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Scored a powerbook 6,2

1042686

1042686

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Original poster
Sep 3, 2016
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Scored a scuffed up 12” powerbook 6,2 locally last week - just got a chance to clean & set it up this morning.

2A38C7CF-3DA2-4D8C-B065-279A022FEC3E.jpeg


TDM clone of my 17”slsd & it’s ready to go. Next step is to put an msata ssd in.
 
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Yeah it did for a beater. Works like a champ. The battery still goes for around 2.5 hours which is great. Used it to watch some videos with one browser and stream some tunes via itunes radio. Does what I need it to and it fits just a whee bit better in the bag than my 17" slsd. That thing is awesome but man is it a lunch tray :D

E0E0C20D-BFEC-4564-9555-DDD70544DC42.jpeg
 
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Sweet score! Nice shots too :cool:

I picked up my 2nd PBG4 12”. My first is the 1.5ghz and although it lived a rough life before me, I’ve now managed to repair, upgrade and bring it a better quality life. I now use it as a lightweight portable, possibly more than my MacBook uni ‘08. It normally comes with me on the motorbike when I want to get some work done away from civilization.

The latest unit is in brilliant condition, with only one corner lightly dented, but otherwise, hardly a scuff on the whole machine. It is non-booting and was listed as an 867mhz A1010 from ‘02. Upon inspection I found the specs sticker says it’s a 1.33ghz 2004 unit. I stripped it down, removed the logic board to confirm and the CPU is definitely a 1333 7447A with a GeForce Go5200 GPU. I cleaned all of the dust out of the machine and found a blown out component on the DC-DC board... so I pulled my other PB12” apart, took the DC-DC board out and put it in the 1.33. Sure enough it fired right up and booted up the Leopard installer. Specs are all as expected for the ‘04 model and the SuperDrive tested fine. The previous owner had organized to have the HDD removed and unfortunately the ATA connector, drive sled and mounting screws were also removed in the process.

A short visit to PowerBook Medic and and I ordered the replacement board (used) for less than $3, a replacement HDD connector cable for $0.60 and a HDD sled for $1.45. Not bad!! Even with international shipping it only came to $20 to get the little ‘book back upright.

I’ve lined up an 80gb 5400rpm HDD for it (a spare from all of my SSD upgrades).

The real bonus is the battery is nearly as good as new with about 3 - 4hrs charge in it (3500mah+). The seller also included a snug fit STM black neoprene sleeve and a suitable STM man-bag. Plus mini-DVI to DVI and VGA adapters. Not bad for AU$30. I’d spend more at the drive thru feeding the family :)

:apple: :apple: :apple:
 
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@RhianB.
Nice find, I'm sure you'll enjoy it, and at 1GHz not too much of a 'chestnut' warmer. And with a fuctional battery too, which is often unusual for these older PBooks.

I've just finished a complete tear-down, and refurb of my second 12", a PowerBook6,4 model. I initially had some doubts if the fan was operating correctly, and knew for sure from the poor sound that the internal speaker was damaged.
I completely refurbished and re- lubed the fan, but didn't think to function-test it prior to re-installation, wish I had!
I also repaired the damaged speaker cone with a light neoprene glue.
On completion it booted up ok, sound is no longer distorted, but there's not much volume from the internal speakers (though perfect with headphones).
Alas, it auto-powered off after 5mins. :( Rebooted ok, but powered off again after a few more mins. Pulling the keyboard, my fears have been confirmed, the fan is not turning. So in all, it was somewhat of an abortive refurb attempt.
So if anyone has or knows of a doner 12" alu PBook (it's a 1.33GHz), I'm in Prince Charles mode. All ears. ;)
 
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AL1630 said:
Yeah, my 15" PowerBook looks really big next to my 12" iBook, the 17" must be massive!
Click to expand...

I couldn't find many 'family' photos that give a meaningful comparison of size, so I just took these pics of mine.
In Europe these are not all that difficult to find, ranging from rough to average condition. These however took a few years of searching, all three of which are in as near-mint condition as one could ever expect to find.

Baby Bear - PBook 12"
Mother Bear - PBook 15"
Father Bear - PBook 17"

3 PBooks_1.jpg


17" 1.67GHz PBook5,7 and 12" 1.5GHz PBook6,8
3Pbooks_2.jpg
 
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CooperBox said:
I couldn't find many 'family' photos that give a meaningful comparison of size, so I just took these pics of mine.
In Europe these are not all that difficult to find, ranging from rough to average condition. These however took a few years of searching, all three of which are in as near-mint condition as one could ever expect to find.

Baby Bear - PBook 12"
Mother Bear - PBook 15"
Father Bear - PBook 17"

View attachment 760002

17" 1.67GHz PBook5,7 and 12" 1.5GHz PBook6,8
View attachment 760003
Click to expand...

Yep. Took my time hunting down my 12" PB as well. Most of the ones you come across have been abused beyond belief, but I lucked into a near-cherry one that only needed a new, bright screen, as the old one was washed/wore out. A dead iBook G4 made the perfect donor.
 
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swamprock said:
Yep. Took my time hunting down my 12" PB as well. Most of the ones you come across have been abused beyond belief, but I lucked into a near-cherry one that only needed a new, bright screen, as the old one was washed/wore out. A dead iBook G4 made the perfect donor.
Click to expand...

