iBook 14.1" Club

My daughter has the 1.42 iBook G4 14.1".

Got it off eBay for about $40. Just needed OS X installed. Everything was maxed. I believe the HD is 80GB. Anyway, my daughter is on 10.5.8.

gavinstubbs09 said:

Welcome back Erik

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Oh, I'm still here. Just been a bit out of the loop. I'm writing this from the iMac G5 as more than one of my older Macs just plain aren't working right now.

Rather than being frustrated about what I cannot do at the moment because of lack of finances my attention has been more on the iPhone side of the forums.

One of my current high school teachers had three iBook G4s and I got two from him last year. They are both 12" models, 800Mhz and 1.07Ghz. (800mhz model had a 150GB HD in it!). The third one? Well what do you know, it's a top of the line 1.42Ghz 14" model with a 60-odd GB HD! He kept that last year in case students needed to use it. I asked him about it some months ago and he said that "it will come".

So, sooner or later during the school year I will receive it from him; I can't wait. Sadly the battery is dead. I have one from a 14" 'Snow' iBook that I think still holds a good-enough charge. (interchangeable batteries) Of course, getting a 3rd party battery, while it seems bad, would be cheap and work just fine. We have one in my mom's 17" 2007 MacBook Pro, after having gone through two genuine batteries; It works just fine.

The other issue is that it has a missing key, but I have a G4 parts keyboard that I can take the key from. Other than that, it seemed kinda sluggish when I used it at school. I really hope the HD isn't dying or something; It could just need Tiger re-installed. As for the RAM on the machine, I believe it has about 512MB. Hopefully the spare module I have adds more than it has now. I do own a 14" iBook G3 'Snow' in good condition. It was the first Apple laptop I really owned and used, besides my iBook Firewire, which hadn't had the power cord at the time. Sadly the HD died on it...

Funny thing is, I always looked at the 12" iBook G3 'Snow' models, while I had my 14" 'Snow', and thought they were funny-looking! I guess you can have either perspective. However, I used 12" iBook G4s at my elementary school some years before owning the 14" iBook G3, and they seemed fine to me. Looking back on it from a 12" screen point-of-view, it does look rather odd to have a 14" iBook G4. In fact, it's even weirder just because the 14" iBook G4 doesn't look right, whereas the 14" iBook G3 'Snow' looks just fine. In my eyes, the 12" iBook G3 'Snow' is a compressed 14" iBook G3 'Snow', whereas the 14" iBook G4 is a bloated 12" iBook G4. Nevertheless, I am excited and hopefully I will get it soon. It will be really cool to own a top-of-the-line model. The best one I owned as 1.33Ghz, but I had purchased it then returned it later.

As of now, my best is the 1.07Ghz model, but the newer, larger HD in the 800Mhz model made it (I believe) run just as fast, yet obviously hold more data... So while I sometimes use my 800Mhz model, the 1.07Ghz model sits.

The thing that annoys me though is that 12" models (pretty sure 14" models didn't have this issue) were prone to the keyboard ribbon cable pushing up and causing the spacebar to not press down all the way without extra force. I noticed that it was extra messed up on my 1.07Ghz model, so I replaced the keyboard with one that was less affected, but it's still more affected than the keyboard on my 800Mhz model; this is yet another reason why I use the 800Mhz model instead. That's my preface here; hopefully I will have a good story once I get my 14" iBook G4! (hopefully I don't jinx myself and NOT get it) Still waiting to hear back from a different teacher about the two Macintosh Classic IIs and Macintosh LC he said he'd give me... (waiting for school's permission I guess)

I used to have a 1.33Ghz iBook bought open box from the Regent St store from when you could actually buy refurbs/refresh items in store once a month. I loved scouring those tables near the staircase for the odd underpriced bargain.

