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An odd observation with my 12" Powerbook G4

Hallivand

Hallivand

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 26, 2010
195
20
Sydney, Australia
Hey all, I recently acquired an old 12" Powerbook G4 right and I noticed something peculiar. (Its the 1.5Ghz model, this one has 1.25GB RAM and a 40GB HDD)

Imprinted on the underside, there's the usual Certifications and copyright information. What's odd is that it says:

[....TM and © 2002 Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved....]

The battery says the same thing, only that the year is in fact 2003.

The serial number space in OS X comes up as blank, no serial number anywhere to be found. Either on the machine itself or within OS X.

The model identifier in OS X comes up as Powerbook 6,8 yet the underside is imprinted with A1010. (or the model for the first 867mHz/1Ghz 12" Powerbooks.

What makes this all very strange is that the 1.5Ghz model wasn't released until January 2005.

Any suggestions as to what may be going on here?

P.S Oh and the machine is in very good condition, so a body replacement or something appears highly unlikely. No indications of the whole thing being opened up.
 
Anyone who actually knows what theyre doing can rebuild a laptop without it looking tampered with. My ibook has been completely rebuilt several times and you could never tell.
 
I guess, but would it explain the absence of a serial number in the OS? Just seems abit odd as to why anyone would stick in a 1.5Ghz mobo into an even older Powerbook.
 
Hallivand said:
I guess, but would it explain the absence of a serial number in the OS? Just seems abit odd as to why anyone would stick in a 1.5Ghz mobo into an even older Powerbook.
Click to expand...

Logic board could have failed, and instead of getting a new computer, they just upgraded. Not sure about the serial though.
 
Hmm. Well it's got a Combo Drive with nVidia GeForce 5200 with 64mb VRAM.

I might just bite the bullet and open the thing myself, as I need to clean out the incredible amount of dust that appears to be inside of it anyway.

So seems that this is a bit of a FrankenMac eh :cool:
 
Yeah it runs Leopard great, or anything really.

Though my only gripe is the battery (new mobo issue?) that cuts off at 54% and goes to sleep. When I wake it, the battery is at 0% and charges normally to 100%.

Then discharges to 54% and so forth. Would there be like, any way to at least make the battery indicator be accurate? I dont mind if the battery is shot (or would a replacement work anyway?) but having it cut off is a bit of a worry.

Aside from its nearly constant fan noise (I guess an internal clean should clear that up) and crummy battery its a real joy to use.
 
same here

I did a rebuild of a Powerbook G4 1,67 (LoRes) and replaced the defective lcd screen with vertical lines with another good one (though LP171W04 while original was a LP171W01).

Replaced HD (80GB) with a Samsung 160Gb

Now the serial is blanked.
and the line beneath it also.

and when te Powerbook starts up
no Apple logo :apple: and no spinning wheel is seen.
(anybody familiar with this problem
(which is not a problem really :):)
just curious if it has happened more ;)

Laptop starts normally and seems to be oke.

greetz
Luuk Sollie
 
Hallivand said:
Yeah it runs Leopard great, or anything really.

Though my only gripe is the battery (new mobo issue?) that cuts off at 54% and goes to sleep. When I wake it, the battery is at 0% and charges normally to 100%.

Then discharges to 54% and so forth. Would there be like, any way to at least make the battery indicator be accurate? I dont mind if the battery is shot (or would a replacement work anyway?) but having it cut off is a bit of a worry.

Aside from its nearly constant fan noise (I guess an internal clean should clear that up) and crummy battery its a real joy to use.
Click to expand...
A new battery should do the trick.
 
Hallivand said:
.....The serial number space in OS X comes up as blank, no serial number anywhere to be found. Either on the machine itself or within OS X....
.
Click to expand...

I suspect it had the os installed via firewire target disk mode, i did it with my 500mhz ibook g3 and the serial number is blank, i believe it is because it was expecting to see a powermac g5, not a ibook g3
 
It sounds like my old 12" PB that I turned into a file/media server because I'm not wiling to shell out $100 for a battery (mine is shot too). I figure his logic board died and he replaced it with the newer model (I think 1.5GHz 1.25GB was the best the 12" got).
 
Old thread but....

max¥¥ said:
I suspect it had the os installed via firewire target disk mode, i did it with my 500mhz ibook g3 and the serial number is blank, i believe it is because it was expecting to see a powermac g5, not a ibook g3
Click to expand...

Mmmm, that's interesting, never thought of that, but erasing My Powerbook and reinstalling from OS X Install disk is quite a job just to find out if the above is true.

Edit:Reinstalling OS X doesn't solve it, still no Serial, so I guess it's due to (new)hardware.

I Myself think it's most probably a rebuild rather than the above.
Bought this Powerbook G4 1 1/2 year ago secondhand and put the disk from a G3 in it .
One RAM slot does not work and I think the main board was replaced.
Serial number does not show up in OS X

There is only one reason I can think of that someone needs their serial number, there is a certain i app(3th party)which needs the serial to get activated and the hack does not seem to work on a machine without a serial number.

I actually think that no matter where or how you got OS X on the laptop, the serial number is in the hardware and can be queried by the system, so again I think something in the machine got swapped.
 
Last edited:
It's Logic board was replaced at some point and the serial number was not re-encoded into the eprom.

Happens quite often
 
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