PowerPC :: Acquired A 12" Ibook G4 - What To Check
Sep 30, 2010
So I've been passed an old ibook to see if I want to switch to a Mac.
it's an ibook 12" G4, 1.33Ghz with 512k RAM and a 40GB hard drive and runs Tiger. The HD seems okay, but the battery is shot - lasts for about 30 minutes. I've checked the serial in the battery upgrade programme and that's been done.
It seems to me, it might go another year of useful life if it had additional memory and maybe an upgrade to Leopard.
But before I commit money to the project, do any of you have any advice on what else to check on the machine, and how to go about it? Crucial RAM for this model is a bit expensive for what it is, and Leopard seems tricky to get hold of.
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Aug 1, 2010
iBook G3 nearly 7yo. Disc drive out of order a long time.
a little history.
I live in Thailand and a couple of years ago passed on my iBook to my girlfriend who absolutely loves it. After a while the video went. I researched and learned about the dreaded bad soldering on the video chip. my GF was happy again! Although it will occasionally not work, a little pressing on the outside case usually brings it back.
Last week something else came along. The dreaded folder with question mark on start up. I am aware this often means the HD.
For the moment I'm going to assume it's a separate problem to the video chip as the ?FOLDER? is actually up on the screen (though I understand simple video like this may be in the firmware or something and may not come through the video per se.
My question is what would be a clever sequence to test the HD?
The disc drive is no good for ages. I have an extra HD in a case with USB. I was thinking of installing OSX on the extHD and trying a startup from that but a friend says the iBook needs Firewire. (Is that true?)
What I also have is a MacBook.
Can I use target mode or something and start up the iBook from the MacBook HD or the MacBook disc drive thus clarifying if the iBook HD is really a goner?
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May 14, 2009
how do i do a diagnostic on the hd.
and is there a defragmenter like on pc's..sorry for that devil word.
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Aug 13, 2010
I have a G3 iBook and just the other day the display stopped working. There were no signs of the display going bad, it's just went. Am I able to boot the iBook via Target Disk Mode on my PowerBook and run the iBook Hardware Test CD on it? Also, can I reboot my PowerBook and choose the iBook as the startup volume?
I know how to do Target Disk Mode but the latter I'm not sure about.
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Oct 20, 2006
My brother's iBook G4 (800Mhz, First Rev) has completely splattered itself and we're getting a new Macbook for him under insurance. My iBook G3 (White, 900Mhz G3..the last G3 Rev of the iBook) has a failing hard drive.
Now, could I swap out those two drives, at least to recover stuff? And is there a specific method of opening up the iBook G4 so that I don't break stuff (I've already messed with my G3..and ended up with a dozen extra screws ^_^
Mainly the aim is to salvage the hard drive and swap them out; replacing my faulty iBook G3 one with the iBook G4 one which is perfectly fine.
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Jan 6, 2011
The title says it all. I have searched, and can't seem to find a situation exactly the same as mine. I have Paragon NTFS installed, so OS X CAN write to NTFS drives (namely my Boot Camp partition). I do not have any antivirus on Mac, as it is simply a waste of system resources. I DO have MSE installed on my Boot Camp partition (which is running Windows 7 64 bit by the way). Could I inadvertently pick up a virus in OS X and have it somehow infect my Boot Camp partition?
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May 20, 2012
Refurbished MacBook Air. Three attempts to use migration assistant to move files from MacBook to my newly acquired Air. Migration Assistant works fine until minutes to go and then "hangs" have left it connected for hours with "less than "X" minutes to go" and no files get transferred. On my third attempt this time without transferring applicaitons.
Info:
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 4GB RAM, 128 GB Flash drive
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Apr 5, 2007
My iBook G4 power supply failed and I'm awaiting a replacement. In the mean time, can I use the power supply from my iBook G3 with the iBook G4?
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Jul 13, 2008
Right now I have a G3 iBook (900 MHz, 640 MB RAM, Combodrive, 40 GB HDD). I'm looking at a G4 iBook (1.2 GHz, 768 MB RAM, Superdrive, 60 GB HDD).
How much faster would the G4 be over my G3. I figure that after selling my G3, the G4 would only be another $200ish on top of it. Would this be worth it?
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Apr 19, 2009
I just bought a parts ibook from ebay, but I managed to fix it, except there was no hard drive. I currently have a 6 GB HD in it with OS X.3.9 on it, but I want tiger. I have the tiger family pack, so I have a license for it. It only has a CD-ROM drive, so I am wondering if I can buy a 40 GB HD, and clone the one from my G4 onto it.
SPECS
ibook G3- 500 MHZ
192 MB RAM
CD-ROM
currently has 6 GB HD
ibook G4- 1064 MHZ
1.25 GB RAM
Combo drive
40 GB HD
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Jul 20, 2006
So, I'll spare you guys the details, haha, but I am stuck trying to decide between getting an iMac Intel or a MacBook Pro for my home use computer. What would be the advantages of one over the other? I just really love the fact that a MacBook Pro would be portable yet powerful. And yes, I have this iBook for portability to school and such, but if I want to do extensive work on the couch, I could bring a MBP vs. an iMac. What do you all think? Are too laptops redundant?
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Dec 17, 2006
are these two LCDs swappable? Can I stick a G3 iBook Screen into a G4? I have no idea and I'd like to have some idea.
does the hinge and everything line up, too?
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Apr 27, 2007
Will an iBook G3 keyboard ([URL]) work on an iBook G4?
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Mar 31, 2009
Can it work? I found the part I need in my closet from an iBG3 and if it worked that'd just be great.
