powerbook woes
Discussion
last night, my g4 12@ inch power book decided it was going to die. slowly... the hard drive has started making nasty rotating object fouling something type noises and running like its hard drive isnt too healthy... since it's out of its warranty, does anyone know where would be a good place to get apple components? i figure i may as well have a go at fixing it myself, as i'm not too useless, and if its already broken, i can't make it worse while it was opened up, i was going to try changing the processor for the faster 1.5 ghz one, and upgrading the the 2nd ram slot (as standard not possible to upgrade due to the case...) oh, and i was going to fit a bigger hard drive... any input on this lot would be much appreciated, as i don't fancy being stuck using my window box (which was never meant to go on the net, but i've had to run out and buy a wireless card (20 quid! ouch))
cheers, hd
cheers, hd
G4 powerbooks should use bog standard IDE drives (they're post-SCSI and pre-SATA.. so it leaves only one option in my mind).
As such... any IDE laptop HDD that meets the requirements should go in to the fella and after that it's just a case of reinstalling OS X.
Have a poke around the usual Mac forums to see if someone's posted the max capacity of the system (both in terms of drive capacity AND physical dimensions) Ebay / Dabs / Scan for 2.5" hard drives, purchase one.
Remove old drive and swap over any mechanisms (drive rails, power converters, etc) and drop the new drive in. Screw everything back together and bingo.
As such... any IDE laptop HDD that meets the requirements should go in to the fella and after that it's just a case of reinstalling OS X.
Have a poke around the usual Mac forums to see if someone's posted the max capacity of the system (both in terms of drive capacity AND physical dimensions) Ebay / Dabs / Scan for 2.5" hard drives, purchase one.
Remove old drive and swap over any mechanisms (drive rails, power converters, etc) and drop the new drive in. Screw everything back together and bingo.
This is pretty much exactly what happened to my 12" PowerBook earlier this year. The HD didn't sound right, but I was a bit foolish and ignored it. Eventually the thing got rather slow then ground to a halt. The HD was dead. And silly me had not backed everything up.
But yes, there is no "Apple" drive in there as such. Its a regular 2.5" IDE laptop drive that you could find in any laptop, Mac or not. Mine was a Toshiba one (40gb).
I got a new one from Dabs, and I figured I may as well upgrade it while im at it. So I went for an 80gb one. The main thing you need to make sure of, is that the drive is the same thickness as the factory original, which is 9.5mm I believe. Thicker ones will apparently fit, but airflow is then obstructed to some parts of the computer and heat issues could arise.
I would advise however, that unless you really know what you are doing, then leave the drive swap to an expert. It really is not an easy job on a 12" PowerBook. It is not intended to be user serviceable like some of Apples other laptops, both past and present.
You have to pretty much strip the entire thing down, and there are many many tiny screws involved. Its tedious in the extreme, and you have to be extremely careful not to break anything in the process.
I was reasonably lucky, and got away with only breaking one of the 'F' keys (4 of them have to come off to get to screws underneath).
Also, the CPU is not upgradeable, unless you get lucky and find a new mobo on ebay or whatever. Plus, the computer only has 1 ram slot. Assuming its the same or similar to mine, then it has 256mb soldered onto the mobo. So that is there no matter what. And in the single ram slot, you can have whatever you like, up to 1gb, for a total of 1.25gb. But as you are probably aware, you don't have to take the computer apart to get to that ram slot.
Good luck, P
PS, the drive I extracted from my powerbook would work for a few minutes at a time when i put it in a cheap external drive case, which was handy as it meant I could get all my old files back.
But yes, there is no "Apple" drive in there as such. Its a regular 2.5" IDE laptop drive that you could find in any laptop, Mac or not. Mine was a Toshiba one (40gb).
I got a new one from Dabs, and I figured I may as well upgrade it while im at it. So I went for an 80gb one. The main thing you need to make sure of, is that the drive is the same thickness as the factory original, which is 9.5mm I believe. Thicker ones will apparently fit, but airflow is then obstructed to some parts of the computer and heat issues could arise.
