Club 17

[Captain Trips]

If you don't mind paying their inflated prices...


Don't. They suck.

Thanks, I was leery of them (PATA drives) since it seems like only one vendor still sells them.

And.at least with an M.2 to IDE adapter, I can re-use the M.2 SSD drive later and I have a wider range of M.2 SSD options.

With regards to Other World Computing, yeah I prefer to buy locally at the Micro Center we have in Columbus, but they don't stock older memory, which doesn't surprise me since there isn't a lot of demand for older memory.

I will check Amazon, and if I see a really good price I am cool ordering from Amazon.

 

[feelingsupersonic]

Thanks, I was leery of them (PATA drives) since it seems like only one vendor still sells them.

And.at least with an M.2 to IDE adapter, I can re-use the M.2 SSD drive later and I have a wider range of M.2 SSD options.

With regards to Other World Computing, yeah I prefer to buy locally at the Micro Center we have in Columbus, but they don't stock older memory, which doesn't surprise me since there isn't a lot of demand for older memory.

I will check Amazon, and if I see a really good price I am cool ordering from Amazon.

You can get a PATA carrier for a mSATA SSD on ebay for under $10. Then get a used mSATA SSD for cheap, I think I paid $15 for a 120gb one used. Performance is great, I use this approach in my PB and my Mac Mini. Getting an actual PATA SSD is futile IMO.

Also check ebay for RAM. I can't remember paying more than $20 for the 2gb in my PB. I used OWC for the 4x256mb sticks in my G3 B&W because it wasn't a bad deal but outside of that, it's a bit steep for ancient stuff.

 

[feelingsupersonic]

May as well share a picture of my 17 as well. 1.5ghz model, 2gb RAM, 120gb SSD. Decided to switch it to Leopard last night, after running Tiger for quite a while on it. Currently serves as my 'laying in bed at night and watching TV shows from the network drive' machine.

 

[netsrot39]

I've followed this thread for a while now. I soon will be joining the 17" PB G4 club and I'm already very excited about my first 17" PowerBook G4 semi-DLSD. Let me explain. 2 months ago I purchased an untested A1139 1.67 GHz 17" PowerBook G4 for 27€ including shipping. The PowerBook G4 would not turn on and after reseating some cables it actually turned on. Unfortunately the previous owner took out the HD. Now that wouldn't be a problem if she didn't put screws back in places they don't belong and damage the ZIF connector near the RAM slots. Luckily with some Kapton tape in place the trackpad is still recognized and works. Unfortunately the logic board itself seems defective because there are lines all over the LCD. I tested with an external monitor and could rule out the LCD, it turned out to be a GPU problem). A week ago I tracked down a fairly cheap 1.67 GHz 17" PowerBook G4 A1107 (70€ including shipping), the predecessor of the DLSD PowerBook. I'll be getting that PowerBook on Monday and the seller confirmed that it has never been opened and in perfect working condition. My plan is to transplant the LCD of my broken DLSD (LCD in perfect condition, not one dead pixel), good battery of the DLSD and the better disc drive over to the A1107 to have a semi-DLSD. I checked online and the parts in question should be cross compatible. The only things I'm missing compared to a real DLSD are DDR2-RAM and 128 MB VRAM but this semi-DLSD is the best I was able to find. I will post pictures of the process and the finished DLSD later. I can't wait to finally have a 17" PowerBook G4. They are really hard to find these days (for a reasonable price at least where I live). I'll max out the RAM of course and hack an SSD into it but more in my next post

 

[Macbookprodude]

1.67Ghz DLSD 2Gb RAM 100Gb 7200 HD....I love this machine, seems much faster than the 15" version and I need a stethoscope to hear the hard drive too!

