I ordered a gently used iBook online and a few other items to upgrade it once it arrived. I ordered a superdrive, extra ram, and a faster - larger hard drive. I've been reading all over the place that the iBook G4 is a bear to work on so I had high expectations. I was considering paying for the install but the Apple Genius route was going to cost me well over $100 for all of these items. One place actually equated working on the late model iBooks to performing brain surgery on yourself. That's a bit of overkill.
I received the upgrades in the mail at various times last week and the iBook arrived yesterday afternoon. First, I booted it up to make sure it came in good working condition. I followed some advise I read on a number of sites and decided to take my time and just dive in.
About two hours later I was nearly finished. I was gentle with the plastic exterior and took care to remember where all the screws came from. Once it was all closed up again (no screws left over) I powered it up. I inserted the original software that came with it in order to load OSX and it worked like a charm.
It really wasn't so bad. It was challenging but that's part of the fun with this sort of thing. I'm typing on it right now and it works like a dream. This is my first Mac experience and I love it!
For those of you not concerned with voiding the warranty or whose warranty has already expired I say go for it if you have a bit of confidence with electronics. For those of you who are scared but feel as if you can do it ... I'm in law school, not technical school. If I can do it many of you can too.
Good luck with your own projects. I'd like to hear some similar experiences if you would like to share.
I received the upgrades in the mail at various times last week and the iBook arrived yesterday afternoon. First, I booted it up to make sure it came in good working condition. I followed some advise I read on a number of sites and decided to take my time and just dive in.
About two hours later I was nearly finished. I was gentle with the plastic exterior and took care to remember where all the screws came from. Once it was all closed up again (no screws left over) I powered it up. I inserted the original software that came with it in order to load OSX and it worked like a charm.
It really wasn't so bad. It was challenging but that's part of the fun with this sort of thing. I'm typing on it right now and it works like a dream. This is my first Mac experience and I love it!
For those of you not concerned with voiding the warranty or whose warranty has already expired I say go for it if you have a bit of confidence with electronics. For those of you who are scared but feel as if you can do it ... I'm in law school, not technical school. If I can do it many of you can too.
Good luck with your own projects. I'd like to hear some similar experiences if you would like to share.
This was a good post, too. There seem to be two camps of people on opening iBooks...those who say to stay away from the screws, and then people who are cracking it open and painting stuff and....