Actually, that surprises me. I had the last generation iBook G4, which I bought new back in 2005. It always had a fairly dim screen compared with PC laptops I had used and especially with the 15" PowerBook I also had then. I have another final generation iBook now and it has the same dim screen compared with the last 12" PB. I always assumed it was a thing you put up with for going cheap. Relatively.
 
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Well, Im happy to report that while I borked my MP1,1 elcap install with the most recent security update (boot cycle of death), my happy family of g4 ppcs (QSs, PBs etc.) are humming right along - the 12" powerbook taking care of this posting actually.

I at some point will repaste my 12" powerbook but for now, its working and I have the above pita "project" to sort out. Yeesh, if it isn't one thing it's another. On a side note, I also scored a very dirty Bondi Tray loader revB 233Mhz imac g3 for $30 bucks.

CA615162-13FB-4CBA-A612-DF85B343684A.jpeg


Will need to clean this one up but thought it would make a pretty indestructible mac for my son when he gets a little bit older.
 
Last edited:
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I have a 15" 1.25 and a 12" 1.5 PB's that still run strong, I tried to put a SATA HD in the 1.25 with an adapter but it was just a smidge too big, really wanted a 7200 in that thing since it is a little slow with the 4200 it came with.
 
RhianB said:
Well, Im happy to report that while I borked my MP1,1 elcap install with the most recent security update (boot cycle of death), my happy family of g4 ppcs (QSs, PBs etc.) are humming right along - the 12" powerbook taking care of this posting actually.

I at some point will repaste my 12" powerbook but for now, its working and I have the above pita "project" to sort out. Yeesh, if it isn't one thing it's another. On a side note, I also scored a very dirty Bondi Tray loader revB 233Mhz imac g3 for $30 bucks.

View attachment 760071

Will need to clean this one up but thought it would make a pretty indestructible mac for my son when he gets a little bit older.
Click to expand...

I did the same with my MP1,1 and an earlier security update, but luckily I had a Macbook 3,1 with El Cap running on it (and not very well, but a fun experiment), so I just moved the kernel over to the Mac Pro, did some terminal fu, and voila. The thread that describes the procedure is in the El Cap forum.

Nice find on the tray loader. Grab 'em while they're cheap!
 
Have a spare minimal El Cap volume on your 1,1. Run any future update on that first before unleashing onto your production volumes. A practice I retained from my hackintoshing days.
 
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TC_GoldRush said:
Love these machines, still trying to get my hands on a 17".
Click to expand...
I picked up a 17" PowerBook G4 from Ebay for roughly $18.00 shipped. It was listed as untested / parts but I figured for $18.00 why not? It ended up working fine except for a problem with needing to reset the PMU. While an inconvenience the system was perfectly useable (for the little I used it). I ended up giving it, along with both of my 12" PowerBook G4's, away a couple of weekends ago.
 
pl1984 said:
I picked up a 17" PowerBook G4 from Ebay for roughly $18.00 shipped. It was listed as untested / parts but I figured for $18.00 why not? It ended up working fine except for a problem with needing to reset the PMU. While an inconvenience the system was perfectly useable (for the little I used it). I ended up giving it, along with both of my 12" PowerBook G4's, away a couple of weekends ago.
Click to expand...
Found one for $55 fully working, near-mint condition, should I go for it?
 
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TC_GoldRush said:
Found one for $55 fully working, near-mint condition, should I go for it?
Click to expand...

A 17" at that price and if really near-mint, don't even think twice. Get it!

Back on topic for 12" PBooks, and following on from my above post #6, I'm making a 1hr drive tomorrow to see a cheap one advertised as 'for spares'. I need a fan and a speaker. With a bit of luck I may get lucky.
 
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CooperBox said:
Back on topic for 12" PBooks, and following on from my above post #6, I'm making a 1hr drive tomorrow to see a cheap one advertised as 'for spares'. I need a fan and a speaker. With a bit of luck I may get lucky.
Click to expand...

Sadly, it never works out for me. After a few hours I usually get them up and running, leaving me with an added member of the family and still in search of spare parts.

Following on from TC_Goldrush's post, when something is advertised as "spares and repairs", it usually means the battery has run out or the seller doesn't understand anything about Macs. If as "nearly new/mint", it's fit for landfill.
 
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Yeah this has happened to me a few times now... you have good intentions to harvest parts from a cheap machine and then find yourself trying to fix it and still in need of those parts, plus a few more for the new addition to the family :)
 
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RhianB said:
Well, Im happy to report that while I borked my MP1,1 elcap install with the most recent security update (boot cycle of death), my happy family of g4 ppcs (QSs, PBs etc.) are humming right along - the 12" powerbook taking care of this posting actually.

I at some point will repaste my 12" powerbook but for now, its working and I have the above pita "project" to sort out. Yeesh, if it isn't one thing it's another. On a side note, I also scored a very dirty Bondi Tray loader revB 233Mhz imac g3 for $30 bucks.

View attachment 760071

Will need to clean this one up but thought it would make a pretty indestructible mac for my son when he gets a little bit older.
Click to expand...

Please re-post the Bondi in colors!
[doublepost=1525217499][/doublepost]
Jack Neill said:
I have a 15" 1.25 and a 12" 1.5 PB's that still run strong, I tried to put a SATA HD in the 1.25 with an adapter but it was just a smidge too big, really wanted a 7200 in that thing since it is a little slow with the 4200 it came with.
Click to expand...
You should go for an mSATA-SSD with mSATA-IDE-converter ...
 
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