Clamshell iBook!

[Juliet Elysa]

I've been accepted into college, so I decided to splurge and treat myself to something that's been on my wishlist for quite a while. This iBook is now headed my way! Only problem is, it doesn't come with a charger and the listing said the battery's toast. I'd like to hunt down an original charger for it, but I have no idea what that is. Can y'all please help me out? Also, will the OS 9.2 discs that came with my iMac work with this iBook?

Photos and videos will be coming up once everything is here and set up. Watch this space...

 

[Hrududu]

You're looking for the M7332 yoyo adapter.  As for the install discs, which iMac did they come with?  I don't think machine specific discs were an issue until the iMac G4 era because I've used the 9.1 installer from my old 2000 Indigo iMac G3 with other systems without issue.  

 

[nglevin]

You can get Tiger on that iBook with some Open Firmware tweakery and RAM maxed out. I'd recommend disabling Dashboard since it's a bit of a RAM hog.

10.3 is also perfectly fine, and installs with no additional assistance needed.

 

[Juliet Elysa]

The 9.x discs I have are from one of my iMac G3s (coincidentally also Indigo) so if yours worked I should be good to go. It's good to know a form of 10 is an option for this iBook, if I ever get bored with having two 9.x systems I'll try to get my paws on some 10 discs. What's the max amount of RAM one of these iBooks can have? The listing didn't mention whether or not it's maxed out so I don't know at this point. And thanks for the adapter info, I'll start looking.

I forgot to mention batteries. Replacing it isn't super high priority as long as I have an adapter, but it's something else to do. I'd assume there's a clamshell specific one?

EDIT: Is this adapter compatible? Apple would use the same model number for two non-identical products... ><

 

[Juror22]

I interpreted the ad differently, that it is coming with a new generic charger... from the ad:

Hello Ebay,

Up for sale is a Apple iBook G3/300 (Original/Clamshell) BONDI UNIT 1  ~OS 9.2~TESTED~FREE SHIP 

Unit needs some work. 

Prior owners information is on, recommended to re-install OS. 

Checked HD for bad sectors, passed. 

Screen 100%, cd rom functional. 

Battery is finished, will no longer hold any charge. 

New generic charger. 

Unit is in very good condition for 15 years + 

Airport card included. 

Will over pack to insure safe delivery. 

Free fast ship

you may still want an original yoyo adapter, but it looks like it will at least be shipped with an adapter.

 

[rsolberg]

Yup!  The adapter you've linked to is compatible.  The seller helpfully notes that it is the older style with the thicker DC plug, which is what you need.  That model of iBook came with either 32 or 64MB of RAM soldered to the logic board.  Adding a 256MB module is officially supported in Apple's specs, totalling either 288MB or 320MB of RAM, but one can add a 512MB module to get 544 or 576MB.  The battery is indeed specific to the clamshell models.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/specs/ibook.htmlis a handy reference.

 

[nglevin]

I think a 45W yoyo charger should work, as far as I can tell only the later G3 iBooks needed something stronger.

You can plug in a 512 MB RAM SIMM, and that plus the built in RAM (32 MB or 64 MB) should get you comfortably in the range of an OS X capable computer.

Generally I leave dead batteries in old laptops be, but the G3 iBook's recent and popular enough that I see several batteries in circulation on eBay for a not-usually-small fee. NewerTech used to sell a replacement, but they seem to have stopped making new ones.

EDIT: So very beaten by multiple peeps on several fronts.

 

[Blastoise1994]

Looks good! If you check out the trading post, there's a guy selling brand new batteries for these, and if you need an iBook for spare parts I might be getting rid of my blueberry Clamshell soon. (Opened it up to replace the HDD about a month ago, bottom shell is ruined because apparently a bunch of the screw posts shattered somehow? The rest of it is in good condition though.)

 

[Juliet Elysa]

Yup!  The adapter you've linked to is compatible.  The seller helpfully notes that it is the older style with the thicker DC plug, which is what you need.  That model of iBook came with either 32 or 64MB of RAM soldered to the logic board.  Adding a 256MB module is officially supported in Apple's specs, totalling either 288MB or 320MB of RAM, but one can add a 512MB module to get 544 or 576MB.  The battery is indeed specific to the clamshell models.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/specs/ibook.htmlis a handy reference.

Thank you! That will definitely come in handy.

I was thinking that a charger's included but was confused by an included picture, so I'm not exactly sure of what's really going to be included. It's always good to plan for the worst when confused (which is something I'm very used to, LOL). I wouldn't be so concerned about the battery if I wasn't thinking of potentially using the iBook for word processing and whatnot for assignments. Windows has never really been my comfort zone, and all the ransomware attacks of late haven't exactly helped any even though I know I'm probably safe from them.

