Recent content by J English Smith

I'm curious - what's your source where they are a) available and b) not that expensive? I have about 4-5 Pismo batteries that I am nursing along, but they are all declining in charge, despite my best efforts. There used to be batteries on eBay for the older G3s, but those dried up about a year...

Hey, gang, it's been a while since I spec'd a new hard drive to work with a G3 Pismo. Remind me - does it have to be a PATA drive rather than SATA? I want to cheap out and get an inexpensive drive - there seem to be abundant 120gb SATA III drives out there for around $20, but not sure those will...

Hay, all - I still use my g3 ibooks in rotation, while slow for web surfing generally, they work ok as a companion unit when I'm at work. I have been using tiny EDIMAX brand USB wifi dongles, as their software plays well with OS 10.4, unlike many others. (I have to have WPA2 level security even...

Galgot, thanks for the article link, that does look very informative. I will read it and see what I can glean should I attempt. May try on one of the Pismos...

Thanks for the replies...I thought I had it last night, I had xubuntu 12.04 .iso disk running through a full install sequence, took about four hours working on "expert" mode, but then when it was all done, it had apparently skipped loading a desktop, I was still back with a command line...

Wondering if anyone here has successfully installed a Ubuntu or Libuntu distro on an old iBook. I worked on this for hours yesterday, and I'm just hitting the wall. I have a Lubuntu 12.04 for PPC .iso disk, and it will run on the CD drive in the book. It does not offer me any install option...

Hey, all - one of my G4 iBooks is showing its age. Wondered if this is indicative of a logic board failure - can anyone help me confirm? 1. Startup chime occurs 2. Screen does not light and no further boot 3. Last boot prior to above, booted into open firmware, then after mac-boot, started...

Didn't work, alas, on first try, with a little lens cleaner applied. I may give it one more go. It's frustrating that it pulls in the disk but then can't read it. On the plus side, one of my 800mhz iBooks mysteriously revived this week - it was having power management issues but those seem to be...

One of my iBook G4's has a slot-loading drive that will load CDs and eject, but not mount the disk. Has anyone managed to fix that issue via either a software fix, cleaning the lens, etc? I'm prepared to live with it if I have to, as doing a full teardown seems like a real pain... It was working...

Thanks, everyone! I played with it more this morning and finally found success with iTunes 10.6.3 running with QuickTime 7.6.4. I had tried downgrading to iTunes 9.1.1 but that did not work, as iTunes could not read the previous library file. I could not find 7.7 very easily but 7.6.4 does seem...

Hey, I need a point in the right direction - appreciate any help. I'm in software loop-hell. Just updated my iBook G4s from 10.4.11 to 10.5.8. Now I can't get iTunes to open on any of them. The application data says I have QuickTime Player 7.2.1 When I go to open iTunes, it won't lanuch and...

It's great that these are working out for folks. I have just enough working ones that I'm not ordering for now - I will probably regret that later, but I've just been too spendy of late. He's about the only option I've seen of late...and I've never heard of any "really great" battery receller...

Thanks, Mike. That will help me check parts, see what I can find for him. May be possible to do a full top/head swap, though, if I can find one with OK cosmetics.

Anyone know the answer to this? I have a buyer looking for a Pismo inverter, would like to cannibalize one non-working Lombard for that, but I can't remember if that is the same part or not... Thanks for any help.

That is definitely worth a shot. It took me a couple of ad cycles on CL before I found my buyer. It's a needle in a haystack thing, but the larger the market, the better. Good luck! I was happy that mine went to a good home, to an engineer who knew what he was buying and really wanted it.