View attachment 619994

How is that possible when they have the same processor and memory ?? I too have an SSD MSATA M2 in the A1138 - seems faster than my MacBook Pro

 

[netsrot39]

So I spent the last two days working on my "semi-DLSD" PowerBook G4 17" and I am happy to report that I now own a functional 17" PowerBook G4. As of today I'm a official member of the "Club 17" . The transplant/repair was quite involved but not that difficult. I was familiar with the 12" and 15" PowerBook G4s but the 17" was entirely new to me. After working on all 3 types of PowerBooks I'd have to say working on the 17" was the most pleasant experience. The Early 2005 PowerBook G4 arrived on Monday and I immediately checked it out after the parcel showed up. Unfortunately after powering it on I noticed that the LCD had vertical lines in different colours which of course isn't a good sign. I just hoped that it wasn't the logic board and ruled out the GPU and logic board as the source of error after connecting the PowerBook to an external monitor. The seller however assured me that the LCD was perfectly fine before my purchase. I contacted her and we agreed that I'll get a portion of the price paid back. Furthermore there was another problem because the PowerBook wouldn't boot into an OS because of a dead hard drive. All of that wasn't a big deal in the end since I intended to take it apart anyways and do my upgrades but I don't like sellers stating that everything is functional when it is clearly not.

At noon I started disassembling both PowerBooks and transferring the parts in questions from one PowerBook to the other (moving the optical drive, display assembly and battery from the real DLSD to the Early 2005 model). My real DLSD is not functional because of a GPU issue – that is why I kind of panicked when I got the non-DLSD model because I felt like I was having a déjà vu but luckily the logic board of the non-DLSD turned out to be fine. I replaced the dead hard drive with a 120 GB mSATA SSD which works like a charm by connecting it to the logic board via a cheap adapter from AliExpress. Initially I intended to also upgrade Airport and Bluetooth so that I can ditch the old Bluetooth card and AirPort card and swap it for the smaller combo card that the DLSD uses. Unfortunately, although the connector fits physically it turned out to not be compatible since when connected to the non-DLSD it would only bong and run the fans at full speed without doing anything after that. Since there wasn't a way to connect the WiFi antenna to the AirPort Extreme anymore (antennas have different plugs) I decided to take it out and connect wirelessly in the future by using a Realtak based WiFi dongle (which works under Tiger and Leopard). The Bluetooth antenna of the display assembly fits the old Bluetooth card so I kept it. I also added a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card and removed the option to take it out (I removed the silver spring of the PCMCIA slot) I had to do that unfortunately because the card would always get stuck when attempting to take it out and after almost 2 hours of fiddling I couldn't find out why it won't come out. In order to get it out I would always have to unscrew the top case so since I probably won't ever change the card in the PCMCIA slot and I am satisfied with the card in it I decided to remove said spring and make it a permanent option (the card isn't sticking out anywhere and fits nicely, therefore I don't think it looks too off). At 10 PM in the evening the transplant was completed and after 1 hour of testing I came to the conclusion that everything is fully functional and I can put the PowerBook back together.

All in all this PowerBook cost me about 130€ (including WiFi dongle, RAM, SSD and adapter) and 10 hours of work. I think it was worth it because I always wanted to have a 17" PowerBook G4 and finding one these days in pristine and working condition is very unlikely. My "semi-DLSD" is now aesthetically top-notch and fully working (also passed Apple Service Diagnostics OF & OS). The only thing I'm missing out on compared to a real DLSD PowerBook G4 is DDR2 Ram. I'll be using this PowerBook more thoroughly in the next few weeks and report how my experience with it is. Attached please see some pictures I've made during the repair if you are interested.

 

[galgot]

May as well share a picture of my 17 as well. 1.5ghz model, 2gb RAM, 120gb SSD. Decided to switch it to Leopard last night, after running Tiger for quite a while on it. Currently serves as my 'laying in bed at night and watching TV shows from the network drive' machine.

View attachment 1769410

Very nice machine !
I would be careful about using it long period of time with intensive video working, such as watching a film, while the bottom of the laptop lay flat on a bed. When CPU or GPU are under heavy load, the bottom becomes very hot, thus requires a little space of air to cool down by convection. There are these four little feets (that get lost over time...) there in part to keep an thin air layer between the bottom and a flat table. But on bed sheets, with no air space in between, it blocks the convection and heat builds up in the laptop.
I think that design was made on purpose, when running hot, part of the heat being transfered to the under metal body, acting like a radiator. Problem is if one block the air to the "radiator" , it gets super hot.
Quite a few of these have cooked or defect GPU, I have two like that, including a mint DLSD... breaks my heart.
Sorry, don't want to break a nice video in bed evening But just if you want to keep it running for long ,better put it on a flat tray on the bed so air can circulate under.

