Behind the wheel of an iBook G4 once again

[Eightbitgamer757]

It's been quite a while since I last posted, but I once again find myself with another PowerPC powered rig, and this one hits much closer to home. I used to have an iBook G4 when I was younger, unfortunately I destroyed that one long ago being young and not knowing what I was doing taking it apart and back together. I while ago I aquired another iBook G4 from an eBay auction run by a Goodwill, it was an untested unit and I won the auction for $20 plus shipping. I received it in great condition, and it powered on to an old Tiger install. I recently finally decided I'd like to make this my "dream build" iBook g4, and have started with throwing in a 1Gb stick of ram. This unit is a little newer and faster than my old a1054 12", this new one is an a1133 2005 model with slightly bumped clock speed and 500mb of on-board memory. I'm hoping I can find a new battery to install, does anyone know where I could locate one? I'm also looking at installing an SSD in the future to replace the old factory 40gb hard drive. Lastly, here is a screenshot I took with the specs, and it running TenFourFox wonderfully.

 

[awshucks]

Great to see that you bought the machine of your youth. Likewise, I've been chasing nostalgia too and acquired an untested PowerBook G4 last month. It's been fun managing music for my iPods and just using the old OS.

Avoid the new OEM batteries (new old-stock) people list on eBay, as all of those are probably dead considering they've never had cycles.
Although it's a tricky process that will leave marks on the casing, and requires soldering, the six 18650 lithium-ion cells can be replaced. They are usually 3.6-3.7v in a 3-series, 2-parallel setup. And, the battery management system needs to be powered instead of disconnected (in order to prevent locking), and usually reset.

 

[Eightbitgamer757]

Great to see that you bought the machine of your youth. Likewise, I've been chasing nostalgia too and acquired an untested PowerBook G4 last month. It's been fun managing music for my iPods and just using the old OS.

Avoid the new OEM batteries (new old-stock) people list on eBay, as all of those are probably dead considering they've never had cycles.
Although it's a tricky process that will leave marks on the casing, and requires soldering, the six 18650 lithium-ion cells can be replaced. They are usually 3.6-3.7v in a 3-series, 2-parallel setup. And, the battery management system needs to be powered instead of disconnected (in order to prevent locking), and usually reset.

As much as I'd love to do it myself, I don't trust myself to solder batteries. I guess this may have to stay a corded laptop until I can figure something out. I did buy a new battery for my old one ages ago, but it refuses to charge and is stuck at 0%. Sucks, because it only had 3 cycles done on it before I killed my old iBook.

 

[jktwice]

It's been quite a while since I last posted, but I once again find myself with another PowerPC powered rig, and this one hits much closer to home. I used to have an iBook G4 when I was younger, unfortunately I destroyed that one long ago being young and not knowing what I was doing taking it apart and back together. I while ago I aquired another iBook G4 from an eBay auction run by a Goodwill, it was an untested unit and I won the auction for $20 plus shipping. I received it in great condition, and it powered on to an old Tiger install. I recently finally decided I'd like to make this my "dream build" iBook g4, and have started with throwing in a 1Gb stick of ram. This unit is a little newer and faster than my old a1054 12", this new one is an a1133 2005 model with slightly bumped clock speed and 500mb of on-board memory. I'm hoping I can find a new battery to install, does anyone know where I could locate one? I'm also looking at installing an SSD in the future to replace the old factory 40gb hard drive. Lastly, here is a screenshot I took with the specs, and it running TenFourFox wonderfully.


View attachment 2498512

Make sure you put Aquafox on there. Security is up to date and it is a fork of TFF.

My 14' iBook 1.42GHz is really capable in Tiger. I don't bother in Leopard due to the GPU (maybe I should idk. I wonder how well Snow Leopard PPC runs on this thing).

This thing runs Reason 4 when my QS 2002 with bad L3 cache doesn't. Powerhouse.

 

[Eightbitgamer757]

Make sure you put Aquafox on there. Security is up to date and it is a fork of TFF.

My 14' iBook 1.42GHz is really capable in Tiger. I don't bother in Leopard due to the GPU (maybe I should idk. I wonder how well Snow Leopard PPC runs on this thing).

This thing runs Reason 4 when my QS 2002 with bad L3 cache doesn't. Powerhouse.

Thanks for the heads up on Aquafox, it's been a while since I've messed with PPC machines. I've been considering sorbet leopard on this machine now that the ram is upgraded, I love it on my PMG5, but that's also a much more powerful system. Maybe I'll dual boot it if I ever throw an SSD in this little laptop in the future to compare and contrast.