G3 Notebook Mods

[B.V.S]

I've got a few G3 Notebooks of different model and I want to combine some parts of each into one machine. I've already discovered that the floppy from one does not fit into the others. Same goes for screens, keyboards, and DVD/CDROMs.

How do I determine which models I have, and which internal parts are interchangable?

My idea is to add a second harddrive and max the memory on one machine.

Also, wil OSX run on these G3s?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[tazo]

Before any of us can really answer, are you referring to the G3 powerbook which is a nice black color, one of the colored clamshell-style ibooks, or one of the newer style model 'icebooks' which are all white??

 

[B.V.S]

Sorry, I mean the Powerbook G3. I think one is a Bronze because of the kybd color and 400MHz. The second is a Rev2, and the 3rd is a Firewire because of the odd port.

 

[tazo]

well check out some of these mods!
http://www.applefritter.com/hacks/laptops.html

many of them have detailed instructions on em as well

hope that helps

 

[B.V.S]

Thanks tazo, those are some nice mods but I'm more interested in adding power instead of paint and leds. Perhaps I should have used a different word in the title...

 

[jamall]

I have a Pismo, and it is starting to show a bit of age. The only way to give it a new lease of life is to upgrade the hard drive and/or processor module. I saw a combo drive upgrade on XLR8yourmac as well. I'm not sure that you would want to put the RAM from the older models into the Pismo - they had a max of 192 Mb so any SO-DIMMS you pull won't be any larger than 128 Mb, whereas the Pismo can take 2 x 256 Mb modules. The only really useful part would be the batteries, if they worked, but I'm almost certain the rev 2 battery wouldn't work (or even fit), you can only try the Lombard battery.

 

[Jonnod III]

Pismo can actually take 2 x 512mb = 1gb

(like what I have...)

 

[warmd]

upgrades

if you've got the money to consider spending 6 - 8 hundred on proc, ram, and hd upgrades, but not the extra couple hundred to get a new machine, you prolly can't even afford the upgrade! upgrade your job. let me know if you find anything, eh?

wallstreetisme

 

[D*I*S_Frontman]

Pismos worth upgrading

I would like to weigh in here.

Pismos rock. They are extremely rugged. And the expansion bays are fabulous. Seeing that true desktop replacement is really still beyond the reach of even the pricey 1.33hgz 17" AluBook, going for durability, flexibility, and long battery life is a worthwhile trade-off. No other Apple portable offers those qualities in greater abundance than a Pismo.

With the new batteries available from OWC (37% longer life than stock), a tandem of those will keep a Pismo humming along all day long. MCE offers slot loading Superdrives, faster-than-the-internal hot-swappable HDDs, and who knows what else for the venerable expansion bay. And then you can still upgrade the CPU to either a G3 900mhz (Powerlogix) or a G4 500mhz (XLR8yourmac, Newertech). The Powerlogix upgrade can even be throttled down to give you even more battery life.

For 80% of what people use portables for, a Pismo will do fine. They rock.

 

[jamall]

The Pismo is a great machine. You should sell the other two G3s, as is or parted out, and use the money you raise to improve the Pismo. HD and RAM should be the first upgrades, and if it still feels slow then the processor. The 500MHz Pismo will keep up with a 700-800 MHz iBook quite comfortably, the only area that it suffers in is graphics.