 

[Raging Dufus]

Hello fellow Club 17'ers,

I regret to inform you that I must suspend my membership (for the time being - I hope to be back someday!). I've just sold my 17-inch MBP 2,1 to another member here, because I'm moving soon and foresee a long period with most of my goods in storage. With COVID around, I just haven't used the MBP as much as I'd hoped, because I've been mostly at home and mostly working from my various desktop machines. I'm about to take on a new job that will provide me with a Windows (barf...but that's the way of the world) laptop that I will have little choice but to use. So, that beautiful MacBook Pro was going to sit unloved in storage for who knows how long, and I just couldn't justify keeping it.

That being said, I wanted to alert the membership to something that you all can appreciate. If you're like me, you often forget that MacRumors has a marketplace, so I wanted to make sure you guys saw this: I am selling my BookEndz BE-MBP17 dock for the 2006-2008 17-inch MacBook Pro, for the same reasons as above. It's a very handy thing to have if you use your MBP as both laptop and desktop, and the 17-inch docks can be hard to find. If you're interested, shoot me an offer. If you don't have sufficient privileges to access the marketplace, PM me and I'll give you the details.

 

[B S Magnet]

A long-overdue post, following a lot of hiccups, via bad phone pics in low light:

[at left]
A1139 late ’05 17-inch PowerBook G4/1.67 [PowerBook5,9]
on 10.5.8, with WSXGA+ (1680x1050) CCFL display, at max brightness
(paired with an added A1023 treat)
shown: InterwebPPC

[at right]
A1261 early ’08 17-inch MacBook Pro C2D/2.6 [MacBookPro4,1]
on 10.6.8, with WUXGA (1920x1200) LED glossy display, at max brightness
(without a battery)
shown: Interweb

In person, the difference in screen and keyboard backlight luminosity is much more dramatic.​

 

[originaldotexe]

i want to get one, only ppc laptop i own is a measely ibook g3 700mhz. prices are just so expensive on ebay though, i remember a couple years ago you could get a completely perfect 1.67ghz dlsd for like $100, should have gotten one back then.

 

[Macbookprodude]

A long-overdue post, following a lot of hiccups, via bad phone pics in low light:

[at left]
A1139 late ’05 17-inch PowerBook G4/1.67 [PowerBook5,9]
on 10.5.8, with WSXGA+ (1680x1050) CCFL display, at max brightness
(paired with an added A1023 treat)
shown: InterwebPPC

[at right]
A1261 early ’08 17-inch MacBook Pro C2D/2.6 [MacBookPro4,1]
on 10.6.8, with WUXGA (1920x1200) LED glossy display, at max brightness
(without a battery)
shown: Interweb

View attachment 1797891

In person, the difference in screen and keyboard backlight luminosity is much more dramatic.​

I will ask this one question - How did u get dark mode on a PowerPC 1139 which I also have ?

 

[eyoungren]

I will ask this one question - How did u get dark mode on a PowerPC 1139 which I also have ?

That's not Dark Mode. It's a browser with a dark theme and MacRumors with its dark theme.

 

[09872738]

Hey… I‘m about to join this exclusive club soon. Just purchased 2 MBP 17‘s off ebay. One a 2008 2.5 GHz with 512 MB GPU, with the HiRes Display. The idea is to swap the displays in a way that one‘s got both the high memory GPU and HiRes Display.
I am going to refurb both machines (SSDs on the way), re-pasting CPU/GPU... Dual booting Snow Lepard / Mountain Lion

Hope the condition is as advertised…

 

[B S Magnet]

Hey… I‘m about to join this exclusive club soon. Just purchased 2 MBP 17‘s off ebay. One a 2008 2.5 GHz with 512 MB GPU, with the HiRes Display. The idea is to swap the displays in a way that one‘s got both the high memory GPU and HiRes Display.
I am going to refurb both machines (SSDs on the way), re-pasting CPU/GPU... Dual booting Snow Lepard / Mountain Lion

Hope the condition is as advertised…

My understanding of the early 2008 (MacBookPro4,1) 17-inch models is both the 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz variants only featured 512MB of VRAM for the GeForce 8600M GT.

