So, my 12″ Powerbook, which is now well over two years old, is beginning to be a little unhappy. So far, it was nothing more than being strained a bit by Tiger (despite 640mb ram) and spluttering a bit because of its lowly graphics card.

But the battery is getting to me. Currently, I get a bit under 2 hours out of it. It drains quite consistently, until around 32%, at which point it immediately leaps to 0%. Bah.

Tonight, though, for the second time in a week, a slightly more disturbing problem has arisen. Namely: no matter how much battery is in the laptop, plugging my external Firewire HD in (Lacie 200gb) promptly zaps the battery life to 0%. Instantly. Zero.

This is not very useful, especially given how much I paid for the drive (just so I could back things up), and I’m a little edgy. The rest of the laptop is working perfectly, and I’m loathe to have to replace it just yet – for financial reasons if for nothing else. But it’s all a little too worrying for comfort. Anyone have any ideas about the Firewire problem?

(And no, I do not have Applecare any more).