PowerPC :: Replacing PowerBook G4 Hard Disk
Jun 22, 2008
Could really use some advice on a PowerBook problem! Unfortunately the PowerBook in question (12" G4) belongs to my mum who lives a fair distance away, so I've not been able to do any 'hands on' diagnostics. Basically she was using the machine yesterday when it randomly started emitting a high pitched squeaking/scratching sound (she described it as screaming though, bless). She called me and I asked her to turn it off - gave it a couple of minutes and asked her to try turning it on again. When she did the computer immediately started making the same noises (even before the startup 'bong' sound). Today one of her friends who is a little tech savvy took a look at it, and figured it must be the hard drive. Fortunately he was able to retrieve all of the important data from the computer whilst enduring ear-splitting screeching.
1. Does it sound like the problem really is the hard drive? It does to me, though I'm not an expert - however would hate to waste money on a replacement drive to find out that wasn't the problem in the first place.
2. Is it worth replacing the drive? Any idea how much it would cost to replace the disk? Is it something that could be done by myself, or would we need to find a specialist repair person to do it? Would it likely be more cost effective to get a new laptop?
The money issue is pretty key as she's in something of a tight spot at the moment, so trying to find the cheapest solution that will get her computer working again asap. As she lives in a rural area and is housebound her laptop is very much a lifeline for her, so would be good to get it sorted.
View 4 Replies
ADVERTISEMENT
Jul 5, 2006
Well, the hdd in my powerbook has finally died. Won't be recognized in disk utility, and when it was, it wouldn't repair or even verify. I kept getting the invalid node structure error. My AppleCare subscription has also expired about 2 months ago.
So, I went online and found the following web site about opening up the Powerbook 15" (Aluminum) and how to go about replacing things in it:[URL]
Then, I went to tiger direct and found this hard drive to put in it:[URL]
What do you guys think? Is it really worth it?
What hard drive do you recommend I use?
Is this better than going and getting it done?
View 12 Replies
View Related
May 27, 2008
I have a 12" powerbook g4 that has fallen off the couch or ottoman many times, mostly because roommates never seem to realize that if you catch a cord on your foot that you probably shouldn't continue to walk. This is also because of the inferior non-magsafe charger. This ends up with the powerbook to land right onto the charger and bend the **** out of the male end. In fact I just received my 4th charger and now it doesn't work, I have a multi-meter so I know the charger has juice, but the computer isn't charging. Any advice before I bite the dust and totally dismantle this beautiful machine and place a new DC-in board into it?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Feb 23, 2010
I have just replaced the hard disk in my MacBook Pro and now Quick Look does not work!
View 13 Replies
View Related
Jun 20, 2009
I just need help trying to take out this darn hard drive. It won't come out. There are two hard drives in my G5 right now, I'm trying to pull both of them out. I tried to do the bottom one first, didn't work. Tried the top one, didn't work. I'm stumped, and I tried my hardest to take them out. I followed these instructions:
http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/pdf/g5/073-0851.pdf
View 12 Replies
View Related
Aug 31, 2010
The HDD in my wife's black MacBook (2007, I think) won't boot up. I've run Disk Utility and have decided it's pretty much dead. I have a Carbon Copy backup, so the data is fine. I've tried replacing the drive twice now, and the MacBook simply won't "see" the new drives. When I install the drive, nothing shows up in Disk Utility (run either from the install disc or the Carbon Copy backup drive in a USB enclosure).
The new drives are formatted (I even copied the bootable backup to one of them), and the computer sees them just fine if I install them in a USB enclosure and hook them up that way. When I put them in the computer, though, no dice. Her old, corrupted HDD still showed up in Disk Utility when I reinstalled it, but the new drives don't.
View 6 Replies
View Related
Jan 5, 2009
I have a 2005 G5 and my Bottom bay HD wires are busted. I need to obviously buy new ones but the problem is I can't figure out where the wires go, I can find the smaller wire, but not the bigger power wire (i think its the power). When I open up the G5 it looks like the big wire goes behind the board (and I really dont want to take the whole thing apart!). Does anyone have a picture explaining where all the wires go in a 2005 G5. I have goggled it, but just internal pics and simple explanations come up, I am looking for something more complicated so I know where the bottom bay wires go to.If anyone has switched out the wires before please let me know, cause this is nuts. They make everything else in the G5 easy to do but this. ( This all happened because I shipped it and the wires snapped on my bottom drive)
View 4 Replies
View Related
Aug 29, 2007
Are there any step by step instructions out there on how to replace an HD in an imac g3 that has pictures for every step?
View 3 Replies
View Related
Oct 15, 2008
My 12 inch powerbook does not start up. Instead it loads to Darwin. I have an install disk from a 15 inch powerbook G4 and I would like to know if using this would work on my 12 inch powerbook G4?
