Well. After being told on 7th April I'd get a new iBook from Apple, it finally arrived at Winthrop on Friday 7th May. It booted all happy, and with the magic of firewire-target-disk-mode, I copied my old home straight back over. All good.
Except that when I booted it ... the startup (firmware) chime stopped half way. And was replaced by the sound of a full-bore fan. A new iBook g4 1 ghz, dead, after 3 boots. I took it to Winthrop, was told to D(ead) O(n) A(rrival) it. Fiddled a bit more and got it to boot, and I thought that _perhaps_ it was just some weird glitch, coming out of firewire mode or something.
But no, later Friday night, I tried to boot it, and it wouldn't at all. Full bore fan, screen slightly flickering (no backlight), and no chime. *sigh*. Anyway, another week or so wait for a replacement, since Winthrop didn't have any in stock they could swap with. I just wish Apple would sort their awful quality control out.