Powerbook Cruising On Impulse Power...

[Dronecatcher]

As mentioned the other day, my new acquisition - an immaculate 1.5Ghz Powerbook 12” is in dire need of cooling system refurbishment but until then I’ve used G4Fan Control to nudge the fan threshold 3 degrees and set the CPU into Reduced mode.

After setting it up and using it today, it turns out this is a fairly effective (temporary) fix - not once has the fan revved up and the lowered CPU meant I got nearly 2 and a half hours out of the battery (which after all these years is now at about 60% capacity.)

Geekbench at normal speed gave 856 but in Reduced mode is now 465 - so it’s performing roughly at the speed of an 800Mhz TiBook - this in effect isn’t that noticeable and it’s enough to do my normal stuff with ease: use InTheBox instances of InterWebPPC, play Youtube from Safari/PPCMC7/MPlayer, internet radio via iTunes etc.

Warp Speed - who needs it 😉

 

[ervus]

The 12" PowerBooks are my favorite; they're the best at being portable and don't give up much in performance. I would guess that yours has a broken solder joint:

forums.macrumors.com/threads/powerbook-g4-12-maintenance-servicing.2243978/

If the fan is also noisy, then I would suggest oiling it while you have it apart. An SSD upgrade is also worth the effort once you get it open.

 

[Dronecatcher]

The 12" PowerBooks are my favorite; they're the best at being portable and don't give up much in performance. I would guess that yours has a broken solder joint:

forums.macrumors.com/threads/powerbook-g4-12-maintenance-servicing.2243978/

If the fan is also noisy, then I would suggest oiling it while you have it apart. An SSD upgrade is also worth the effort once you get it open.

Thanks - I was looking for a decent photo of those problem risers and how they connect - on my to do list but a fair way off at moment.