View 3 Replies
View Related
Dec 5, 2008
I'm having a problem with my Powerbook G4. I kind of screwed up my drivers because I was an idiot and tried to get some Intel drivers to work on the computer through some cheat thing and now my computer won't boot up. I have an install disk but when I try to reinstall it keeps saying that I need Mac OSX Install Disk 2. I never had to use disk 2 before and I never had one to begin with.
View 3 Replies
View Related
Nov 23, 2009
I am running 10.5 (yes i got mac os x back on my computer, soon to be running 10.5.8), and the pesky disk images will not eject-as the title says.
View 2 Replies
View Related
Jan 28, 2008
I have a Powerbook G4 running OS/X 10.4.11 that's never given me any problems. Firefox was acting a little weird, so I restarted. Upon restart, I couldn't get past the grey boot screen with the Apple logo and spinning gear. I booted from the OS/X DVD, and tried running the Disk Utility. It said the volume had an invalid node structure and "The underlying task reported failure on exit." I bought and downloaded Disk Warrior 4 on a friend's MacBook Pro, and tried to connect to the Powerbook via Target Disk Mode. Unfortunately, when I attempt to do this, here's what happens:1. I start the Powerbook while holding down "T". I then see the bouncing Firewire symbol.2. Upon attempting to connect the Firewire cord, the Firewire symbol stops moving, and the Powerbook never shows up on the MBP.
View 7 Replies
View Related
May 23, 2009
Here is the situation. I have a 12 in Powerbook G4 with OS X. About a week ago I downloaded a security update and once it was downloaded it asked to either restart or shut down the computer. I clicked restart. It shut down and then turned back on but only got to the Apple symbol with the small grey spinning wheel beneath and wouldn't finish booting up past that. I tried turning it on while holding down the option button and it went to the hard disk screen and clicked the right arrow but it still didn't get past that screen.
View 4 Replies
View Related
Jan 26, 2007
My G4 powerbook has been saying recently that the start up disk is full, so i tried to empty some stuff off it. But not long after this when i tried booting it up the normal happens at first ie the t'ing' start up sound and the apple sign with the little timer going round but it does nothing else, it just carries on going round. I have tried re setting it and looked on help sites like this to try and override it etc but nothing seems to work!
View 4 Replies
View Related
Mar 8, 2009
I have a PowerBook g4 that when i tried to run system restore disk, it does not show my hard drive as an option to mount to.
View 2 Replies
View Related
Aug 12, 2009
I bought a powerbook off ebay, it worked but on startup occasionally a folder icon would appear. I rebooted from the original discs which seemed to do the trick. However the original discs are too old for many of my apps, so I bought some newer install discs (osx 10.5) I put the install disk in and got the panic message 'panic: Im hanging here'
The answer seems to be to run a disk repair (am i right?) However to do that I need to eject the install disc, I can't get the install disk out and of course it keeps tripping up everytime I start it. There is no secret little button to eject the disk manually. I have tried holding down apple and S but the install disk over rides everything and trips the mac up. I think ill be okay if I can just get this disk out.
View 2 Replies
View Related
Jun 29, 2014
I want to get one of those hard disk 'holders' that allows you to plug an internal-type hard disk into the USB or Firewire port of another laptop. I want to know if they need to be specific to the type of hard disk/laptop or if they're more of a one-size-fits-all type of thing. The hard disk is a solid state type that I installed in a mid-2010 model MacBook which has now failed. I want to connect it to a 2005-model PowerBook G4. Can this be done and what do i need to buy to do it?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Dec 26, 2006
I have trided to upgrade the hard drive on my G4 15" powerbook. The ribon conector from the drive to the board has come free from the board and I don't know how to refasten it.
View 2 Replies
View Related
Jun 1, 2009
my powerbook g4 titanium hard drive was makin weird noise and then it died and I can't get into operating system. now when I power on my laptop it only shows now a square with a smile face and a question mark. if I buy a new hard drive on ebay how do I install the OS on the hard drive? is it hard? will I be able to install it by myself? is there a website with the steps how to install the OS?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Sep 18, 2009
A few months ago it was dropped and would not boot past the Apple screen. I presumed it was faulty from the fall and instead of repairing it I figured I would just buy a new computer.
Anyway I have just purchased a new MBP 13" and I'm trying to get everything off my old laptop. It is going into target disk mode but the MBP isn't picking it up.
It is finding it in the disk utility but its just showing the beachball. To make matters worse I can't boot from a CD as the Superdrive is just chucking out CD's (guessing its bent from the fall).
Guessing its dead and Im going to have to try and get it data recovered, just seeing if there are any other ideas?
