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Getting a 14" mid 2005 iBook G4!

California said:
I was referring to the OEM discs that are configured for your machine exactly. I think I might have the iBook applications disc for your machine. (iLife 'O5 and other stuff)

Keep it plugged in, in between these sessions. And clean out the port as the previous poster said. If the machine doesn't work, you got it for free, right? So it's all good.

Keep in mind that the oem hard drives on these machines are absolutely ancient, unless you have upgraded them. EIGHT years old and counting. Yikes.
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Oh, yeah the gray discs. I lost a bid on those.

I will try cleaning it and hope that helps, but I can't help but disagree with the notion that simply because it's free means all is good. Even though it was free, I know for a fact that I would not have accepted it knowing that there were issues with the I/O ports and the WiFi; especially the FW port. for a PPC mac, there is no more important port than that. W/o it, I can't boot from an external, use a fast enough external storage device, use TDM to transfer information or even clone my current iBook to make it my primary machine.

I have located a HDD for it, but since I don't have really any money, I think I'll have to hope that this one lasts long enough for me to find the cash for the upgrade, purchasing the proper tools, and the installation.
 
RedCroissant said:
Oh, yeah the gray discs. I lost a bid on those.

I will try cleaning it and hope that helps, but I can't help but disagree with the notion that simply because it's free means all is good. Even though it was free, I know for a fact that I would not have accepted it knowing that there were issues with the I/O ports and the WiFi; especially the FW port. for a PPC mac, there is no more important port than that. W/o it, I can't boot from an external, use a fast enough external storage device, use TDM to transfer information or even clone my current iBook to make it my primary machine.

I have located a HDD for it, but since I don't have really any money, I think I'll have to hope that this one lasts long enough for me to find the cash for the upgrade, purchasing the proper tools, and the installation.
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LOL. Sucking the joy out of PPC macs. Enjoy it, it was a gift, you are learning from it. Why don't you just take a chance on the kindness of strangers and take it to Apple and see if they will test it for you? They looked at my same year Powerbook the other day.
 
California said:
I was referring to the OEM discs that are configured for your machine exactly.
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I think that it was possible to swap the discs between the 14" and the 12" models. But I'm not sure. Maybe someone has them lying around. It is relatively easy to make a disc image and boot AHT from it. I only have the AHT discs for the last gen 12" PowerBooks. I could make an image of the discs that came with it, if someone is interested.
 
I just picked up a 12" iBook 1.2 ghz off Craigslist for next to nothing to play around on. They really were beautiful machines back in the day. I'm contemplating replacing the hard drive inside that fails to boot half the time.
 
mayuka said:
I think that it was possible to swap the discs between the 14" and the 12" models. But I'm not sure. Maybe someone has them lying around. It is relatively easy to make a disc image and boot AHT from it. I only have the AHT discs for the last gen 12" PowerBooks. I could make an image of the discs that came with it, if someone is interested.
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Yes they were interchangeable oem discs between the 12 and 14" final revision iBooks.

I think I have an extra applications disc for it (two of the set of two original discs.)

----------
Dhack21 said:
I just picked up a 12" iBook 1.2 ghz off Craigslist for next to nothing to play around on. They really were beautiful machines back in the day. I'm contemplating replacing the hard drive inside that fails to boot half the time.
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PM me if you need a hard drive, I have a bigger drive that I don't need that will go in PPC iBooks (PATA connectors)
 
I appreciate the offer I found someone on Craigslist who needed a SATA HDD which I had laying around so we swapped earlier today.
 
DONE!!!! Well, mostly anyway

It turns out that I found another way to clone the HDD from my 12" iBook onto my "new" 14.1" iBook. Instead of relying on firewire(which wasn't working and still isn't) I instead used Carbon Copy Cloner and cloned the HDD onto an APM partition on another external drive. Then I connected that drive via usb to the new iBook, and used the disk utility that's included on the OS X Tiger installation disc to erase the machine's HD and to restore the cloned partition onto the newly wiped Macintosh HD. Now all I need to do is find a tiny screwdriver so that I can transfer the RAM and then all will be well.

