I might make a video about this, but I thought it'd be fun to log everything as it happens.
I've always loved older Apple computers and spent a lot of time watching old keynotes as a kid, but never really happened on one (aside from a regrettable instance as an eight year old where I was given a Snow iMac and took it apart because I didn't know that they were still useful, apologies for that gore-- it's literally kept me up at night since then) because I never had the money.
Now I am 22 and irresponsible, so I was on Marketplace a little bit ago and I spied a titanium PowerBook G4 in a lot of other computers. I hit the guy up and he agreed to ship it to me for $80-- he said it'd been tested a long time ago but didn't come with a drive or cable. I thought that meant no hard drive and no charger-- pretty standard, but more on that in a bit. So I sent him the money and immediately went on Amazon and bought a third party battery charger.
It got here in one piece (I've been babying it since I got it, I'm aware of the hinges) and it's actually in really great cosmetic shape, all things considered:
(I've since fixed the keyboard. It's in rough shape, as these old removable keyboards tend to get-- very bendy/flexy).
And I went to plug in the adapter to see if the battery worked, only to find that it wouldn't fit in the port. Tried to push it in but it wouldn't go. I had work that evening, so I went to a local Amazon dropoff point (inside of a Kohl's -- I was wearing all black and I live in a small town in North Carolina, so I got a lot of sideways looks) and sent it back. Stopped to get some food and while I was eating, went on eBay and ordered the charger they switched to after the yoyo-- nbd, and went to work.
While I was waiting for it to arrive, I also bought a 17 inch PowerBook G4 (that's another thread maybe), which arrived on the same day as the new charger.
Later that night I decided to open up the titanium PowerBook, only to find that someone before me had Done Stuff.
I learned:
Anyway:
I looked around and bought a replacement drive ribbon cable from The Bookyard for probably too much money, and had them just send it to me on the slowest shipping with no tracking because I'm in America and that's expensive.
A few days later, the charger, and the 17 inch Aluminum PowerBook G4 arrived on the same day. I tried the Aluminum first, and the charger plugged right in and glowed green-- great!
But that computer needs a ton of work, and what I was really excited for was to use the titanium PowerBook. Only... the charger wouldn't fit. Curious.
At first, it seemed as though the case was getting in the way-- it doesn't seem as though this computer was sitting very well in the case, perhaps because of the missing plastic rib. Indeed, at some point, it had been torn down to the logic board and someone had routed the cord connecting to the charger port weirdly, because it was underneath the TRS (for lack of a better term) connector. I thought maybe that was the issue.
So I pulled everything apart, down to the logic board, and without the other end plugged into the wall, tried to plug the charger in: something was in the port.
And if I'd had a newer TiBook model, it would've been a really easy fix (as far as I know): go find a replacement charger port board, swap it out, you're good. But on the Mercury model, it's right on the logic board. I tried noodling around with a couple different tools and very carefully inspecting the power port to figure out what was wrong, but couldn't really conclude anything other than "this is borked somehow".
So I put it out of my head for a while, but I was looking around last night and some luck struck: I found a replacement board on eBay specifically for the M5884, for like $30 and free shipping. I pulled the trigger on it.
It was also slow at work today, so I went ahead and got some replacement bottom case screws and drive mount as well.
I still need a new bottom case, one with the plastic piece still in tact, and I need to go order some thermal paste for when I slot this new logic board in. Also still missing a drive -- not sure what the best replacement solution for this is and don't have a huge amount of money, but I'm just trying to get to a folder with a blinking question mark first (do PowerPC macs do this? I can't remember).
Part sourcing is difficult for me -- I'm new to collecting and unfortunately in my state, for whatever reason, recyclers and stuff almost don't exist, so I'm kind of stuck looking at eBay and stuff like that, so who knows where things will end up.
The replacement board should be here soon, so, more shortly!
I've always loved older Apple computers and spent a lot of time watching old keynotes as a kid, but never really happened on one (aside from a regrettable instance as an eight year old where I was given a Snow iMac and took it apart because I didn't know that they were still useful, apologies for that gore-- it's literally kept me up at night since then) because I never had the money.
Now I am 22 and irresponsible, so I was on Marketplace a little bit ago and I spied a titanium PowerBook G4 in a lot of other computers. I hit the guy up and he agreed to ship it to me for $80-- he said it'd been tested a long time ago but didn't come with a drive or cable. I thought that meant no hard drive and no charger-- pretty standard, but more on that in a bit. So I sent him the money and immediately went on Amazon and bought a third party battery charger.