View 1 Replies
View Related
Mar 26, 2007
A while back I bought an external hard drive for my PC, but then ditched the PC and decided to hook up the hard drive to my Mac. My External Hard Drive is a: 149.1 GB WDC WD 16 00JB-00GVA0 The problem is, I can access all the information but it will not let me do anything on the external harddrive (Like creating a file, copying and pasting a file on there, etc.) However, I can save Torrent downloads on the harddrive, but they do not show up on the actual external hard drive. But, when I press the "Find/Show directory" button in Bittorrent it does find the files. Is there something I need to do, Or is it just incompatible with my Mac?
View 4 Replies
View Related
Oct 4, 2007
My girlfriend has a 17" G4 Powerbook - she recently bought it second hand. It's one of the late models, with a 1.67 GHz processor and 2GB of RAM installed. It runs like a dream, except for one thing - it has a propensity to freeze occasionally. They're not kernel panics - they're hard freezes, where everything locks up completely. Can't move the mouse, can't force quit, nothing - the only thing to do is switch off and on again. I've looked through the logs and can't find any crash reports, so I'm at a loss to what's causing this. The only lead I have is that it only seems to happen when the machine's running on battery - it's never frozen when the power cord's plugged in. I thought it might be overheating, but it froze this morning after only 5 mins of use, so now I'm stumped.
View 3 Replies
View Related
Nov 25, 2009
I'm a new Mac user for about 6 months now. I bought a used PowerBook G4 15" 1.25 ghz notebook that was in good condition. It was well cared for by the previous owner. Only thing she had done was update the ram to 2 gigs.Recently I began to notice it running slower, programs were freezing and Garage Band couldn't run as many tracks. I installed recommended software updates before it started to get slower and I thought maybe that was the problem.So I attempted to do a fresh swipe of the hard drive and start from nothing. I saved some files and then tried to run the software installation cd. It didn't really help at all. I can't remember the error but it wouldn't let me reinstall OS X even when I held "c" when starting up. At one point I must have clicked run in target mode because I booted it up and it showed an unfamiliar screen. Then I restarted it once again and saw on Disk Utility that S.M.A.R.T. said something about hard drive failure.
View 3 Replies
View Related
Mar 13, 2010
to run ppc g4 powerbook from external hard drive with apps from external hd drive intel imac g5? I have a firewire hd but it is not being recognized by the ppc.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Mar 6, 2008
I'm having a MAJOR difficulty with my Powerbook G4 17" (1.67GHz) after replacing the Hard Disk...
I replaced the hard disk with a new 250GB one, and after putting everything back in place I put the OSX install CD in the harddrive and tried to turn the computer on...it wouldn't turn on so I left it for about 10 minutes. When I came back I tried again and it worked this time, and booted into the Open Firmware... then it suddenly turned off again. Then, about 2 minutes later again, it turned on again, and it went into the OSX installer. I partitioned the hard drive and was about to start the installation process, but before I could press the install button the computer turned off again. Now it has been like this for over 2 hours and refuses to turn on at all. I have tried resetting the PRAM but it makes no difference. I've tried taking out the battery and all sorts of things but nothing works. I'm at my wits end now
View 2 Replies
View Related
Sep 5, 2008
I was given a free G3 Pismo Powerbook. DOA and traced to dead internal battery. Successfully replaced and the unit is now alive except I have determined the video chip is toast. Everything works except display to all output types is shot - bad colour, vertical lines, huge cursor etc.
Lots of logic boards available on ebay for about $30. This would make a decent starter computer for my young boys.
I'm looking for good instructions to replace the board.
SPECS
Pismo Bronze Keyboard
G3, 400 Mhz
512 MB ram
10 GB drive
DVD ROM optical drive
2 USB + 2 firewire 400 + S video + RGB
View 2 Replies
View Related
May 10, 2009
i've been trying to find an online site to buy a replacement internal hard drive for my powerbook g4 15.2" 512k 1.5ghz. i think newegg has what i want but i don't know which one is compatible.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Nov 2, 2006
I was wondering if this HD was compatible with a PB G4?
[URL]
I know the old drive was ATA, but this one is Ultra ATA.
View 6 Replies
View Related
Nov 15, 2006
I am leaving for a week long trip and many parts of it will not be able to run the computer off of the powercord, which is a problem because I get about 40mins of wordprocessing use out of it when I run the battery alone. Can someone explain what the significance of these levels are for my Powerbook G4 15'' (Alm) 1.25GHz, namely the cycle count and full charge/remaining capacity?
View 8 Replies
View Related
Apr 8, 2010
I want to put my old 15" PowerBook hard drive into an external case. I pulled the hard drive out of the PowerBook. And I purchased a NexStar CS 2.5" SATA to USB 2.0 external case. But the connections don't match. What do I need to do? Do I need to buy some sort of adaptor? Hard drive is a Hitachi 120GB 5400RPM (model # HTS541612J9AT00) 2.5" Sorry, these photos are blurry as hell. Picture of hard drive pins:
Pins are in the following configuration (1's represent pins):...............
View 8 Replies
View Related
