Old iBook - sell? trash? sell for parts? advice please...

[KekelaNikol]

Hi there -

I have an old, old 10Gig iBook - the very first one that came out in white, I think I bought it 2001 - that has been working great until the power cord broke a few months ago. I just bought a new Macbook to replace it, and I'm wondering what I should do with the old one? The only problem is that I have no power cord so I can't go in and wipe the harddrive, and I would really like all my stuff erased before I give it away. Is there any thing worth any money on that old machine? Any advice would be greatly appreciated...Thanks ahead of time!

 

[WildCowboy]

How's the battery?

Logic boards died all the time on those machines, so you can probably part that out for some decent bucks.

Edit: And how dare you call that "old, old"...I still regularly surf the web on one.

 

[bartelby]

you could always remove the hd.

 

[Royale w/cheese]

Some may question the morality of this, but you could always go to radioshack, buy a replacement cord, wipe the harddrive, and then take the cord back. It is not the most honest thing I guess but then you can let somebody else experience the mac, and not worry about your personal files ending up somewhere you wouldn't want them to be.

edit: If you want to sell it, I might be interested in it. My mom wants a cheap mac portable, and she is scared to touch my Macbook for fear of breaking it. PM me.

 

[KekelaNikol]

The battery seemed to work fine - got 2-3 hours or so when unplugged. Didn't mean to call it old, old - it always worked great for me too until the point I lost the charger. I didn't want to buy a new one because I was planning on buying a new Mac anyways.

 

[KekelaNikol]

What price?

The other thing I forgot to ask...if I took out the harddrive, how much is fair to ask for the iBook being that it doesn't have a harddrive or a power cord?

 

[teflon]

Why don't you buy a replacement power cord, wipe the hd and sell it as a perfectly functional ibook? The price of the power cord will be far less than the loss you'll take by only selling logic board or selling without a hd.

 

[RedTomato]

Why don't you buy a replacement power cord, wipe the hd and sell it as a perfectly functional ibook? The price of the power cord will be far less than the loss you'll take by only selling logic board or selling without a hd.

I haven't checked, but the price of the replacement powercord is probably more than the total worth of the old iBook.

Options:

- You could see if there's anybody near you who you could borrow a cord from or try your local MUG (mac user group) - they always have a few oldtimers around.

- take out the HD, insert it into a another computer or USB/Firewire external drive case, and wipe whatever you want wiping, then replace it.

- look on ebay / advertise on here for a cheap replacement power lead.

- I think it's fine to buy a lead from Radio Shack and return it when you're done. You only need it once, and if you're careful with the packaging, they can still sell it as new. Their prices already take stuff like this into account - that's how they can afford to operate a return policy. (Not all shops do). If you're happy with their service, then who know, you might end up keeping the cord, or buying more stuff there, or recommending Radio Shack to your mates.