Ibook G3 500mhz

[Redfallon]

Ok, I've never used/seen/touched a MAC until a week or so ago when I was given a neglected and abused ibook. From what I have been able to find out, it's an Ibook G3 500mhz 128MB ram with DVD/CDRW "dual-usb" model. It does, however, have a cracked screen. I cannot make out anything on the screen. I was told it may be working, may not. I ordered a cable to connect up to a tv via the multimedia out port, received it, and I can get audio out, but no video. I bought a set of restore disks from Ebay, received them yesterday, and popped the install disc in, I can see the screen doing *something* and hear the HDD and cd rom reading/writing/spinning. Question is, do any of you mac users know if you have to configure the multimedia port out to display to a TV? I am thinking of ordering a new screen for $150~$200 as I believe the laptop is worth a decent amount. Also, I noticed even the new MACs run significantly slower than intel, MHz-wise, is their artitecture more similar to an AMD (hope that doesn't offend the MAC users or AMD ) Just wondering if the machine is worthwhile spending any time/energy/money on. Thanx in advance guys, I am a MAC idiot

**edit** thought I was in General Hardware forum, I apologize!

[Mac Medic]

Hopefully the logic board/graphics card are all ok. Normally you should be able to plug the external monitor into the vga port and have it come on automatically. You may want to try resetting the p-ram and try again just in case the monitor had been configured previously to a different type and won't switch on because of that.

I would get the rest of the hardware tested before buying a new screen. (you can boot off of the restore cd to do a complete hardware test if you get the monitor mirroring working 1st).

If everything checks out, except the damaged screen, and you can get a replacement for $200 then I would do it. Just be sure everything else works 1st. I will post a few links later for you to look at.

[Redfallon]

thanx oem, I was hoping you'd stop by It's not an external monitor, or a vga cable. It's the 3.5mm multimedia cable, has three RCA plugs for tv audio/video. I was thinking maybe I could get ahold of a vga cable, plugs into the same port, but connects to a standard VGA monitor. However, new screen ordered all ready, as I have been unable to get the display to output to TV. I only paid $156 shipped for the screen, and I figure even if the boards fried, I can re auction it and get my money back, I've seen most going for $150~$200 and higher on ebay. Also I can part out the case, cdrw/dvd, complete set of restore disks and cable I bought if need be. I figure it cost me nothing, I could make it back plus some if I part it out. That is, of course, worst case scenario. These seem to still be popular little laptops. Are they still decently powerful, even at 500mhz, as I know nothing about MACs, I have the Intel MHz logic burned into my brain

[Mac Medic]

Ahh, I see, a tv, then yes, you would need to configure it inside OS X. If you can get the VGA adaptor, try an external monitor, at least that way you can configure the TV out and run the hardware tests.

The 500mhz ibook if a pretty decent machine speed-wise, not a rocket but prob as fast as a 700-800mhz P3. My wife still uses a 700mhz G3 ibook and has no intention of upgrading it, perfectly fast for her. I have a 400mhz G3 Pismo Powerbook and it too is plenty fast for day to day tasks.

[Mac Medic]

Here are some links for you to look at, may help answer some questions.

http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/ (just incase the logic board is DOA)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238 (reset pram and nvram)

http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/ (ibook support, manuals etc)

http://www.barefeats.com/pb05.html (a few benchmarks, the pismo G3 500 is pretty much the same processor as your ibook although the ibook 500 is a bit faster, as you can see it's right there with a Vaio P3/850mhz)

http://www.barefeats.com/fire20.html (ibook 500 benchmarks)

[Redfallon]

Thanx for the links and the info. I was *hoping* it was just not configured for the tv output. Guess we'll see when the new screen gets here. I appreciate your help, looks to be a nice little machine. Might make a convert out of me yet

[Redfallon]

Well the new screen arrived, with a dead bulb of course! Luckily the bulb from my cracked screen was still good. First time ever tearing into an LCD laptop monitor Got the screen working, and everything on the laptop tested "ok" except the HDD, which was undetected! Poor laptop has taken quite the beating! This leads me to my next question. From what I can tell, the same laptops are used in MACs as in Dell's, Sony's, Compaq's, etc. Are all laptop HDD's the same? Taking into account BIOS limitations on size and ATA speeds, etc, will a HDD from a PC work in a MAC? I have been able to get some vague information on this, just looking for something concrete.