I can attest this given my recent changing out of an OEM logic board that had the bad G84-602-A2 GPU (it was a 2.5GHz unit matched with the high-res LED glossy display), with an Apple refurbished 2.6GHz logic board with the “green dot” G84-603-A2 GPU. Both boards are visually identical, including the number and size of the VRAM modules soldered to the board (centre-top/back area on the board).

Perhaps one of the two 17-inch models you picked up is a Santa Rosa late 2007 model (with the T7700 or T7800 chip) and the 256GB VRAM configuration?

Either way, congratulations on finding two which both have a working GPU!

 

[09872738]

My understanding of the early 2008 (MacBookPro4,1) 17-inch models is both the 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz variants only featured 512MB of VRAM for the GeForce 8600M GT.

I can attest this given my recent changing out of an OEM logic board that had the bad G84-602-A2 GPU (it was a 2.5GHz unit matched with the high-res LED glossy display), with an Apple refurbished 2.6GHz logic board with the “green dot” G84-603-A2 GPU. Both boards are visually identical, including the number and size of the VRAM modules soldered to the board (centre-top/back area on the board).

Perhaps one of the two 17-inch models you picked up is a Santa Rosa late 2007 model (with the T7700 or T7800 chip) and the 256GB VRAM configuration?

Either way, congratulations on finding two which both have a working GPU!

Thx! Yeah, I‘ll check and in case it turns out a GPU might be prone to failure I intend to send the item over to dosdude to swap the GPU. At least one is a late 2008 model which I understand should feature an updated revision. Not sure though, we‘ll see

 

[09872738]

Update: First 17 arrived today.
First thing I did was removing the battery - it was stuck in its housing. When i finally got it out some parts broke apart, brittling.
So I plugged in the power cord. Device booted, but: black screen. The seller insists the machine is in working condition and that he did set it up on monday. First guess: GPU

I am waiting for the second device, its still waiting for customs clearance (thanks, Brexit)

@dosdude1 heat up your soldering iron 🥴

 

[theMarble]

Thought I should add my 17" MBP on here and so here it is;



It's my first 17" in around 5 years and that was a beaten up 17" G4 that I've now gotten rid off (however am going to get another 17" G4 soon!) and this new one is my first Core 2 Duo 17".

I acquired this gem from my local computer recycling who I volunteer for sometimes as they have stacks on stacks worth of vintage Macs (68k, PPC, Early-Intel) in great condition hidden away (and they let me take them for cheap so that's a plus as well).

It's a Late 2006 2.33GHz model (MacBookPro2,1) with the mid-tier 160GB 5400rpm which I'll replace with an SSD soon and I've upgraded the default 2GB to 4GB (3GB usable). Currently it is quad-booted with Snow Leopard, Lion, Mavericks and Windows 7 (Lion was temporary until I got Mavericks hacked onto it). It has become my main 32-bit portable testing system thanks to Catalina/Big Sur stripping 32-bit app compatibility.

Doubling the RAM has proved useful in Final Cut Pro and Xcode however I feel that getting an SSD into here will certainly make this 17" easier to use. (Although the speed increase from extra RAM isn't as much as it was in my 12" PBG4 going from 768MB to the max 1.25GB)

(If anyone is wondering, I got this for around 30 US dollars in near mint condition.)

 

[09872738]

Ok. Officially requesting a Member Card for the Club

I got now two MBP 17 in working condition:

Late 2008, 2.5 GHz 512 MB Graphics, HiRes Display
Late 2007, 2.6 GHz, 256 MB Graphics, HiRes Display

Condition is ok-ish, not perfect, but not too bad either

 

[eyoungren]

Ok. Officially requesting a Member Card for the Club

I got now two MBP 17 in working conditions:

Late 2008, 2.5 GHz 512 MB Graphics, HiRes Display
Late 2007, 2.6 GHz, 256 MB Graphics, HiRes Display

Condition is ok-ish, not perfect, but not too bad either

Granted…

 

[retta283]

I've had this for a long time but always forgot to post.. Sorry for the crappy picture, my desk is a mess right now so I have it in a nook. This late 06 MBP is the machine I use for tinkering with OS theming and various other projects, as you can see. I do run Server on it because I haven't found the original install discs and I don't want to take the time to constantly reinstall via firewire.