I could never recall having a moment's problem with it but it had the dimmest screen I can remember of any notebook I have ever owned. I don't think there was any issue with it but that Apple just hardwired it that way to improve the battery life, which was pretty impressive for a notebook at the time. Still hankering after one now but as I picked up a cheap boxed 1.5Ghz PB 12" recently, I cannot justify one now, especially as clean, working 12" models still command a decent price (£50+) on eBay and Gumtree.

I've got a 14" and a 12". My 14 isn't fully working at the moment, but its time is coming (all it needs is a keyboard). I bought the 14 as a parts machine, so I've never gotten to fully use it yet. So far, I feel like I'm swayed toward the 12" size - do you guys think the slightly better hardware of the 14 (mine is the last one, the 1.42 and has 1GB RAM) will sway me? Both units have good batteries. I'm keeping it regardless; I'll take it to school to let my students experiment with iMovie if nothing else.

My 12 is a 1.2GHz and currently has 768MB RAM and a 5400 rpm hard drive. The 14 is 1.42, 1GB, and a 4200 rpm drive. Will the performance difference be noticeable?

And it is ANNOYING that the 14" keyboards are so much harder to find/more costly than the 12s!

BTW, I plan to max the RAM and add an SSD to whichever I end up preferring.

js81 said:

I've got a 14" and a 12". My 14 isn't fully working at the moment, but its time is coming (all it needs is a keyboard). I bought the 14 as a parts machine, so I've never gotten to fully use it yet. So far, I feel like I'm swayed toward the 12" size - do you guys think the slightly better hardware of the 14 (mine is the last one, the 1.42 and has 1GB RAM) will sway me? Both units have good batteries. I'm keeping it regardless; I'll take it to school to let my students experiment with iMovie if nothing else.

My 12 is a 1.2GHz and currently has 768MB RAM and a 5400 rpm hard drive. The 14 is 1.42, 1GB, and a 4200 rpm drive. Will the performance difference be noticeable?

And it is ANNOYING that the 14" keyboards are so much harder to find/more costly than the 12s!

BTW, I plan to max the RAM and add an SSD to whichever I end up preferring.

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It will probably be about even in speed. I would upgrade the hard drive though in the 14".

Altemose said:

It will probably be about even in speed. I would upgrade the hard drive though in the 14".

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I plan to! I'm (eventually lol) gonna get an SSD for whichever one I tend to prefer; I'll then put the 5400rpm drive in the other.

js81 said:

I plan to! I'm (eventually lol) gonna get an SSD for whichever one I tend to prefer; I'll then put the 5400rpm drive in the other.

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Check out the Marketplace. jrsx has an SSD up there now that is known to work well in your machine.

js81 said:

And it is ANNOYING that the 14" keyboards are so much harder to find/more costly than the 12s!

BTW, I plan to max the RAM and add an SSD to whichever I end up preferring.

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To me that is a sign that the 14" models are more reliable and less likely to break down and be stripped for parts. Be happy.

What is more annoying is the price of mechanical IDE drives, which has skyrocketed in the past few months. I found an unannounced 160GB drive in my PB that I bought recently, which in my mind paid for the PB. Everything else, including the brand new battery, was gravy.

weckart said:

To me that is a sign that the 14" models are more reliable and less likely to break down and be stripped for parts. Be happy.

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Maybe... but I think its because the 12s were just more commonly purchased (cheaper and often purchased in bulk by schools and such). And I ain't ever happy about paying more.

weckart said:

What is more annoying is the price of mechanical IDE drives

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Tell me about it! IDE drives are crazy expensive. Then again, no one makes them any more, so the only "new" ones are old stock. Supply and demand....

My 12 came without a hard drive - luckily I had held onto a low hours 60GB 5400rpm drive that I had used to upgrade my sister's old laptop when we parted it out. My 14 has its stock 60GB 4200rpm - it'll eventually be upgraded, too, either to an SSD or the 60 I have.

Altemose said:

Check out the Marketplace. jrsx has an SSD up there now that is known to work well in your machine.