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Sep 22, 2006
Someone is selling me a powerbook, but I want to find out what the harddrive rpm speed is, they don't know what it is. Is there anyway to check using system profiler or something?
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Dec 9, 2006
I have a 17" g4 imac 800ghz with a super drive (not a new computer by any stretch)I'm getting two errors one follows the other when useing toast first i get Drive reported an error: sense key = blank check sense code = 0x00
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Aug 18, 2009
Will the restore and AHT discs from a 1.2 GHz 12" iBook work in a 1 GHz 12" iBook? All I am interested in is the AHT.
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Jun 8, 2010
As the Title of The Post says, i need to know if Apple Hardware check, Does check the hard drive. I'm getting a little bit more frequent hard drive clicks so i want to make sure my HD is not failing. So i need to know as so as possible if Apple hardware check looks for Hard drive Problems. And if it does not. Can someone point me into some Utilities i can use?
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Nov 9, 2008
It just came to my mind that at some storage place of mine, I have an old special edition (grey) iBook that i bought in 1999, if I remember correctly. Can't look it up right now, but I think it had one USB port, one ethernet port, a CD-ROM drive, and it was running OS9.
Is anyone of you still using old iBooks, and what for? Would a version (which?) of OS X run, or would you suggest staying with OS9? Kind of sad to have it just laying around - it was amazing, back in the days.
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Mar 8, 2010
Has anyone gotten to the bottom of this thermal calibration error with the G5? I see lots of discussion of a possible bug in ASD thermal calibration and claims that it can destroy the eeprom that stores the calibration info on the logic board. So what's the bottom line here? Does this error in reality indicate that the eeprom is no longer writable? Could this simply be an issue of the inner door not sealed properly (perhaps this calibration is critically sensitive to this)?
The fans are racing as intended since the CPU's have been replaced and the calibration stored on the logic board is no longer correct. Everything is fully functional and passes all tests. The inner shield is in place and the sensor (by the rightmost tab) sees it there. The intake fan is running. I also tried another fan with no change. I suspect that some overly high sensitivity to the fan speed is not really the issue here. I have a dual 2.5GHz G5. The liquid cooling system is completely refurbished and the system passes ASD tests. I currently have ASD 2.5.8. I see reports of success using this version so there must be some hardware related issue here.
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Sep 4, 2010
Just purchased a iBook G4 1.33 Ghz, 512 MB of Ram running Leopard. I must certainly plan on upgrading ram but I am wondering how bad will the deafault specs be with leopard?
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Nov 22, 2010
I had my iBook G4 a few years ago, and since I was about eleven when I had it, I'm not sure I always took the best care of it, but it's always worked pretty much fine up until about a week ago. It's started shutting down randomly. It also sometimes randomly goes to sleep in the middle of things. In particular, it doesn't seem to like starting up, or the internet, especially if I'm on youtube. I've tried a PMU reset, as it worked once before when my laptop wouldn't start up, but it hasn't worked properly. It's worked from anywhere from a minute from the time I start up again, to about a day or two at most, but it always seems to shut down again.
I really don't know what else to do with it... and I don't understand how computers work at all.
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Jan 2, 2011
Yesterday I was on facebook when my ibook g4 went black and turned off. There wasn't any beeping/flashing or anything but it won't turn on. When I press the little button on the battery 5 yellow lights light up so I guess the battery's fine but the laptop itself just died. If i can't get it fixed mum won't buy me a new one and i'll just have to deal with it.
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Mar 30, 2006
I remember hearing about it on a website, is there any rough tutorials to go about this? Don't ask me why I want to do it, my friend said it can't be done, and I just want to show him up. he also thinks macs are dumb, so hes not so smart in the brain.
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Jul 1, 2006
I have a iBook and would like to get a webcam to work with MSN Messenger for Mac 5.1.1. Unfortunately my budget does not stretch to an iSight. Can someone advise on a compatible webcam that would work with Tiger and MSN Messenger.
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Aug 25, 2006
A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, my Ibook 12" started turning off by itself.
At first it would turn on again, I was able to check the HD with the Disk Utility, which reported a fault in the HD. Then after a few times it wouldn't turn on anymore. I couldn't hear the chimes sound and the fan (or HD) would start running pretty fast.
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Aug 26, 2006
I bought an indigo ibook clamshell 366 on ebay. Looks great but has no software. Can someone tell me best way to get OS 9.2.2 and/or OS 10 (.2 or .3) on this machine. Will any of the restore cds I see for sale work on this, or do I need other retail versions. I can put this on a network with my mac mini if that will help install.
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Nov 19, 2006
My iBook G4 is dead (can't turn it on, get power, anything - RIP, iBook) and I've already ordered a new MacBook. However, a CD is stuck in the disk drive and I can't get it out...Any ideas on how to manually do this?
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Nov 22, 2006
I was playing some old freeware games for Mac OS 9 and was playing lemmings when my Clamshell iBook just turned off and now I get the Blinking folder with question mark. I made a live CD of ubuntu where it's talking to the harddrive but the iBook won't boot to OS X so i am trying to figure why.
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Dec 26, 2006
I've already RMA'd the first 1gb stick back to Crucial, and now I'm on the second. Sometimes the system boots, sometimes it hangs at a blank screen until I hold the power button down long enough to turn it off. But when I CAN actually get up and running, "About This Mac" reports that I only have the onboard 512mb. System Profiler says my singular expansion slot as empty! Yes, I've tried re-seating it-- many times. To no avail. I'm also positive the module is as far into the slot as it can go. And I find it hard to believe that Crucial would send me two faulty sticks in a row. Unfortunately, due to my built-in 512mb, I can't boot off the Crucial ram alone.
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