Another iBook G3 & Problem Solved

[wardsenatorfe92]

Well, I swore I'd never buy another one of these. Saw a listing on eBay, it was cheap enough so I took the plunge. The listing was very vague, just said Dual USB iBook G3 & 384 MB RAM. Turns out I got a pretty good deal.

Ended up getting a iBook G3 600 MHz/ 384MB RAM/ 10GB HDD (replacement)/ Airport/ DVD-ROM with OS 10.1 installed. Also was surprised to get all the original software CD's that came with it! Only bad part is, you get what you pay for... the thing came in very poor cosmetic condition. The entire case was dinged up and cracked around the sides pretty badly, the latch broken and the battery latch busted and barely usable. I decided I'd try to swap the cases out with the other iBook I had laying around, but that uncovered more problems... the entire machine was missing just about every screw and was re-assembled carefully using ducktape.

Long story short, I ended up taking both iBooks apart completely and getting the other 500MHz iBook to work using all of the 600 MHz iBook's parts. Conclusion: fully working iBook G3 500MHz/ 320 MB RAM (64 soldered to mainboard)/ 10 GB (now working)/ Airport & DVD Drive.

Pics to come, wish I could post some tonight but anyone who knows anything about taking these suckers apart knows how tired I am from working on these all day.

-Jake

[jongleur]

Having worked on these iBooks, especially HDD upgrades, I say congratulations on a job well done.

I must admit, I never thought to use duct tape to close up an iBook.

[tmtomh]

Great story - and great salvage job! I've taken apart a few of those iBooks, and that was a few too many. What a PIA!

[FlyingToaster]

Those iBooks had some pretty gnarly video problems, I think the rate of failure was more than 50%. I had a few and they seemed to run hot all the time, probably leading to the crappy cold solder joint problems. You should really get a notebook cooler for it. They are cheap usually.

[BGoins12]

I personally hated my 500MHz iBook. Sure it looked cool, but it ran hot (burned my legs if I left it on my lap too long), was slow compared to a Pismo (cache), and the keyboard had the BO problem (yuck). That was my first one. I sold it after spraying the keyboard with cologne to hide the smell.

The second one I got for $5 locally that had a "bad hard drive". Turns out the video chip was fried, and the hard drive was fine. At least I got a hard drive and a 512MB module out of the deal. Threw the rest of it on eBay and got $20 for it.

[techknight]

I know about the video issues, I have 2 more of those ibooks sitting here rotting away as well. I think they are both 700mhz though. not sure. both have bad video chips. Reflows didnt help.