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mectojic

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 27, 2020
1,328
2,519
Sydney, Australia
I want to get one of those G4 upgrades for a G3 Pismo/Lombard Powerbook.

Anyone know what they're called, where I can get them, and any installation instructions I need to know?
 
I want to get one of those G4 upgrades for a G3 Pismo/Lombard Powerbook.

Anyone know what they're called, where I can get them, and any installation instructions I need to know?

There were several manufacturers offering G4 upgrades for Pismo and Wallstreet G3 PowerBooks. Sonnet always comes to mind, but there were more. There’s a really good run-down of several on Everymac.

But in this day, your best bet in finding one, likely used (or, more rarely, new-old stock), is probably the ebays.
 

dosdude1

macrumors 68030
Feb 16, 2012
2,771
7,377
I omitted @dosdude1 by mistake: I knew he swapped GPUs as a service on the faulty MBP boards, but I hadn’t checked whether he or @LightBulbFun replaced CPUs as a service (or which CPUs on which models for which they provided that service). I owe them both an apology.
I can perform G3 -> G4 CPU upgrades on any PowerBook G3 (except Kanga) and any iMac G3, tray or slot loading, that does NOT use an IBM PPC750CXe CPU (only certain slot-loading models do). I can even upgrade the L2 cache to 1MB on cards with 512K.
 

mectojic

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 27, 2020
1,328
2,519
Sydney, Australia
I can perform G3 -> G4 CPU upgrades on any PowerBook G3 (except Kanga) and any iMac G3, tray or slot loading, that does NOT use an IBM PPC750CXe CPU (only certain slot-loading models do). I can even upgrade the L2 cache to 1MB on cards with 512K.
I'm pleased to hear that! I suppose you're in the US though? I'm in Australia, so not sure if I can afford all the international shipping.

Do you have any spare G4 upgrades?
 

dosdude1

macrumors 68030
Feb 16, 2012
2,771
7,377
I'm pleased to hear that! I suppose you're in the US though? I'm in Australia, so not sure if I can afford all the international shipping.

Do you have any spare G4 upgrades?
I am in the US, but have done these services for people overseas before. Shipping is a bit expensive, but in the case of the PowerBook G3 you have, all you have to send in is the CPU card itself, which is very small and light. I currently don't have any extra cards available, so you'd have to send the card in for me to perform the upgrade on if you wanted it.
 

reddrag0n

macrumors 6502a
Oct 1, 2007
624
159
Canada
I am in the US, but have done these services for people overseas before. Shipping is a bit expensive, but in the case of the PowerBook G3 you have, all you have to send in is the CPU card itself, which is very small and light. I currently don't have any extra cards available, so you'd have to send the card in for me to perform the upgrade on if you wanted it.
you are able to upgrade a 500 mhz pismo cpu that is sent from Canada? how much would you ask for to do the upgrade? IE chip swaps - cpu, cache and time
 
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