So I bought a couple of VERY cheap iBook G4s on eBay... one has a bad keyboard. Are the keyboards interchangeable between the 12" and the 14"? The keyboard is bad in the 14 but the one in the 12 is good - any reason I can't just switch them for testing purposes? Plus, the 12" keyboard seems plentiful on eBay while the 14's are few and far between (and more money). Thanks!
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iBook keyboard
- Thread starter js81
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I will try this when I get home from work. Thanks! The 14 is in pretty good shape overall (hinges are a bit weak, but good other than that - even has a good 4+ hour battery!), so its well worth the replacement. I just wanted to try a known working keyboard before buying a replacement - I paid a grand total of $25 for the 14" and $20 for the 12".
Good deal!I will try this when I get home from work. Thanks! The 14 is in pretty good shape overall (hinges are a bit weak, but good other than that - even has a good 4+ hour battery!), so its well worth the replacement. I just wanted to try a known working keyboard before buying a replacement - I paid a grand total of $25 for the 14" and $20 for the 12".
12in ibook keyboard in 14incher
Hey I was wondering the same thing regarding if a keyboard from a 12 inch ibook would fit a 14 inch one as Recently I picked up a 14 inch ibook from eBay (was listed as a 12 inch one but the pic was of a 14in one and when i received the unit it was the same one as the pic so i'm not complaining ) and apart from a Dead hard drive and (i think) a dieing optical drive the only other thing wrong with it is the key board (MN and space bar keys don't work) and while looking on eBay for a new one I noticed the 14in ones are far and few and cost a lot more then the 12 inch keyboards so if you or some one could test or tell me wether or not a 12 inch keyboard fits a 14 inch ibook I will be very thankfull also I have an optical drive from a mid 2007 macbook pro and a 2006 iMac do eny of those fit a 14 inch ibook I know there all IDE but I heard that the conector is in a difrant place? once again thanks BTW very nice finds on the ibooks what spec are they? there should be a label under the keyboard with the specs of the computer in the case of my one its the 1.33Ghz combo drive one from late 2004.
Hey I was wondering the same thing regarding if a keyboard from a 12 inch ibook would fit a 14 inch one as Recently I picked up a 14 inch ibook from eBay (was listed as a 12 inch one but the pic was of a 14in one and when i received the unit it was the same one as the pic so i'm not complaining
) and apart from a Dead hard drive and (i think) a dieing optical drive the only other thing wrong with it is the key board (MN and space bar keys don't work) and while looking on eBay for a new one I noticed the 14in ones are far and few and cost a lot more then the 12 inch keyboards so if you or some one could test or tell me wether or not a 12 inch keyboard fits a 14 inch ibook I will be very thankfull also I have an optical drive from a mid 2007 macbook pro and a 2006 iMac do eny of those fit a 14 inch ibook I know there all IDE but I heard that the conector is in a difrant place? once again thanks BTW very nice finds on the ibooks what spec are they? there should be a label under the keyboard with the specs of the computer in the case of my one its the 1.33Ghz combo drive one from late 2004.
I can CONFIRM, 100% for sure, that what Altemose said above is true - the connector (cable) on the 14" is about 1/2" longer than the 12" - the 12" keyboard will NOT work on the 14".
That said, here is some more of the story... I received the 12" Friday - it had been advertised as "for parts," but listed as "powers on and functions." Well, the machine I got did neither. Out of the box it had no power at all. I decided to test the keyboard on the 14" (it works, btw, but won't physically fit) and I noticed that the trackpad connector wasn't connected; that got me thinking that if THAT was disconnected, what else might be? Seeing that having to ship it back to get a $20 refund (it'd cost me $10+ to ship it back) just wasn't worth it, I decided to rip it apart and see what else was going on...
Turns out the DC-in board, LCD, and, YEP! - the power button - we're all disconnected. Also, there was no hard drive in it (no loss though; I had a bigger, faster drive I was going to put in anyway). After making these "repairs," it fired right up! So now I have a perfectly working 12" iBook (minus the Airport card - I'm using a USB stick right now, with an AP card on the way).
The specs:
The 14" is the last one - the 1.42GHz model. It has 1GB of RAM and the stock 60GB 4200rpm(!) hard drive. It's currently running Leopard, though I'm not using it due to the lack of a keyboard...
The 12" is the next to last one - the 1.2GHz model. It has 768MB of RAM and I installed a 60GB 5400rpm hard drive. It, too, is currently running Leopard.
EDIT: Oh, I forgot! Both of them, quite surprisingly, have very good batteries! I get over 3 hours on either of them and both have less than 150 cycles (144 for the 12, 120-something for the 14).
--QUESTION: Should I run Leopard on these or should I go for Tiger?--
I installed Leopard because that's the disc I found first lol - however, I still feel like it would be faster with Tiger. I've disabled the transparency, the 3D dock, the dock animations, and dashboard (but not spotlight) and its still feels a bit more sluggish than it should be. Thinking of trying Tiger tonight...
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I haven't got to use the 1.42 much (due to no keyboard), but the 1.2 is way laggy-ier than I think it should be. Then again, I've not use a PPC Mac in a couple years... maybe my memory isn't as good as it used to be lol. My last was a 15" PB (1GHz, I think?) running Tiger, otherwise stock - it worked great and was plenty fast, except for online video streaming of any sort.
I do plan to upgrade the RAM to 1.25GB once I get everything else sorted out. Since Tiger isn't as graphically intense, it should make a difference on the 1.2 right? Right? I bought both because I didn't know which size I'd like (and they were dirt cheap lol) - I LOVE the 12". Makes me wonder if I should just sell 'em both and get a 12" Powerbook.
EDIT: I remembered that checked Activity Monitor last night and did have a little bit of page outs on the iBook... not a tremendous amount (~25MB or so?), but it was something. I never see any on my Mini - of course it has 8GB of RAM lol.
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