It got here in one piece (I've been babying it since I got it, I'm aware of the hinges) and it's actually in really great cosmetic shape, all things considered:
(I've since fixed the keyboard. It's in rough shape, as these old removable keyboards tend to get-- very bendy/flexy).
And I went to plug in the adapter to see if the battery worked, only to find that it wouldn't fit in the port. Tried to push it in but it wouldn't go. I had work that evening, so I went to a local Amazon dropoff point (inside of a Kohl's -- I was wearing all black and I live in a small town in North Carolina, so I got a lot of sideways looks) and sent it back. Stopped to get some food and while I was eating, went on eBay and ordered the charger they switched to after the yoyo-- nbd, and went to work.
While I was waiting for it to arrive, I also bought a 17 inch PowerBook G4 (that's another thread maybe), which arrived on the same day as the new charger.
Later that night I decided to open up the titanium PowerBook, only to find that someone before me had Done Stuff.
I learned:
- This was a base model, from the first run. The bottom case was stamped inside with March 2002. I'm about to turn 23, which makes this computer about seven months older than me. I actually love that it's an early model for a couple reasons-- one is that I love that immediate Aqua era, Steve's-Turning-The-Company-Around design where the computers were more futuristic but a little austere -- like when they started looking modern but still used the Garamond type-- but also because it means that whoever bought this initially probably knew what was up and maybe been one of the faithful, if they bought a titanium PowerBook G4 in 2002 a mere two months after introduction.
- Mercifully, however, the RAM had been upgraded to a 256 MB stick and a 512 MB stick (I believe).
- The bottom case was missing screws (probably common) and had suffered the common rib issue-- I'm missing most of the plastic grey piece mounted to it that sort of holds the computer together.
- The person who had this before me left in a little SSD riser in the drive place with the 6G "Mercury Electra" OWC thing from an SSD swap that had occurred. I even found a little black rubber washer thing floating around elsewhere on the board from the original drive mounting thing (eyeroll).
- And for... some reason, when they pulled the drive (understandable) they decided to take the drive ribbon cable with them (less understandable).
Anyway:
I looked around and bought a replacement drive ribbon cable from The Bookyard for probably too much money, and had them just send it to me on the slowest shipping with no tracking because I'm in America and that's expensive.
A few days later, the charger, and the 17 inch Aluminum PowerBook G4 arrived on the same day. I tried the Aluminum first, and the charger plugged right in and glowed green-- great!
But that computer needs a ton of work, and what I was really excited for was to use the titanium PowerBook. Only... the charger wouldn't fit. Curious.
At first, it seemed as though the case was getting in the way-- it doesn't seem as though this computer was sitting very well in the case, perhaps because of the missing plastic rib. Indeed, at some point, it had been torn down to the logic board and someone had routed the cord connecting to the charger port weirdly, because it was underneath the TRS (for lack of a better term) connector. I thought maybe that was the issue.
So I pulled everything apart, down to the logic board, and without the other end plugged into the wall, tried to plug the charger in: something was in the port.
And if I'd had a newer TiBook model, it would've been a really easy fix (as far as I know): go find a replacement charger port board, swap it out, you're good. But on the Mercury model, it's right on the logic board. I tried noodling around with a couple different tools and very carefully inspecting the power port to figure out what was wrong, but couldn't really conclude anything other than "this is borked somehow".
So I put it out of my head for a while, but I was looking around last night and some luck struck: I found a replacement board on eBay specifically for the M5884, for like $30 and free shipping. I pulled the trigger on it.
It was also slow at work today, so I went ahead and got some replacement bottom case screws and drive mount as well.
I still need a new bottom case, one with the plastic piece still in tact, and I need to go order some thermal paste for when I slot this new logic board in. Also still missing a drive -- not sure what the best replacement solution for this is and don't have a huge amount of money, but I'm just trying to get to a folder with a blinking question mark first (do PowerPC macs do this? I can't remember).
Part sourcing is difficult for me -- I'm new to collecting and unfortunately in my state, for whatever reason, recyclers and stuff almost don't exist, so I'm kind of stuck looking at eBay and stuff like that, so who knows where things will end up.
The replacement board should be here soon, so, more shortly!
