help fixing up a powerbook G4

I have an old mac powerbook G4, i dont want to buy a new mac but I rather use a little money fixing this one up and making it faster and putting in the new OS. What are some steps I can take to make this computer faster, more reliable and up to speed with the new stuff out there (well this may be a stretch, but as much as possible)?

I need it to handle some multi-tasking and mostly school related stuff. Nothing major like designing, etc.

 

You cannot use Snow Leopard 10.6 on the G4 - this will not function nor can you install it on PPC based Macs (i.e. non-Intel cpu's).

RAM for these older machines can be expensive, and is limited as far as how much you can install (this is 1-2GB max for the G4, depending on the sub-model and year released).

A new HDD could improve some speed and function, but taking apart the G4 to get to it is an arduous task.

 

whats the highest OS i can get?

 

10.5 Leopard.

 

does the apple store still service these things? i know warranty is far over, but if i handed it to them to add ram, how much am i lookin at here?

 

Ram would be easy to add yourself.
You should also be able to find it used locally via CraigsList.

I would not even consider having apple perform this as their costs
would kill any advantages gained.

There are plenty of step by step instructions online to perform upgrades such as the hard drives, the powerbook drives are easy to replace, the ibooks tend to be more of a pain due to all the extra screws and shielding internally, yet not difficult either.

What is your powerbook model?

 

its a 12 inch

 

how much ram is in it... most of those older ones either had 128mb or 256mb of ram made into the board, and 1 slot for extra memory... older models let you use up to 512mb sticks in the slot.. newer ones 1gb sticks. I used to have an older model that was 512mb max (for a total of 640mb) but I used a 1gb stick in it and it worked fine though, so I ended up with 1.12 GB...

you can find old used Macbooks for sale for under $400 that can totally smoke that 12"er in every way... wouldn't even be close.

 

yeah i just didnt want to spend money on another laptop, i rather fix this one up and use it as my 2nd laptop. its still cost effective to just fix this one up (for minimal browsing and document needs) than buying a used macbook right?

how can you tell if your model allows the 1gb stick? i wanna max this baby out.

 

well what i was trying to say.. the earlier 12"ers that had 128mb built in, were listed as 640mb max (128 + 512 stick)... the later ones that had 256mb built in were listed as 1.25gb max (256 + 1024 stick)...

The 512 limit I think was listed because there was no such thing as a 1024mb stick on the market when the laptop was released. I bought an original powerbook G4 12", a few days after they were first introduced, and that old one even though Apple said 512 sticks max, ran just fine when i upgraded it with a 1024mb stick a year or so later.... so I believe every 12" Power G4 will probably work fine with a 1024mb stick.... but its only listed as supported if its a 12"er that had 256mb built into the motherboard...

you can go in Apple System Profiler and look under ram to see whats in the machine right now... should list it as 2 memory sticks I think... or maybe say built in.. but you should be able to see if it has 128 or 256mb built in.

 

it shows 2 slots:

1 shows a 256mb Built-in
2nd one shows a 256mb DDR SDRAM (Im not sure if that means its built in too),

can someone show me where I can find a cheap but trustworthy 1024mb stick for my 12" powerbook G4??

 

Crucial.com configuration is always good, plus they make good ram. You just choose the model... Powerbook G4 12" 1.5ghz I'm guessing... then it will tell you what works, and what memory sticks they sell that will work in it, then they'll sell it to you and guarantee it works. Or you can pull the specs off the RAM they say works, and buy the exact same spec ram anywhere else. They are selling 1GiB sticks that work in there for $52.99 when I just looked.

 

fyi- i put a new hard drive and maxed out the memory of a 12" powerbook, and put leopard on it.

wasn't worth it. sold it shortly thereafter and invested in a more modern machine.

it just didn't run leopard very well, even for simple stuff.