covering quality issues with Apple’s 2005 PowerBook G4s including trackpad issues, hard drive noises, AC adapter and performance issues:

The first of the new Powerbooks we had in our showroom was a 15″ which suffered from the trackpad issue mentioned on your page recently. We sent it back as DOA and when I arranged to have it picked up, Apple were “unaware of the problem”.
I had found a discussion thread on the subject on the Apple support site which mentioned the trackpad would ‘go to sleep’ when the ‘book was left alone for a few minutes. The discussion metioned static as a factor. Every time I touch any ‘book in the showroom it tends to shock me, but if I first touched the older 12″ Powerbook next to the new one, got a shock and then went to the new one, the trackpad functioned perfectly normally.
My colleague (who rarely gets shocks -due to his shoes according to him) had trouble getting the problem to repeat itself when he used the 15″.
I therefore suggest that the new pads are overly sensitive to static electricity. The second new powerbook we got had no issues. Dan

XLR9YourMac.com is covering quality issues with Apple’s 2005 PowerBook G4s including trackpad issues, hard drive noises, AC adapter and performance issues:

The first of the new Powerbooks we had in our showroom was a 15″ which suffered from the trackpad issue mentioned on your page recently. We sent it back as DOA and when I arranged to have it picked up, Apple were “unaware of the problem”.
I had found a discussion thread on the subject on the Apple support site which mentioned the trackpad would ‘go to sleep’ when the ‘book was left alone for a few minutes. The discussion metioned static as a factor. Every time I touch any ‘book in the showroom it tends to shock me, but if I first touched the older 12″ Powerbook next to the new one, got a shock and then went to the new one, the trackpad functioned perfectly normally.
My colleague (who rarely gets shocks -due to his shoes according to him) had trouble getting the problem to repeat itself when he used the 15″.
I therefore suggest that the new pads are overly sensitive to static electricity. The second new powerbook we got had no issues. Dan