So as some of you know, I have a PowerBook G4 with a dead DC-In Board, PRAM Battery and a Battery with a low charge capacity. I want to know wheather or not to buy a new battery, and if so(which I'm pretty sure will get a new one), what battery I should buy. I would prefer to stay low on cost, since I may get an mSATA SSD and an IDE Enclousure for the PowerBook along with a 1 GB stick of RAM to get me to 2 GB. I'm including a screenshot from coconutBattery. Note that personally, I've never used this battery so I don't know how long that it will last. Thanks!
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PowerBook G4 Battery Questions
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My luck with 3rd party batteries has been hit or miss. With that said, I've complained about several and most will replace a bad one.
Out of my past three purchases:
1. Macbook Pro Battery(15" pre-Unibody) worked perfectly
2. TiBook battery worked perfectly
3. Clamshell battery would only charge to 40%. I complained, and the seller sent me a replacement(let me keep the first) for the cost of shipping. I though this was fair enough, since the first wasn't completely dead. The second worked perfectly.
I've bought a handful of Powerbook and iBook batteries, and as I said I've generally had okay luck although I'm not bashful about asking for another if the first has an issue. These are $30 and under batteries.
I really like NewerTech batteries from OWC. In my experience, they have as good if not better life than good OEM batteries and fit nearly as well as an OEM. You pay generously for this, though. I've splurged on them for computers I rely on(like my main DLSD Powerbook) but for most other Powerbooks I'm happy if the battery will get me between outlets or keep the computer "alive" for a few hours in my backpack. The $20-30 batteries are fine for this as long as you get a good one.
Out of my past three purchases:
1. Macbook Pro Battery(15" pre-Unibody) worked perfectly
2. TiBook battery worked perfectly
3. Clamshell battery would only charge to 40%. I complained, and the seller sent me a replacement(let me keep the first) for the cost of shipping. I though this was fair enough, since the first wasn't completely dead. The second worked perfectly.
I've bought a handful of Powerbook and iBook batteries, and as I said I've generally had okay luck although I'm not bashful about asking for another if the first has an issue. These are $30 and under batteries.
I really like NewerTech batteries from OWC. In my experience, they have as good if not better life than good OEM batteries and fit nearly as well as an OEM. You pay generously for this, though. I've splurged on them for computers I rely on(like my main DLSD Powerbook) but for most other Powerbooks I'm happy if the battery will get me between outlets or keep the computer "alive" for a few hours in my backpack. The $20-30 batteries are fine for this as long as you get a good one.
I replaced the batteries in both a 12" and my 15" powerbooks with batteries from this company and have absolutely no complaints as of yet.
They sell many versions for all models, just make sure to pick the right one.
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1) You can pry the battery open and replace the cells, you have to use Lithium-ion otherwise it most likely won't recharge.
2) I don't want to replace the cells, I want to replace the entire battery
You did get a nice surprise. I love DLSD Powerbooks. As I mentioned, I have two A1138s(15") and an A1139(17"). The screens are superb, but I do have to admit(grudgingly) that the hi-res Matte screen on my 15" MBP blows it away. That's what 7 years of display technology will do, though.
Yeah even the screens on my G3 seem brighter, in regards to display luminosity
I wish that LED displays existed back in 2005. I am always concerned about the backlight going out on my older computers in general including my iMac.
Yeah I've always wondered if there was a way to replace the standard backlight with an LED backlight
I think it would be a novel idea but too costly. If there were kits available then it would be a nice idea but to source parts and modify them would be ridiculously costly.
Yeah but in 05 apple probably would have included a LED display, but they most likely were planning ahead for the MBP
I've noticed that the DLSDs seem very susceptible to backlight fade-probably more so than any other Powerbook I've used. Even my TiBooks and Clamshells are better. My first DLSD(and the one I still use the most) is dim enough that I can't see it very well in a fully lit lecture hall. My 17" is pretty good, and my other(less used) DLSD is somewhere between the two.
I have a panel on a parts computer that I'd like to test, but the previous owner told me that it was fairly dim also.
I wish this too. My 22" Cinema(which is a surprisingly tough display to find) is going purple at the top and bottom. Fortunately, it stabilizes a bit when it warms up, but I'm still afraid it's on its way out. I try to work with the minimum brightness possible on all my old LCDs, as well as minimize their on time(my energy saver settings are very conservative for this reason).
Does anyone know if the first MBPs had LED displays? I know my early '08s(pre-Unibody) are LED.
The photographer in me really prefers the better contrast(or specifically deeper blacks) of LEDs. In this regard, though, nothing beats a good CRT
. LCD/LED displays are getting better every day, but a calibrated CRT is still king when it comes both contrast and color fidelity. Of course, LED calibration(and to a lesser extent fluorescent LCDs) don't have color drift like CRTs.
No. The LED backlit display was added in the mid 2007 MacBook Pro models in both 15" and 17".
I would like to Point out that your Cold cathode tubes in that LCD screen are going mercury starved... (the mercury in the tube is absorbed into components of the tube like the phosphor coating) and this causes the argon/krypton buffer gas to start getting ionized and makes the tube glow pink/purple (in the case of Highly loaded tubes with a neon and argon buffer gas like a F96T12/VHO they can glow a nice red colour) this in turn can put extra stress on the inverter driving the tube and can cause the inverter to pop so I would recommend you get the tubes replaced soon