Use power supply of 500 mhz Titanium PowerBook G4 with 300 mhz iBook G3?

[chaosbunny]

The power supply of my tangerine Clamshell iBook G3 is acting up and making strange noises when the connector between the "UFO"-disk and the cable is not positioned in a certain angle. While looking for a replacement I found a cheap, pretty beat up but functional 500 mhz Titanium PowerBook G4. Can I use its power supply with my iBook? Both have the "UFO"-shaped power supply and the connector looks similar.

Searched but didn't find an answer. Thanks in advance for any help!

That's the Titanium PowerBook by the way ... maybe I'll just get it anyway and give the poor thing a new home.

 

[B S Magnet]

The power supply of my tangerine Clamshell iBook G3 is acting up and making strange noises when the connector between the "UFO"-disk and the cable is not positioned in a certain angle. While looking for a replacement I found a cheap, pretty beat up but functional 500 mhz Titanium PowerBook G4. Can I use its power supply with my iBook? Both have the "UFO"-shaped power supply and the connector looks similar.

Thanks in advance for any answer!

That's the Titanium PowerBook by the way ... maybe I'll just get it anyway and give the poor thing a new home.

View attachment 2032075

The polarity and wattage ratings between the two are compatible with one another (45W), and most of their design and also where they were manufactured are the same.

The problem I’ve run into with my old 400MHz titanium and my several clamshell iBooks is the metal sheath surrounding the 3.5mm plug used with the PowerBook has a smaller diameter than what is used with the clamshell iBooks.

The thing is, once Apple moved to the ice iBook design, which would also be used for all subsequent iBooks until the end, the brick-style power adapters used this smaller diameter sheath for all models, as well as all the subsequent PowerBook G4s. The clamshell series was kind of an anomaly in that sense, and one needs to use a UFO/puck adapter with the larger diameter sheath for the clamshell models.

Although I haven’t looked closely at earlier Pismo models, I get the sense Apple rolled out the LED-indicator-responsive power adapter with the 1999 iBook, but by 2000, when they were designing the PowerBook G4, chose to adopt something slightly less large in diameter. It is possible the Pismo used the larger diameter sheath, but I have no way at the moment to determine this.

I suppose, in theory, one could remove the protective sheath on a titanium PowerBook adapter (or any later adapter), to use in the clamshell, but the risk of shorting the adapter would increase due to defeating the safety function of that sheath.

 

[chaosbunny]

The polarity and wattage ratings between the two are compatible with one another (45W), and most of their design and also where they were manufactured are the same.

The problem I’ve run into with my old 400MHz titanium and my several clamshell iBooks is the metal sheath surrounding the 3.5mm plug used with the PowerBook has a smaller diameter than what is used with the clamshell iBooks.

The thing is, once Apple moved to the ice iBook design, which would also be used for all subsequent iBooks until the end, the brick-style power adapters used this smaller diameter sheath for all models, as well as all the subsequent PowerBook G4s. The clamshell series was kind of an anomaly in that sense, and one needs to use a UFO/puck adapter with the larger diameter sheath for the clamshell models.

Although I haven’t looked closely at earlier Pismo models, I get the sense Apple rolled out the LED-indicator-responsive power adapter with the 1999 iBook, but by 2000, when they were designing the PowerBook G4, chose to adopt something slightly less large in diameter. It is possible the Pismo used the larger diameter sheath, but I have no way at the moment to determine this.

I suppose, in theory, one could remove the protective sheath on a titanium PowerBook adapter (or any later adapter), to use in the clamshell, but the risk of shorting the adapter would increase due to defeating the safety function of that sheath.

Wow, thanks a lot for the fast, long and informative answer!

Have a nice day!