Well, I have an old Powerbook G4 12" 1.2GHZ and and 1.5GB RAM, it was given to me by a Friend who had no use for it, and I thought, Hey! Why not? and took it. Finally got the battery to start charging, and well, there seems to be a problem with the WiFi antennae, the AirPort Extreme card works perfectly, but when plugged into the powerbook, only RARELY sees networks. And when it connects, it works for about 5 mins before shutting out again, any way to fix this? all I know is that to get an external antennae on this thing, you need to void the warranty. So is that my only option? Or is there some other fix?
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Powerbook G4 12" WiFi Issues
- Thread starter coppyhop
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Have you tested that card in another Mac? They can fail, and what you're describing sounds like a bad card.
Tested it in another powerbook, and it works fine, it's just seem to be the antennae, will the antennae top working if there is damage to the cord?(The coating seems to be falling off) Also, the second powerbook ins't with me anymore (got rid of it a few weeks ago).
EDIT: Whoops forgot to mention that I have dropped a few times, and the battery no longer stays in.(Could dropping it do damage to the Airport card? And would an Airport express work? or should I buy a new Extreme?)
EDIT: Whoops forgot to mention that I have dropped a few times, and the battery no longer stays in.(Could dropping it do damage to the Airport card? And would an Airport express work? or should I buy a new Extreme?)
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A frayed/messed up antenna cable can cause this, and it's likely that. I have seen a case where an iBook G4's cable was either frayed or just really beaten up (somehow) and the machine was having similar issues to the ones you have described. See if you can mend that cable...
I've had my iMac G4 apart several times over the past few weeks, and somewhere in all of the working on it I inadvertently managed to pinch and fray the antenna cable. As I didn't have an Airport card in it at the time, I didn't pick up on the problem.
When I finally got around to installing the card(I keep spare Airport cards on hand, but not Airport Extremes, so had to order one), the computer would not pick up ANY networks, even when just a few feet away from the router. Taking it apart again(not a small job) revealed my damaged antenna.
I just installed a replacement earlier this evening, and the computer now sees every network on the block.
So, just based on my recent experience I'd say a bad antenna is likely.
With that said, if you have any doubts about the WiFi card, it might be worth changing. Both Airports and Airport Extremes are cheap these days(I think I paid $5 or $6 for the last Extreme I bought last week), and if you're going to play with PPC Macs very much you'll probably use the spare card eventually if it turns out to not be the problem. Plus, the card is a LOT easier to change than the antenna.
When I finally got around to installing the card(I keep spare Airport cards on hand, but not Airport Extremes, so had to order one), the computer would not pick up ANY networks, even when just a few feet away from the router. Taking it apart again(not a small job) revealed my damaged antenna.
I just installed a replacement earlier this evening, and the computer now sees every network on the block.
So, just based on my recent experience I'd say a bad antenna is likely.
With that said, if you have any doubts about the WiFi card, it might be worth changing. Both Airports and Airport Extremes are cheap these days(I think I paid $5 or $6 for the last Extreme I bought last week), and if you're going to play with PPC Macs very much you'll probably use the spare card eventually if it turns out to not be the problem. Plus, the card is a LOT easier to change than the antenna.
I think I have found the problem, the WiFi card, that AirPort Extreme card is dead, The reason why It worked in the other powerbook is that it seems that when transferred to a new computer, it works for a day and then stops working after that, so I need a new AirPort card, time to search eBay, thanks for our time and help!