Which leads me to yet another concern - word processing software and internet/email access. Will the included airport card be able to talk to today's wifi networks, or is there some other sorcery I'd have to do to get online? Also, what is the oldest version of Word that's compatible with the current version? Or what's the newest version that will run on OS 9.x, and is that compatible? I want to be able to do my schoolwork with as little hassle as possible. Which is part of the reason I want to do it on a classic Mac, that's my happy place.

If you do decide your blueberry clamshell needs a new home I'd be open to it. Blueberry's one of my favorite Mac colors.

 

[Blastoise1994]

Sadly, from recent experience I can tell you that the AirPort cards that came with the G3 series iBooks can't really connect to most modern wi-fi connections, mainly due to the fact that security standards have changed. I know this because just recently I was trying to watch some Homestar Runner on my indigo G3 and it looks like the simplest way to get a G3 online without changing to outdated security on your router is to get an older AirPort base station and plug it into the router when needed.

I honestly was curious as to whether or not anyone had frankenstein'd up an AirPort card that can interface with modern standards, I'm hoping to begin college myself next year and and it'd be fun to show up all early 2000s'd out one day with my iBook...

I'll message ya' when/if I put it up in the trading post! I'd only want like $50 for it, it's functional but the problem with the lower casing is pretty bad. You could probably find a replacement somewhere though, and have yourself a solid iBook, just be aware that repairing these things can be pretty tricky. I found that out the hard way. @~@;

 

[TarableCode]

If you go the OSX route I personally use a Raspberry Pi Zero W as my WiFi adapter and it works really well.

Also the built in airport card will connect to a WPA* (1 not 2) network as long as it's on the latest firmware and on OSX > 10.3.9.

*I've gotten it to work on devices where you can set low level settings for the access point.

As for batteries you can get them rebuilt, I had my iBook battery rebuilt and it gives a good 4+ hour battery life with the Raspberry Pi plugged into USB.

It cost me around $50CAD plus shipping.

 

[nglevin]

Another option for Wifi is to get a cheap USB wifi adapter and download + install its driver (v1.0.0.5 on this page) for Mac OS X Tiger. I can confirm the presence of PPC code in that.

You're still sadly capped to USB 1.1 speeds on that laptop instead of 2.0, but in terms of connectivity options, it's better than the stock Airport.

Throwing this out there for the sake of my inner Cory; if you're looking to go online on a laptop with modern wifi standards, why not get a Chromebook instead? Better support, easier to replace.

 

[nglevin]

Actually.. haaa. The original Airport card could only achieve a max throughput rate of 11 Mbps, which is slower than the USB 1.1 full speed signaling rate of 12 Mbps.

You might not even notice a difference between the card and the USB adapter, besides that the adapter can connect to more networks and only works on OS X.

 

[360alaska]

You paid 196 for a clamshell? I gave one of those away for free...

 

[belgaonkar]

^ I sold 100 of them for $50 a pop.

 

[rsolberg]

TarableCode, did you use a battery rebuild service in Canada for your iBook battery? Shipping battery packs across the border into the US can be a headache and $50 seems very reasonable to me.

EDIT: thought I'd add, inspired by your Pi Zero W Wifi USB adapter, I'm sourcing an Ethernet hat for a Pi Zero W so I can set it up as a Wifi-Ethernet bridge. This way, I can use it with more of my systems including my Newton, Classic Mac OS, and pre-USB portables. It's much more portable than my WRT-54GL routers and I plan on making it battery powered for when USB isn't present for power.

 

[TarableCode]

Yes I did, I used CHANS battery rebuild here in Ontario, I'd definitely recommend them.

I had to send another battery because the control circuitry on the first one was fried beyond repair, all in all I'm very pleased.

It is better to use ethernet I agree but I wanted something small and compact, unfortunately there are no RNDIS or CDC ethernet drivers for MacOS 9 so it only works in OSX.

 

[Carboy7]

Nice Clamshell!

The Wi-Fi can be a bit of a bummer. The funny thing is, my iMac G4 with AirPort Extreme connects just fine, but the older AirPort card won't work! :-/

I've thought of setting up an older router piggybacking off our regular router, so my older machines can connect.

 

[just.in.time]

At my university they had both a secure network for students and faculty AND a guest network that was open but presented a splash screen and required a registered user to sign in for the guest. That guest network worked fine with OS 9.1 and Netscape (7?) on a PowerBook 2400c with an Orinoco Wavelan Silver (flashed to Gold firmware). This card is basically an original Airport card, and even uses the Airport drivers in OS 9.x.

If where you are going has a similar setup then you may be able to get by on an original airport card.