i got this old Powerbook G4 and idk what to do with it. help!

optimus prime · Jan 10, 2008

so this PBG4 belongs to my girlfriend's brother. well he doesnt use it anymore he has a macbook.

i still don't have the charger to this and i haven't been able to turn it on yet. can someone enlightenme and tell me which model this is? also, i've checked Mactracker and i don't know what memory i should use to speed this thing up. is it even worth bringing back up from the dead? my girlfriend uses a compaq presario which is garbage and she doesn't like it. im thinking can i make this powerbook better than her current computer? she's saving to get a macbook but i hope she can use this in the mean time.

r.j.s · Jan 10, 2008

Without the charger, it going to be difficult to tell what you can do with it, as no one knows how it is currently configured. If you don't get the charger from him, i'm sure you can find one on ebay fairly cheap.

socamx · Jan 10, 2008

Well it looks to be one of the older TIs. So it either takes 100 or 133 sdram, you can just buy 133 which will work in 100, will clock down to 100 speeds.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/index-powerbook-g4.html

It can be any one of those with the TI on the name.

optimus prime · Jan 10, 2008

he said he upgraded the OS to tiger and then it got reaaal slow and it wasn't worth it anymore. haha

socamx · Jan 10, 2008

I bet he said it was real slow due to it lacking a decent amount of ram. I find Tiger quite snappy as long as you have 512+ mb of ram, even on an older G3 Mac.

Any G4 with at least 512mb of ram should run Tiger decently, a bigger plus would be a graphics card that supports Quartz Extreme to speed up window rendering.

Edit #1: There should be a model number on it somewhere, check the bottom of the laptop.

Edit #2: If you get the serial number, you can enter it here:
https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do
and Apple will tell you the warranty information on it, even though it is going to be expired it should still tell you the model it is.

optimus prime · Jan 10, 2008

i opened up the computer. the hard drive says 10GB's... did they really come like that?

so it was the 500mhz one

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_500.html

socamx · Jan 10, 2008

The 500mhz one came with a 20 gb, so this one is the 400mhz model.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_400.html

optimus prime · Jan 10, 2008

where do i find the memory??

socamx · Jan 10, 2008

The ram should be below the keyboard. There are two latches at the top row with the F-keys. Make sure the little lock isn't, well, locked.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Ti-Mercury/RAM/21/2/

If you mean to buy more, I generally use crucial.com or eshop.macsales.com, depending who is cheaper.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=PowerBook G4 400MHz (Titanium)

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iBooks-PowerBooks/G4-Titanium/

optimus prime · Jan 10, 2008

socamx said:
The ram should be below the keyboard. There are two latches at the top row with the F-keys. Make sure the little lock isn't, well, locked.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Ti-Mercury/RAM/21/2/

If you mean to buy more, I generally use crucial.com or eshop.macsales.com, depending who is cheaper.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=PowerBook G4 400MHz (Titanium)

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iBooks-PowerBooks/G4-Titanium/

thanks a lot bro

socamx · Jan 10, 2008

No problem.

If you get it working at a minimal cost, it'll make a nice wireless web surfing, email, IM and word processing machine.

Just beware of flash websites; things like youtube will barely play.

optimus prime · Jan 10, 2008

thanks again bro. i just need to find some memory. come to find out, it was only using 128MB -_-

how do i take the hard drive out?

socamx · Jan 10, 2008

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Ti-Mercury/21

This site is great for taking apart and upgrading older Mac laptops, they have very detailed guides. They also sell replacement parts that can be hard to come by.

Check out the HD Replacement one for a good amount of detail on that.

Definitely upgrade that 128, any version of OS X is going to be painful with that much. Just don't go nuts buying parts for such an old laptop, may be better to just save the money for something else.

optimus prime · Jan 10, 2008

yeah, i'm thinking about getting another powerbook g4 ti for cheap

socamx · Jan 10, 2008

The late model 1 Ghz Ti would be a nice Tiger/Leopard machine. My old iBook G4 1 ghz was great in Tiger, the two laptops are very similar in specs. Never felt slow unless I opened a ton of programs at once on my paltry 640 mb ram.

skyrider007 · Jan 10, 2008

wow i'm on holidays in thailand at the moment and saw that the old ti PB's hd was made in THailand. coolio

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i got this old Powerbook G4 and idk what to do with it. help!

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