Although a bit late by now….HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2008 is finally over and i decided one of the the first checkpoints in 2009 to be “get more use out of your mac”. This is why  i upgraded from an iBook G3 500Mhz to an iBook G4 1.2 Ghz.

A lot of thought went into this and i figured, if i was ever to switch or make actual use of my OS X capable computer, now would be the time for an upgrade. G4 iBooks with sufficient speed are sold at low prices and still capable of running the newest OS X iteration.

Prologue:

(my old G3 500Mhz model iBook)

In 2006, after weeks of trying to figure out a way to emulate mac os x on my not-so-new pc i dismissed that idea and went over to that auction house, looking for an older still os x 10.3 capable mac model. After going through a lot of specs on iMac, eMac, iBook and MacMini, i decided the G3 iBook to be my weapon of choice. Back then they sold for around 300EUR with their vanilla configuration. Lucky me shot myself an iBook G3 500Mhz/128MB (+256MB)/15GB/CD with little wear and a defunct LCD Display. Or so i thought. My reasearch has resulted that i should first try to change the inverter board of the display to restore backlight functionality.

The picture was there, just the backlight wouldn’t show, it worked normally on an external LCD Display. So i signed up some Mac forums and found most of my needed info there. Finally i collected the parts for cheap on that auction house and with the help from the ifixit guide for G3 iBook i was ready to go. But wait! If i were to actually tear this little soldier apart, then not without upgrading all parts which are only accessable by disassembling the iBook! Combo drive for DVD watching? Yes please! 80GB harddrive leftover from my last Sony VAIO notebook? You betcha!

After 4 hours of dissassembly and rebuilding, the backlight was working again and i was finally able to watch dvd movies on it (which later was the only thing i actually used it for)

When i was done playing around with 10.3 und checking what this machine was still able to do, which was not much unfortunately, it was upgraded to 10.4 via firewire connection and remote installation from a friends ibook, and later downgraded again to 10.3 for better performance. As i said before, as of late it was only used as a dvd player in my bedroom.

Present Day:

Today, my new problem child arrived, the iBook G4. Behold:

The problems with this unit, due to a suicide jump off of a kitchen table at the pre-owner are: defective keyboard (only the left half of it is working – need to use external keyboard,  the frame seems to be overall bent and has cracks in it, battery hangs loose, TFT Display is working yet the frame is cranked and doesn’t close right – see pictures below)

Repairs list:

• exchange 12″ LCD display
• exchange top and bottom frame
• exchange keyboard
• thinking about exchanging the combo drive too since it makes weird crunching noises when inserting cd/dvd

Upgrade list:

• 250GB harddrive
• new combo- / superdrive
• bluetooth add-on
• Upgrade to OS X 10.5 Leopard (upgrade dvd bought and already on its way)

I guess it would be more convenient to just buy a model that’s already in working order, but that way i wouldn’t have learned so much about the hardware construct and how those things work and what makes it so F*ing expensive to have them repaired at an apple service point. Also i really like meddling with old hardware to get the maximum use out of it.

Will keep you updated once i got all the parts and, hopefully, will have successfully repaired it.