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PowerBook G4 17" Logic Board Compatibility

T

TheCaddyMan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 30, 2022
6
4
Somewhere in New Jersey
Hello all,

Trying to fix my A1013 PowerBook 17" that I carried around with me throughout high school. I was in the beginning of the "computer literacy program", the school wanted us to supply our own laptops and carry them around with us throughout the day to use for school. Of course, when I was younger I had to be different, but I also had no money. So I made a PowerBook 17" out of two different $20 parts or repair ebay listings, one that was cosmetically fine, but had extensive water damage, and the other was functional but beat up and untested. I put these two A1013s together and created my FrankenBook that I then carried with me for four years.

Well, fast forward another four years, my parents are moving, and I'm going through my old things, and I found it tucked away in the basement on a low shelf, took it apart, cleaned it up. My brother was using the basement for his reef tank, so I think the humidity got to it, bit of green corrosion on the USB and Firewire connectors. I cleaned it, and it sounds like it's trying to boot, but I get no speaker beeps, no bong, just a flashing light, looks like four or five flashes. I've determined that the RAM is in working order, I guess that means my last resort is Logic Board. That wouldn't be such a big deal if A1013 Logic Boards weren't so hard to come by lately, I can only find one and it's a non functional board.

I was curious if I could fit the board from an A1052 or A1085 into this machine? I can find them in working order all day, but for whatever reason the A1013 doesn't seem to be as common. I'm primarily concerned about whether or not the top case, airport card, drives, display and the other devices all have the same connectors from generation to generation. This particular machine has a lot of sentimental value and I'd like to keep it. Was even considering getting in touch with Louis Rossmann.

All advice is appreciated,
Thanks,
Andrew
 
Last edited:
The PowerBook that I bought for parts was in very poor cosmetic condition, had a failed Hard Drive, and a bad inverter, all not a problem since there were no witness marks on any of the screws, it likely was never taken apart in it's life. I removed the screen assembly from my A1013, since I would have to anyways, plugged it into the A1052 that I bought for parts to verify the inverter and screen were still all good. Everything checks out fine. I then proceed to strip both machines down entirely. Cleaned all the boards and ribbon cables with a fair bit of IPA and a stiff plastic bristle brush, and changed the thermal compound while I was there. I cloned my original 60GB A1013 drive to a 256GB MSata drive mounted in an IDE converter/Housing that I found on eBay. I wound up using the A1013 bottom case, screen assembly and the top case, and much of the internals came from the A1052 as they were either better specced or in better condition than my A1013. Now I have two battery packs to rebuild. All I can say is that as of right now, while I may need a new top case, I am very pleased with the outcome.


That's not to say in the future I won't upgrade further, I could see changing out the bottom and top case if I find better examples. That being said the bottom case would have to be almost factory new, too much hassle to go through changing it out just for a minor cosmetic change. Performance wise, my only gripe is battery life, but my original battery registers 540 cycles and the one that came with the A1052 registers 305, so rebuilds are definitely in the foreseeable future. Even my iBook G4 12" holds it's charge for over two hours on it's original battery pack. I will say the SSD and .33GHz bump make quite a noticeable difference.
 
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TheCaddyMan said:
The PowerBook that I bought for parts was in very poor cosmetic condition, had a failed Hard Drive, and a bad inverter, all not a problem since there were no witness marks on any of the screws, it likely was never taken apart in it's life. I removed the screen assembly from my A1013, since I would have to anyways, plugged it into the A1052 that I bought for parts to verify the inverter and screen were still all good. Everything checks out fine. I then proceed to strip both machines down entirely. Cleaned all the boards and ribbon cables with a fair bit of IPA and a stiff plastic bristle brush, and changed the thermal compound while I was there. I cloned my original 60GB A1013 drive to a 256GB MSata drive mounted in an IDE converter/Housing that I found on eBay. I wound up using the A1013 bottom case, screen assembly and the top case, and much of the internals came from the A1052 as they were either better specced or in better condition than my A1013. Now I have two battery packs to rebuild. All I can say is that as of right now, while I may need a new top case, I am very pleased with the outcome.


That's not to say in the future I won't upgrade further, I could see changing out the bottom and top case if I find better examples. That being said the bottom case would have to be almost factory new, too much hassle to go through changing it out just for a minor cosmetic change. Performance wise, my only gripe is battery life, but my original battery registers 540 cycles and the one that came with the A1052 registers 305, so rebuilds are definitely in the foreseeable future. Even my iBook G4 12" holds it's charge for over two hours on it's original battery pack. I will say the SSD and .33GHz bump make quite a noticeable difference.
Click to expand...
In November 2010 my TiBook died (the first time). I had managed to score an A1013 by Christmas Day 2010. Got if for something around $120 I think.

Anyway, it was missing screws, had a flaky backlight, the top case was rather scratched up, etc. But it worked and I had always wanted the first 17" PB.

Over the next few years stuff got replaced - a lot. But the Mac was special to me because I had finally gotten what I wanted and it was also my first eBay auction win. Back then, there were no 'Buy Now's'.

But at a certain point frustration kicked in because my income limited what I could buy to replace parts and the Mac just wast not working as I wanted.

Then Doctor Who wisdom kicked in. There's an episode where the Doctor asks a construct - "When you've replaced the handle and the bristles, at what point is the broom no longer the original?"

Essentially I no longer had that original Mac. It'd been replaced multiple times. I had to let it go.

The result was that in 2014 I found a pristine A1013 for $180 on eBay. And I got it. That PB has given me only one issue since then and I've been able to work around that. But no one had ever been inside it before I got it. But if I hadn't let my old FrankenMac go, I would never have gotten this one.

There is no real point to this story, just your story of replacing parts has brought it up for me.
 
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Buy It Now actually predates your TiBook being new from the factory. ;)

eBay introduced it Nov. 2000 according their surprisingly detailed history.

Our History - eBay Inc.

Explore our rich 21-year history through this interactive timeline.
www.ebayinc.com

No point to this either I was just pretty sure I used Buy it Now before then and was curious as to when they introduced it. Older than I thought!
 
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