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General discussion

iBook G3 Disassembly

Dec 15, 2007 5:19AM PST

So today my friend dropped off his old G3. It's a white, dual-USB model that should have a 600Mhz CPU. It doesn't have a battery, but he found the charger, so I have a power supply to work with here. However, the hard drive is shot.

Basically, I just need a new drive, good instructions on how to dismantle it, and if I can, replace the casing and get some new rubber feet for the bottom shell. It should work with just a new drive, but the casing is beat up, and the keyboard is faded in quite a few areas. Anyone have any goods suggestions? I think I may have found some good instructions, but I don't want to use those in case there are better versions. Comments appreciated.

-BMF

Discussion is locked

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Just checking.
Dec 15, 2007 5:25AM PST
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I did, and I found one,
Dec 15, 2007 5:47AM PST

but I'm not sure if it's any good.

http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-ibook-disassembly.htm

The site doesn't look to trustworthy to me. Just went on iFixit and they seem to have everything since they sell several replacement parts.

This may work, what do you think?

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/iBook-G3-14-Inch/51/

Say, what do you know about http://www.macservice.com/ ? They have some good services, but it's pricey. I don't think I'll be ordering anything from them, but it would be a good reference in the future. Now I need to go about ordering a drive. I think the older Macs only supported up to 128GB (for whatever rule that is), so I'll probably need a good 5400rpm 120GB drive. Any tips?

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Those look right.
Dec 15, 2007 6:52AM PST

I'm unsure by what you mean trustworthy. Some are homebrew guides with others being better quality. Between these sites and you having the notebook you should be able to "get'r'done."

As to drives I've been picking up some from newegg and geeks.com.

Bob

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Since I haven't messed with this particualr iBook before,
Dec 15, 2007 7:55AM PST

I have to wonder, could I put the 120GB drive from my MBP in it? I plan to have a 320GB HD installed, so I'll have the 120 spare. I feel like I can't but I just can't remember why you can't do this.

If the drive will work, I'll be able to fire up the iBook with a clean install of OS X, but if not, I'll use it as a decoration. It's had quite a lot of problems before, and who knows if just swapping the drive will fix it? I'm making that a hobby for now. "iBook! Go sit in the corner with the Apple TV now!" LOL. To repair a bunch of the stuff in it would cost too much. It's not worth a possible $100-1000. I could buy a low end MacBook and get more out of it than this thing.

Those things heat up a lot too, it seems. According to my friend, the iBook would heat up during use. It has a foul burnt odor to it. I'll see about fixing that too.

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That's a new one.
Dec 15, 2007 8:06AM PST
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That's it.
Dec 15, 2007 8:31AM PST

I couldn't remember what the differences in the drives were. As I recall, the iBook uses ATA and the newer ones do use SATA. That clarifies a few things.

Due to this incompatibility, I'll be stuck with an extra 120GB drive and a (Still) broken iBook. I'll probably stick the 120GB in an external shell and use it for backups.

Thanks for the info.

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You know there ia a Mac feat that is neat.
Dec 15, 2007 9:06AM PST

If you pop the drive into a firewire housing I believe the MacOSX will install and run from that external. Said cases could be cheap cheap. Check geeks.com and newegg.com

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... Problem is
Dec 15, 2007 9:30AM PST

the iBook starts up, plays the noise, and hangs at a gray screen. I've managed to open to the disc tray once, but that may have caused the Apple logo to disappear. And I don't seem to have any Panther of Jaguar discs that I would use on it, but my friend might... Still, I don't think using it off of a FireWire external like that would be good for it. I would actually use it as a laptop and take it places, so I wouldn't carry around a bunch of stuff.

Easier to just buy a MacBook, but it's not like it has to be fixed. No one's used it for a long time since it broke. Like I said earlier, it's kind of a hobby. I will fix it, but it depends on time and how much I'll have to spend. It's not worth it if it were repaired to a very new condition. Ah well... I don't have a spare external to boot off of at the moment to even see if it can... I'm sure it has problems in other places.

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Keep your ears and eyes open for any PATA laptop drive.
Dec 15, 2007 9:32AM PST

I gifted an old slow one years ago. It happens and they are cheap cheap in the 11 and under GB size.

Bob

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Will do.
Dec 15, 2007 9:43AM PST

Now my priority is to find some sort of factory sealed iMac for a great deal. Preferably an Intel model, but I would love to have a G5, if I could find one. Everytime I see a G5 still sealed up, it's much more expensive than the current iMacs which would outperform it in almost every way. Anyway, I could use one, but I have yet to find a decent deal that I could be happy with.

I would also put together a pair of quad-core desktops... but I have no use for machines like that right now. Unless I decided to install all the latest and greatest graphics and sound cards, I wouldn't need that. I'm not an avid gamer Wink. I could only use that power in a Mac Pro, which I will probably never need (but I do want one, like every other person, LOL).

-BMF

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I know this guy that knows a guy
Dec 15, 2007 9:55AM PST

That has a trucking company....

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Well if this guy that knows this guy
Dec 15, 2007 10:29AM PST

could hook me up with some stuff... LOL. If only it worked that way Happy. I could look at the Dell XPS One thing or that Gateway One, but that makes me sick of the number ONE! and they all look terrible when compared to the iMac. Plus OS X beats Vista in checkers. And chess. And Halo, depending on what you like. At least Macs talk to you. That new ad on Apple is funny, in a geek way. Apple could come up with some more ads though to catch your attention. I'm afraid the "kick back and relax with a Mac" kind of attitude isn't too great, but it seems to work for Steve.

But then again, isn't that what makes us Apple people go buy more Apple products? Maybe, or we just like Apple icons and brushed aluminum.