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G-series laptop restoration and modding

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
lepidotós

lepidotós

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 29, 2021
684
755
Marinette, Arizona
(Formerly part of Club 15)
Discuss tactics to restore your iBooks and PowerBook G3/G4 laptops to new or better condition, both cosmetically and functionally. Some examples of cosmetic restoration would be re-rubberizing the PowerBook G3's lid, or getting tarnish off the aluminum PowerBooks, or retrobriting the iBook's plastics. Functional upgrades could include: new higher-res screens, new (V)RAM chips soldered into the board, CPU replacements, or any other thing that makes your trusty 'Book even more helpful to your day-to-day life, or even just more fun.
This thread is not for gutting your laptop and installing an Intel or M1 logic board in lieu of the original PowerPC logic board, but for extending the original board with higher specs to make it run faster and smoother.
Discuss iBook screen upgrades. Despite not being a fan, I know that people are working on or have already found a 12" 1024x768 screen for the Clamshell. I would love to upgrade my screen from 1024x768 to somewhere between 1280x960 and 1440x1080.
I guess talking about upgrading the GPU is also on topic.
 
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lepidotós said:
Do Thinkpads tend to use the same cables as iBooks? Also, I'm considering turning this into " 'Book Restoration and Modding".​
Click to expand...

Owing to when the T-series models with 14.1-inch SXGA+ screens were sold, it’s a reasonably likely bet they used 20-pin LVDS connectors, much as the 14.1-inch iBook G4s did (and, for that matter, much as all the 12-inch iBooks did. The task would then be to know the pin-out settings on both the OEM LCD in the iBook and a swapped-in LCD from a Thinkpad (i.e., digging out the manufacturer specs for that LCD on a site like panelook-dot-com), and make sure they’re configured to be the same.

If so, this should allow you to use the Apple display data cable on the swapped-in LCD as-is, as the LCD’s end is a standard 20-pin LVDS socket while the socket end connecting to the board is proprietary to Apple and used on, as far as I remember, all rectangular iBooks (it’s a style which requires one to pull up, perpendicular to the board, to remove it).
 
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Amethyst1 said:
Thoughts:
  • Can the 12.1” 1400×1050 screen PowerBooks can be upgraded with be installed in iBooks?
  • Can the 14.1” 1400×1050 screen available from the ThinkPad T21 to the T61 be installed in iBooks?
Click to expand...
I think you can answer that first question with another one: are 12” iBook panels and 12” PBG4 panels known to be interchangeable? If so, I think it’s a go! Depending on whether or not the original 800 MHz iBook G4 used an LVDS or VGA-based panel (I know the original 12” PBG4 is VGA-based), I might be able to test this myself depending on when I get around to tearing apart and deep-cleaning my 12” iBook G4 since I’ve got one of those Flexview IPS panels (only 1024x768 though) sitting around for my 12” PBG4.

The 14” 1400x1050 panels seem to be reasonably cheap on eBay (~30$ + shipping), so it’s definitely worth looking into. Sadly it doesn’t look like there were ever any 1400x1050 IPS panels manufactured at that size but it’s not like the original panel offered IPS either. Some of the panels don’t look like they have all the little plastic and metal projections that the 12” PBG4 Flexview panel needs cut off to fit (just did that today on mine), so apart from the power connector which might need lengthening they could theoretically be drop-in replacements!
 
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ahurst said:
Depending on whether or not the original 800 MHz iBook G4 used an LVDS or VGA-based panel (I know the original 12” PBG4 is VGA-based),
Click to expand...
Wow, I didn't know that. Are there any details on this? I was under the impression all laptop panels were LVDS since like the late 1990s, until eDP replaced that.
 
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Amethyst1 said:
Wow, I didn't know that. Are there any details on this? I was under the impression all laptop panels were LVDS since like the late 1990s, until eDP replaced that.
Click to expand...
Huh, apparently I'm mis-remembering according to the official service guide. I think I mixed up a few memories with other part incompatibilities between the 867 MHz 12" and the later models + the mini-VGA on the 867 vs mini-DVI on the others. In that case, as long as the screws are in the right place, the Flexview mod should work well on any 12" iBook.