Excellent laptop, running Mavericks on it before was a good experience overall and quite useable with the web. I will eventually 'settle down' this thing and put Mavericks back on. I do cover the iSight with tape because I never used it one time anyway. I would love to get a 17" PB, the design differences while slight do make it the more attractive laptops. The Apple 17"s are my favorite laptops easily, only things that come close are the older IBM ThinkPads, even if I find their designs to be horribly bland.

 

[eyoungren]

View attachment 1814471
I've had this for a long time but always forgot to post.. Sorry for the crappy picture, my desk is a mess right now so I have it in a nook. This late 06 MBP is the machine I use for tinkering with OS theming and various other projects, as you can see. I do run Server on it because I haven't found the original install discs and I don't want to take the time to constantly reinstall via firewire.

Excellent laptop, running Mavericks on it before was a good experience overall and quite useable with the web. I will eventually 'settle down' this thing and put Mavericks back on. I do cover the iSight with tape because I never used it one time anyway. I would love to get a 17" PB, the design differences while slight do make it the more attractive laptops. The Apple 17"s are my favorite laptops easily, only things that come close are the older IBM ThinkPads, even if I find their designs to be horribly bland.

One of the key physical differences I noted between my PB and my MBP is that although both are 17", the MBP is slightly wider than the PB. But the PB is slightly deeper (front of PB to rear of PB) than the MBP.

Of course, the MBP is also LIGHTER.

 

[retta283]

One of the key physical differences I noted between my PB and my MBP is that although both are 17", the MBP is slightly wider than the PB. But the PB is slightly deeper (front of PB to rear of PB) than the MBP.

Of course, the MBP is also LIGHTER.

I would've guess it would be opposite due to the addition of the iSight on the MBP making the lid deeper. That's the thing that bugs me the most, miss the thin bezel of the PB. I don't have a 17" PB to compare dimensions to sadly, but I'm always hunting for a deal. Same with a 12". All the ones I find are banged up and dented, as a collector as well as user, I like my stuff to be in good shape.

 

[Amethyst1]

I do cover the iSight with tape because I never used it one time anyway.

Same here LOL. I do it on all my machines (except my phone 'cause its cameras don't work anyway).

IBM ThinkPads, even if I find their designs to be horribly bland.

A tank doesn't need to be beautiful

 

[eyoungren]

I would've guess it would be opposite due to the addition of the iSight on the MBP making the lid deeper. That's the thing that bugs me the most, miss the thin bezel of the PB. I don't have a 17" PB to compare dimensions to sadly, but I'm always hunting for a deal. Same with a 12". All the ones I find are banged up and dented, as a collector as well as user, I like my stuff to be in good shape.

It's possible I have that reversed. I was hungry when I wrote the post.

 

[B S Magnet]

It's possible I have that reversed. I was hungry when I wrote the post.

Watch out, Macs! When Eric gets the humgrys — hangrys, even — not even y’all are safe from being mixed up. The om-nom-noms shall not be denied.

Levity aside, what I’ve been finding whenever I pick up either the 17-inch PowerBook or the 17-inch MBP is while the weight difference feels trivial (Everymac shows the A1139 at 3.1kg and the A1261 at 3.08kg — a negligible difference with both being undoubtedly lighter after replacement of the HDD with an SSD solution), what I find is the rigidity of the chassis of the open MBP seems a slight bit better than when picking up the PB, which feels like it has a slight bit more flex in it.

I wish I could also run a side-by-side chassis comparison of the A1138 and the old A1226 I once owned (which was stolen… oh heck, 12 years ago today!) to compare rigidity of that form factor, to feel whether there’s a difference there as well.