I have connected the Magic Mouse and wireless keyboard and the internet is obviously working just fine. I just wish that I was able to get the firewire working. Oh well. At least now I have a much bigger screen to work with, a slightly faster CPU, and a superdrive. woohoo!!!
 
Congrats! I was going to get one of them but the lack of VRAM compared to a Hi-Res PB (32mb - 128mb) and that the PB had DVI-I while the iBook only had VGA made me get the PB instead.
 
The iBook Game Isn't over yet!!

ihuman:D said:
Congrats! I was going to get one of them but the lack of VRAM compared to a Hi-Res PB (32mb - 128mb) and that the PB had DVI-I while the iBook only had VGA made me get the PB instead.
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I was too optimistic and so I now have two other problems that happen every time I boot the machine.

Dialog%20Boxes.png


1. The clock resets itself to Wednesday, December 31, 1969

2. My wireless network is not automatically joined and upon startup, I usually have to select "other" and force the list to reload before selecting my network and then typing in the password again(even though the checkbox for "remember this network is checked).

Any ideas?
 
Does the battery hold charge at all? If I remember correctly the iBook g4 doesn't have a separate pram battery and settings are stored via the main battery.
 
Dhack21 said:
Does the battery hold charge at all? If I remember correctly the iBook g4 doesn't have a separate pram battery and settings are stored via the main battery.
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Hey Dhack,

No, the battery is 100% dead. If that's the case then that sucks. Why the hell is so much stuff reliant on an actual working battery? I know it's a laptop and all, but why require the use of the battery for other hardware components when plugging the machine in should be just as good?
 
I had the same issues with my MDD until I replaced the pram battery after which things started working appropriately. Your guess is as good as mine why they didn't use a second battery backup system and just used the main battery. Either way if you set it to get Internet time and just put it to sleep instead of shut down you shouldn't notice these problems.
 
As much as it may suck, you'll need to reset time and date each time you restart as long as your battery's dead. Never had the problem you describe with your network.
 
Dhack21 said:
I had the same issues with my MDD until I replaced the pram battery after which things started working appropriately. Your guess is as good as mine why they didn't use a second battery backup system and just used the main battery. Either way if you set it to get Internet time and just put it to sleep instead of shut down you shouldn't notice these problems.
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Do you know if the 14" iBook G4 has its own PRAM battery? I just hate leaving stuff powered on overnight when it's not being used.

skateny said:
As much as it may suck, you'll need to reset time and date each time you restart as long as your battery's dead. Never had the problem you describe with your network.
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Well, that's dumb but at least I know that now.

Do you think network settings like that are also stored in the PRAM or do I need to reset the PMU? it's not a huge deal, I just prefer not to see warnign messages as soon as my computer boots up.
 
RedCroissant said:
Do you know if the 14" iBook G4 has its own PRAM battery? I just hate leaving stuff powered on overnight when it's not being used.

Well, that's dumb but at least I know that now.

Do you think network settings like that are also stored in the PRAM or do I need to reset the PMU? it's not a huge deal, I just prefer not to see warnign messages as soon as my computer boots up.
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There is no separate PRAM battery.

http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/90074/Replacing+PRAM+Battery+in+iBook+G4

I'm only guessing, but I doubt this affects network settings.
 
Apple Hardware Test results are in!

I just completed the AHT and the machine passed all 60 tests; including firewire. So, I don't know where to go from here, but I am glad that it passed. I will be getting a new battery at some point and will then take care of the other problems as they pop up. Thanks again for any and all advice!
 
No. The iBooks had a PRAM battery, which can be replaced. See this photo from ifixit. It's located just above the HDD. You can get a replacement battery for a few cents from any electronic store nereby. Of course, you have to open the iBook all the way until step 36...

http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/aCFMfAUQXQVBQ6IX.huge

I also recommend getting at least a cheap replacement battery from ebay for 20-30 bucks or so. It won't last very long (approx. 1-2 years depending on usage). However, you will have less problems with a fresh cheap replacement battery. It's possible that the wifi keys are stored in the Airport Extreme, which is powered by the logic board. I'm not sure on this one, though.
 
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