That said, a word of warning about the Flexview panels: by default they don't seem to handle non-native resolutions properly, showing up in the top-right corner with a bunch of streaks and other artifacts. That's not a problem for most use, but for old mac games that only run at 800x600 or 640x480 it can rule out the possibility. There might be some magic EDID stuff you can do in SwitchResX or something to get it working, but last time I tried I didn't get anywhere.
 
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lepidotós said:
(Formerly part of Club 15)
Discuss tactics to restore your iBooks and PowerBook G3/G4 laptops to new or better condition, both cosmetically and functionally. Some examples of cosmetic restoration would be re-rubberizing the PowerBook G3's lid, or getting tarnish off the aluminum PowerBooks, or retrobriting the iBook's plastics. Functional upgrades could include: new higher-res screens, new (V)RAM chips soldered into the board, CPU replacements, or any other thing that makes your trusty 'Book even more helpful to your day-to-day life, or even just more fun.
This thread is not for gutting your laptop and installing an Intel or M1 logic board in lieu of the original PowerPC logic board, but for extending the original board with higher specs to make it run faster and smoother.
Discuss iBook screen upgrades. Despite not being a fan, I know that people are working on or have already found a 12" 1024x768 screen for the Clamshell. I would love to upgrade my screen from 1024x768 to somewhere between 1280x960 and 1440x1080.
I guess talking about upgrading the GPU is also on topic.
Click to expand...

Open this post up into a WikiPost (see thread options up top) so that folks can add their known mods and fixes to the pile!
 
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Okay, so I've been trying to clear up the scratches on my white iBooks, and last week I tried something a little different: wet sanding!
IMG_0765.jpg


I had some 600-grit wet/dry sandpaper already as well as a set of Novus plastic polish (very gentle, which is great for getting a fine glossy polish but ineffective for deeper scratches), and I picked up a set of 1000/1500/2000/3000 grit sandpaper to give me some more range in between. Here's the result of ~15 minutes work on the bottom of my translucent G3:

Before:
IMG_0763.jpg


After:
IMG_0764.jpg


There are still some kinks to work out in the process (the region above still has some hard-to-see sideways scratches from the sandpaper that prevent it from being fully glossy) and there are still some deep scratches you can make out, but overall the results are really impressive! The process is 600 grit -> 1000 grit -> 1500 grit -> 2000 grit -> 3000 grit -> Novus 3 -> Novus 2. The last step is essential for getting the plastic from hazy to shiny after the previous steps. I've been using a water spray bottle to keep the plastic and sandpaper wet to avoid serious damage.
 
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Are there options to replace a screen in PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz with something new? Screen is alive on my PB12, but colors are dull (unsurprisingly).
 
barracuda156 said:
Are there options to replace a screen in PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz with something new? Screen is alive on my PB12, but colors are dull (unsurprisingly).
Click to expand...

If you can find the extremely scarce BOE-HYDIS 12-inch display, sporting a 1440x1050p resolution, there’s an iFixit guide on how to do just that. Given how they only appeared as an order upgrade option for one generation of ThinkPads (there is a “good” variant of the LCD, which is even scarcer than the “problematic” variant), obtaining one in good condition is not going to be easy or inexpensive.

Alternately, finding a later revision of the LG display as new-old stock, one rated at a higher brightness than the version which shipped with the PowerBook (per specs one can browse on panelook-dot-com), could be another path to a brighter display.

Lastly, there’s the more radical approach, one which I’ve done with my iBook G3 XGA mod: carefully removing the CCFL tube, take away the inverter, and add in an LED strip kit (which should come with an accompanying board). It’s now a much brighter display than anything a CCFL tube could deliver, but it also has its peculiar drawbacks.
 
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B S Magnet said:
If you can find the extremely scarce BOE-HYDIS 12-inch display, sporting a 1440x1050p resolution, there’s an iFixit guide on how to do just that. Given how they only appeared as an order upgrade option for one generation of ThinkPads (there is a “good” variant of the LCD, which is even scarcer than the “problematic” variant), obtaining one in good condition is not going to be easy or inexpensive.

Alternately, finding a later revision of the LG display as new-old stock, one rated at a higher brightness than the version which shipped with the PowerBook (per specs one can browse on panelook-dot-com), could be another path to a brighter display.

