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To use or not to use

Ih8reno

Ih8reno

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 10, 2012
1,383
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I found the following locally and got it at a steal. A G4 upgrade for a PowerBook G3. I have much more powerful power macs and am unsure if I should just save it as a rare (hard to find here at least) upgrade for Apple classic notebooks. In any case I thought you all would like to see it.
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dustinschings said:
Use it. It will still fetch a nice price if you decide to sell it.
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Some of these G4 PowerBook upgrades are tied to the firmware of the notebook they are upgrading and won't work on any other as I have found out. Sonnet might be an exception.
 
weckart said:
Some of these G4 PowerBook upgrades are tied to the firmware of the notebook they are upgrading and won't work on any other as I have found out. Sonnet might be an exception.
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That is a terrible business model, if true. Like, what is the point of that? It is not licensed software or anything (thinking of the way CorePlayer used to license to specific machines only.) That said, I would imagine if Sonnet used this policy then it would be wide spread knowledge, I hope lol
 
dustinschings said:
That is a terrible business model, if true. Like, what is the point of that? It is not licensed software or anything (thinking of the way CorePlayer used to license to specific machines only.) That said, I would imagine if Sonnet used this policy then it would be wide spread knowledge, I hope lol
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The upgrades required a firmware upgrade to the CPU module, which installed on bootup and needed to read firmware from your PowerBook. This was a one-off process and not reversible or overwritable once activated.

Yes, it sucks mightily. I believe the Sonnets are better in this regard. Mine was a PowerLogix Bluechip.
 
Good to know. So buying one of these cards second hand, if you don't have the laptop it was used in, is pointless?
 
Hard to tell. Best to do research on the specific card in question. From what I can remember, the Sonnet G4 cards required you to run an install application before you inserted the card. I think this was to install Altivec libraries in OS9 and a similar utility in OSX to prime the OS so that the card would not crash the systems. I am not sure if it did anything to the card firmware wise, which would suggest your card is possibly transferable between PowerBooks.

I know you had to send in Pismos to get G4 cards fitted in and you usually lost your original G3 card, so those were usually for keeps and I can't remember those being sold separately from the PBs on eBay or wherever.
 
Surely, that is your call? If you bought it for an investment opportunity, it might be worth keeping it as pristine as possible, otherwise, why not use it? As I said, just do a bit of research to check whether this particular chip is or isn't tied to any machine once used. There were many upgrade chips from Sonnet, Daystar, PowerLogix, Newer Tech etc and each had its own quirks.
 
I am not sure if it was used. As for purpose I just never thought I'd find this locally. The packaging was open and the owner used to use powerbooks. For now it's just cool to have. The last time I found an upgrade it was a 500mhz g3 I believe I now have in my 9600.
 
I would have been all over that and have quite a few WS/PDQs to play with. Mine was only a G3 500MHz and is now a £10 doorstop. A G4 is extra nice if it works.
 
Awesome! :) It should be possible to get Leopard running on it with that rare processor installed, if you fancy the challenge!
 
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Even with a G4 the Wallstreets and PDQs have that terrible Rage LT graphics card which would be a challenge for newer installs of OS X. I recall my PDQ was flaky with 10.2 which was supported. Granted, Jaguar was a buggy OS anyways, but still.
 
Nice find! Did you get any pictures of the install process? I wonder which G4 chip it has.
 
Well, I'll say that there's a member of this forum who is always willing to pay generous cash promptly for rare CPU upgrades :)

I won't say who it is, but you can get in touch with them easily by clicking the "private message" button under my name :)

In any case-great find and enjoy it whether you decide to keep it or pass it on!

One last thing-as far as installing Leopard...I've been struggling with it for a while now on a Lombard with a G4. It's not a straight forward install. Pismos are easy, but that's because they are(in a round-a-bout way) a portable Sawtooth and with a G4 card Leopard is plug and play. I can't find any record of anyone successfully installing Leopard on a Lombard. I imagine a Wallstreet would be even worse.
 
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bunnspecial said:
Well, I'll say that there's a member of this forum who is always willing to pay generous cash promptly for rare CPU upgrades :)

I won't say who it is, but you can get in touch with them easily by clicking the "private message" button under my name :)

In any case-great find and enjoy it whether you decide to keep it or pass it on!

One last thing-as far as installing Leopard...I've been struggling with it for a while now on a Lombard with a G4. It's not a straight forward install. Pismos are easy, but that's because they are(in a round-a-bout way) a portable Sawtooth and with a G4 card Leopard is plug and play. I can't find any record of anyone successfully installing Leopard on a Lombard. I imagine a Wallstreet would be even worse.
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appreciate the offer. For now it has 9.2.2 on it until what I wish to do next
 
Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I happen to have this same card! I imported mine from Japan though (Japan version I guess), but the software it came with is in English.

Since there is a thread on it already, thought I'd bring up my question here. I think mine is brand new as there is no evidence of tampering on the plastic. I was thinking about using it on my PDQ, but if it requires being flashed for the first time, is it just as simple as popping the card in the system after installing the system?

The English instructions I've found online said to have the original hard drive installed, but that drive came dead on mine. I have a 64GB CF on IDE adapter installed. Would this cause any issues with the flashing process?
 

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Charadis said:
Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I happen to have this same card! I imported mine from Japan though (Japan version I guess), but the software it came with is in English.

Since there is a thread on it already, thought I'd bring up my question here. I think mine is brand new as there is no evidence of tampering on the plastic. I was thinking about using it on my PDQ, but if it requires being flashed for the first time, is it just as simple as popping the card in the system after installing the system?

The English instructions I've found online said to have the original hard drive installed, but that drive came dead on mine. I have a 64GB CF on IDE adapter installed. Would this cause any issues with the flashing process?
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Ooh nice score. A 500Mhz G4 upgraded PDQ would be sweet. You could then install Leopard and see if my modified Jaguar ATIRagePro.kext brings graphics acceleration to Leo too.

I don't think you'd need the original hard drive. The CF card should be fine but will likely need OS9 to install.

I'd say go for it! It will still hold it's value regardless of being opened or not. These CPU upgrades are unicorns.
 
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AphoticD said:
Ooh nice score. A 500Mhz G4 upgraded PDQ would be sweet. You could then install Leopard and see if my modified Jaguar ATIRagePro.kext brings graphics acceleration to Leo too.

I don't think you'd need the original hard drive. The CF card should be fine but will likely need OS9 to install.

I'd say go for it! It will still hold it's value regardless of being opened or not. These CPU upgrades are unicorns.
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Cool, thanks a lot! Just wanted to make sure. Can never be too sure. I have a dual boot on my Wallstreet right now, 9.2.1 and 10.1. Okay, I may give your code a try, is it specifically for G4 processors? What should I expect when running it? I'll check out Leopard on the Garden, my last attempt at installing X from there did not go well and I ended up picking up a copy on eBay!
 
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