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Saw that! I'd love to, but I can't spend any extra right now... it's just what I'm looking for, though.

The only iBook I have is a 14.1" 800mhz G3.

I don't really do much on it, other than some light browsing. I also got my hands on a set of restore disks and now have a stable OS 9 install(this one falls into the category of requiring a "special" 9.2.2 build) so may use it for OS 9 gaming "on the go." The battery in mine is toast, but I have a new aftermarket one scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.

My only real issue is that the screen resolution is such that I can't view some newer website without side-to-side scrolling.

Apple really has done a lot of work in slimming down their "compact" laptops. It always surprises me how bulky my iBook is compared to my(pre-Unibody) white Macbook, which is in turn bulky compared to my Unibody MBP. Even so, the 14" is still a nice size-it's plenty of computer to hold onto, but not so big and heavy that it's cumbersome. I love my TiBook, but it's also a nice step down in size from that.

bunnspecial said:

The only iBook I have is a 14.1" 800mhz G3.

I don't really do much on it, other than some light browsing. I also got my hands on a set of restore disks and now have a stable OS 9 install(this one falls into the category of requiring a "special" 9.2.2 build) so may use it for OS 9 gaming "on the go." The battery in mine is toast, but I have a new aftermarket one scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.

My only real issue is that the screen resolution is such that I can't view some newer website without side-to-side scrolling.

Apple really has done a lot of work in slimming down their "compact" laptops. It always surprises me how bulky my iBook is compared to my(pre-Unibody) white Macbook, which is in turn bulky compared to my Unibody MBP. Even so, the 14" is still a nice size-it's plenty of computer to hold onto, but not so big and heavy that it's cumbersome. I love my TiBook, but it's also a nice step down in size from that.

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Yeah, they are nice and not super large. Well, if they are kinda big, at least they are symmetrical on the outside. (unlike chunky, lumpy Windows laptops xD) I miss using my TiBook; one day, it stayed awake in my laptop bag and fried itself to death I haven't looked on eBay recently, although I am sure they'd be a lot of money.

I have one, its currently battery-less sadly. My macbook doesn't have any coffee on it, but it has yosemite on it, almost the same thing haha. Anyway, they are stellar machines. I wish mine wasn't so sluggish, but I suppose RAM will fix that.

gavinstubbs09 said:

Anyone else out there? These seem like an odd machine that nobody really talks much about, rather it's all about those 12"

I got mine over the summer from Robby (iAmMacPerson) and it's been a fantastic machine. I had a 12" at the time but ultimately sold it as the 14" is in pristine shape. Has two brand new batteries, one with 40 cycles and one that has 1 charge cycle on it. The story behind this one is pretty neat, Robby found it at a Frys store Open Box late last year. Sat on a shelf for years. Last iBook battery in any Frys location. Still had a 38% charge!!

I do find the 14" a rather odd machine, just a 12" but bigger! Same screen resolution just 2" bigger. This iBook is a 2005 model with the 1.42GHz, AirPort, and Bluetooth. The greatest thing I find with these machines is two finger tap and two finger scrolling. Just like my MBP!

I spilt coffee all over my MBP last weekend and so far the iBook has been a stellar replacement. Some things I did on the MBP but really can't on the iBook is YouTube and Netflix, but hey, I have an iPad mini that'll work for that!

So that's my story, what's yours? Pic below was in June when I had my 17" 14" and 12", now all that I have is the 14". Would love another 17" someday!

I burn through Macs like a Chevy 350 and gasoline.

Image

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I loved this machine. 1.5 gbs of ram, SuperDrive, scrolling, hard drive protection, Bluetooth 2.0.. I had the 14" iBook just previous to this without all the newer features for about a week and the hard drive locked up when it was dropped about six inches in a laptop bag. I immediately sold it and got the 1.42 and was in heaven. Its only drawback is the 32 mbs VRAM.

Which reminds me, I have some iBook-only VGA adapters that came with this machine if anyone needs them.