Lastly, there’s the more radical approach, one which I’ve done with my iBook G3 XGA mod: carefully removing the CCFL tube, take away the inverter, and add in an LED strip kit (which should come with an accompanying board). It’s now a much brighter display than anything a CCFL tube could deliver, but it also has its peculiar drawbacks.
Click to expand...
There's also a Boe-Hydis 1024x768 IPS panel that was offered in the same ThinkPads which can be had for much cheaper (at least it could when I got mine a few years back), but it still requires all the same filing and drilling and other fiddly mods to get it in place. The colours and viewing angle are definitely improved, though.

That said, with the Boe-Hydis LCDs there seems to be a weird issue where they'll only work properly at native resolution: anything lower and the picture will be garbled in the corner of the screen. That's fine for a lot of stuff, but it can make older Mac games unplayable if that's something you use the machine for.
 
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ahurst said:
That said, with the Boe-Hydis LCDs there seems to be a weird issue where they'll only work properly at native resolution: anything lower and the picture will be garbled in the corner of the screen.
Click to expand...
Are lower resolutions downscaled by the GPU i.e. the LCDs are still driven at native resolution or are they actually driven at a lower resolution?
 
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Amethyst1 said:
Are lower resolutions downscaled by the GPU i.e. the LCDs are still driven at native resolution or are they actually driven at a lower resolution?
Click to expand...
I think the latter, but the ThinkPads it originally came in might have done the former? I think I remember finding a report of the same issue on a Hackintosh X61 tablet, so it seems like it might be an OS/EDID issue rather than something lower-level.
 
ahurst said:
I think the latter, but the ThinkPads it originally came in might have done the former? I think I remember finding a report of the same issue on a Hackintosh X61 tablet, so it seems like it might be an OS/EDID issue rather than something lower-level.
Click to expand...
You can check this in Mac OS X using SwitchResX: On the "Current Resolutions" tab, do the lower-than-native modes show up as "Scaled" or not?
 
ahurst said:
There's also a Boe-Hydis 1024x768 IPS panel that was offered in the same ThinkPads which can be had for much cheaper (at least it could when I got mine a few years back), but it still requires all the same filing and drilling and other fiddly mods to get it in place. The colours and viewing angle are definitely improved, though.
Click to expand...

Considering how the OEM displays in all 12-inch PowerBook and iBook G4s are 1024x768 LG LCDs (and have relatively common aftermarket parts availability), it doesn’t seem very logical to search for a BOE-HYDIS 12-inch display at 1024x768 for any reason — unless perhaps one is trying to incorporate some kind of screen-touch functionality into said PowerBook or iBook G4’s display area.
 
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B S Magnet said:
Considering how the OEM displays in all 12-inch PowerBook and iBook G4s are 1024x768 LG LCDs (and have relatively common aftermarket parts availability), it doesn’t seem very logical to search for a BOE-HYDIS 12-inch display at 1024x768 for any reason — unless perhaps one is trying to incorporate some kind of screen-touch functionality into said PowerBook or iBook G4’s display area.
Click to expand...
The main advantage is vastly better colour and viewing angles: even when my PBG4 12's original LCD was still working, the washed out and dull colour relative to most other Apple displays always bothered me, so when it failed and I had to get a replacement anyway I sprung for a 1024x768 IPS panel from an X61 tablet.

Of course, because of how involved the install process is I've left it half-done for years: I tested the panel out connected loose to the logic board and it works great (other than the resolution issue I mentioned), but I still have to actually drill holes in it for the screw mounts and lengthen the power connector a bit before it can be mounted inside the laptop itself.
 
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B S Magnet said:
Considering how the OEM displays in all 12-inch PowerBook and iBook G4s are 1024x768 LG LCDs (and have relatively common aftermarket parts availability), it doesn’t seem very logical to search for a BOE-HYDIS 12-inch display at 1024x768 for any reason […]
Click to expand...
Once you go IPS there’s no going back. :) Viewing angles and colour reproduction is much better than on the awful TN panels 'Books have.
 
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@Amethyst1
I will say that, compared to some laptops (including the 2007 MacBook), both my iBook and PowerBook G4 have a superior screen with better angles. They aren't particularly vibrant, but still are decently bright and can be used up to about a 45° angle without much inversion.
I would still take an IPS panel though.
My absolute ideal would be if they could miniaturize LPD, but I don't know if they can make it thin enough for a laptop screen.​
 
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