What should I do now? Dead PowerBook

I was a victim of an accident involving someone cycling illegally on the pavement in London on Friday afternoon. Naturally I came away with minor scarring (and some shock) but my two and a half year old 15 inch 1GHz Combo PowerBook G4 is now a complete write off (it's screen is cracked and I have been told that it would cost more to replace than buy another similar used one.)

So what should I do next? I am due to graduate from University in just five months time and it's not worth me shelling out for a brand new or even a refurbished one just yet: that can wait until I enter the world of work and have started to earn money. I am in the course of advertising the old machine on eBay (you'll be surprised how much value they generate in useful spares) and have considered buying a used iBook or PowerBook to fill in the remaining time that I have left at Uni. But what specs/age do you recommend? As a minimum requirement the temporary Mac must at least have a DVD/CD-RW drive. I am likely to be salvaging the Airport card from my now-dead machine.

Any help will be gladly appreciated: I am beginning to lose sleep over it.

Why not just look for something that matches the specs of your old PowerBook?
I mean, if that worked fine and did the job thus far... then why is it not good enough still?

Step 1: If you have parents or a spouse who carry homeowner's insurance, see if they can make a claim for your Powerbook's damage. Some people really get lucky in this department and get the full cost of the machine reimbursed.

Step two: If you can live without the graphics power, consider replacing your machine temporarily with a 1Ghz 14" iBook. It'll be cheaper than getting another PB and you'll only have to deal with it for 4 months. If you must have the graphics power, just get the same machine you had before. If you play it smart on Ebay and use sniping software, you can really get a good deal.

Another option would be to finance a new or refurb iBook/Powerbook through the Apple Credit Account. You'd get 90 days same-as-cash financing. If you're confident that you can cough up the cash in the next three months, that would be a really good option.

You might also consider sacrificing portability for cheapness and desperation, and picking up a $200 LCD monitor to hook into your Powerbook. If there's nothing wrong with the PB besides a crunked screen, you could "get by" by turning it into a fake desktop, attaching an external monitor/mouse/keyboard.

jn4jenny said:

If you play it smart on Ebay and use sniping software, you can really get a good deal.

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No computer of my own, no software, no computer. Catch 22.

oliverd2006 said:

No computer of my own, no software, no computer. Catch 22.

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There are plenty of public computers in the world. If you're a University student, I'm guessing there are some available at your school. Then there's libraries, many of which have free computer access, and finally those cool people called your friends who probably also own computers.

And if you can't convince any of these organizations/people to let you download a free sniper like JBidWatcher, just do it the old school way and put in your bid 30 seconds before the Ebay auction is over. Simple. Uncomplicated.

go check out your university computers store i know they have good deals on older computers that are brand new and they cant keep them around cuse of space.