[Mac Medic]

Yes, any HDD should work fine. Install the HDD, boot off the CD and choose Disc Utility from the file menu, then format it using Mac OS Extended.

[IntegraGSR]

OS X on a 500MHz G3? No wonder you think it's sluggish

[Redfallon]

I've heard rumblings that when the Ibook fails to recognize the HDD it's logic board failure, but on the MAC forums logic board failure seems to do more with the display??? The logic board tested ok per apple's hardware test disc...Guess we'll have to wait and see Would OS 9 be a better bet integra? I have both available, but plan on upgrading the 128MB of RAM if I can get it up and running!! Even though I fall under the range of ser #'s in the "recall" for logic board failure, I see ALOT of people complaining their ibooks in the same range as mine have had alot of problems!! Don't wanna sink *too* much into this little project if it's gonna die on me

[Mac Medic]

I run OS X on a 400mhz G3 w/512 mb ram, it runs fairly well for most day to day things.

[glc]

Integra, your signature is too large, edit it, please. The graphic is excessive.

From the FAQ:

Members are required to keep their signature at a reasonable length. Large images are not permitted in signatures.

[IntegraGSR]

Changing sig...though I've seen larger, I don't need it.

Anyway, if you don't need all of the features that OS X has, OS 9 will would beautifully on that iBook, even if it is an older OS, it still has a lot of software available for it, and is still supported. I'd suggest it unless you want a ton of features and constant updates (think of it as Windows 98, it's still supported but it's showing its age)

[Redfallon]

Well I got the screen in the Ibook, as well as a new HDD, OSX installed, even got it configured to the pc network and transfered some files over!!! Only bad thing, had a couple of random lines running top to bottom on the screen. Next morning, booted it up, blank screen, grey, nothing else, could hear everything running, etc...Logic board failure??? Sounds like it to me. Luckily, the thing is covered under a service contract, and the original owner has contacted them and a box is in route to send it in for free repairs Hopefully I'll get a new logic board and all will be well again with my little project Ibook!

[Mac Medic]

Good job, nice to have the service contract huh?

[Redfallon]

yep, since it's going back anyway, I put the old HDD in as I had no idea it was covered under a service contract when I got it. In the brief couple hours I used it I have to say pretty nice features, although they could move the buttons to close the windows out over to the "correct" side Thank god for shortcuts!

[Mac Medic]

LOL, while you have a bunch of windows open did you press F9.F10,F11 yet? (only works in panther, try shift+F9 for a very cool effect)

[Redfallon]

reminds me of another question. I have OSX but I have no idea what "build" I think 10.2. What is "panther"???

[Mac Medic]

Panther is OS X 10.3, a much better OS with many improvements and new features. It networks much better and has a great feature called exposé (window management).

[ZeratulsAvenger]

Is panther a wise choice for a 500MHz laptop though? What about a 400MHz, seeing as how that is what mine is and I wouldn't mind installing panther on it if I thought it would run well enough. Would give me a good excuse to erase all of my sisters stuff. She doesn't understand that she is supposed to use the games in the applications folder, not make her own folder on the desktop and install games there. And she switched off my account and onto her own, so now she has about 3 copy's of several games. Was down to 300MB left on the HD

[ric449]

According to this you need at least a G3, doesn't go into much more detail than that, apart from saying video conferencing needs at least a 600MHz processor: http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...More=M9227LL/A

[Mac Medic]

I run panther on a 400mhz pismo and it runs fine for everyday tasks, ie: safari, mail, word, excel, photoshop (nothing intensive though).

[IntegraGSR]

Each revision of OS X is faster (unlike Windows, heh). 10.0.0 is a sloth compared to 10.3, it's extremely optimized, though I may just be saying that because I have a 1GHz G4 and not a sub-500MHz G3...but Panther definitely is faster than Cheetah.

Cheetah: 10.0.x
Puma: 10.1.x
Jaguar: 10.2.x
Panther: 10.3.x
Tiger: 10.4.x