I would advise however, that unless you really know what you are doing, then leave the drive swap to an expert. It really is not an easy job on a 12" PowerBook. It is not intended to be user serviceable like some of Apples other laptops, both past and present.
You have to pretty much strip the entire thing down, and there are many many tiny screws involved. Its tedious in the extreme, and you have to be extremely careful not to break anything in the process.
I was reasonably lucky, and got away with only breaking one of the 'F' keys (4 of them have to come off to get to screws underneath).
Also, the CPU is not upgradeable, unless you get lucky and find a new mobo on ebay or whatever. Plus, the computer only has 1 ram slot. Assuming its the same or similar to mine, then it has 256mb soldered onto the mobo. So that is there no matter what. And in the single ram slot, you can have whatever you like, up to 1gb, for a total of 1.25gb. But as you are probably aware, you don't have to take the computer apart to get to that ram slot.
Good luck, P
PS, the drive I extracted from my powerbook would work for a few minutes at a time when i put it in a cheap external drive case, which was handy as it meant I could get all my old files back.
hd
I used to fit them for a living, must have done a couple of hundred. Pretty much any 2.5" IDE will work.
12" PowerBooks are the worst to work on unfortunately though. If you e-mail me via my profile I can send you the official Apple document take-apart. They've got step-by-step guides, and I can give you a few pointers too.
magic torch said:
12" PowerBooks are the worst to work on unfortunately though.
I switched mine for a 120GB samsung, the OS took about less than an hour to transfer via Super Duper, but the drive took about 4+ hours to change - the last hour taken with getting the last two caddy screws out - I eventually had to warm the metal with a soldering iron to get the buggers out without stripping them. Luvverly when it's done though.
Wonderful, death of a million screws on those suckers?
I wonder if the OP, could drag the dead beast in to an Apple store, plunk it down and say in effect, "Put this *point at new drive* in here *point at dead PB* and I will pay you *flash cash*" They're bound to have the right sized tools to get the thing apart if they do in store repairs?
I wonder if the OP, could drag the dead beast in to an Apple store, plunk it down and say in effect, "Put this *point at new drive* in here *point at dead PB* and I will pay you *flash cash*" They're bound to have the right sized tools to get the thing apart if they do in store repairs?
ThePassenger said:
Wonderful, death of a million screws on those suckers?
I wonder if the OP, could drag the dead beast in to an Apple store, plunk it down and say in effect, "Put this *point at new drive* in here *point at dead PB* and I will pay you *flash cash*" They're bound to have the right sized tools to get the thing apart if they do in store repairs?
I wonder if the OP, could drag the dead beast in to an Apple store, plunk it down and say in effect, "Put this *point at new drive* in here *point at dead PB* and I will pay you *flash cash*" They're bound to have the right sized tools to get the thing apart if they do in store repairs?
Yes, but swap Apple Store for AASP.
Used to do it all the time.
Not so much the number of screws, but the variations in size, that's where ice cube trays come in handy.
Worst bit is getting the four function keys off without breaking them.
magic torch said:
Not so much the number of screws, but the variations in size, that's where ice cube trays come in handy.
Worst bit is getting the four function keys off without breaking them.
Worst bit is getting the four function keys off without breaking them.
Yes.. For the screws, i drew a map of sorts on a sheet of A4 paper, and placed them on that out of the way, so I knew where they would all go back. Its true too, hardly any 2 screws are exactly the same type. I also lost count of how many there were..
As for the keys, the guide I got from the internet didn't explain too well how to get them off. Hence why I broke one. Once it was off however, I could see how it was held on (incredibly intricate little things), so I got the other 3 off without too much bother and no damage.
Its a bugger of a job just to replace the drive. Unlike the new MacBooks, where you just push a small lever and the thing pops out! Not even a 5 minute job on those..
P,
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