Comments 1 to 25 of 28

Quote -Xp- 21st October 2005, 13:08
Wow, so it's actually possible to take one of those things apart? Crazy stuff!! It's such an anticlimax to see that there's simply "normal" hardware inside there. I was expecting magical glass tubes filled with blue plasma and lots of shiny round bits everywhere.
Quote Da Dego 21st October 2005, 13:37
It's so sad to think that this actually could qualify as modding for all the work you had to do...to replace a part that should be openly serviceable. Go apple. :p

That said, good job! Glad it works, and hope you don't keep it on your lap too much...
Quote ElThomsono 21st October 2005, 13:46
This x-ray's pretty cool:

http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/7974/powerbookxray3yq.jpg

Shows you how basic the battery really is.
Quote RTT 21st October 2005, 14:05
You actually wouldn't believe just how abused that laptop is. The pictures do it no justice :D
Quote Andy Mc 21st October 2005, 14:11
FYI: the wall paper in the last shot is another from little-gamers.com :D
Quote Godboy_g 21st October 2005, 14:18
Since you already had the case apart, you should have painted it..... It would look sweet with the Bit-tech logo on there. ;)
Quote xheadinthecloudsx 21st October 2005, 15:14
Disassembly/repair guides for most powerbook/ibook models can be found on: http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide ... and they show you how to open it up without damaging the front of your optical drive.
Quote r00t69 21st October 2005, 15:20
Quote:
Originally Posted by -Xp-
I was expecting magical glass tubes filled with blue plasma and lots of shiny round bits everywhere.

:D
Quote Deep-Blue 21st October 2005, 15:33
I feel your pain dude. My Powerbook 12" is starting to get a bit sluggish and occasionally doesn't boot either. Having said this, i think i still have the extended warrenty on this, so i may just have to give em a call.

Oh BTW, kudos on the great choice of wallpaper. Its funny how LG wallpaper and Macs just go hand in hand!
Quote Shadow_101 21st October 2005, 16:04
Quote:
Originally Posted by ElThomsono

Shows you how basic the battery really is.

is that just 8 AA batts?
Quote ElThomsono 21st October 2005, 16:07
I don't think so, they're too big (using the HDD as a scale). Just that they've soldered together a load of cylinders and stuck them in a square box, not very space efficient :?
Quote Gordy 21st October 2005, 16:39
That poor powerbook. Don't know how you can give so much abuse to something that expensive :(
Quote Arkuden 21st October 2005, 16:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadow_101
is that just 8 AA batts?

no you can see the standard battery plugin the top right of the rectangular area that those tubes or cells cover. 8 cell battery i would imagine. At least ive heard of them being referred to as such becuase you can get an optional 12 cell battery with laptops as an option these days.
Quote phantomxc 21st October 2005, 17:19
If you think it was hard to get that thing open, try taking out a logic board and putting a new one in.
Quote Meanmotion 21st October 2005, 19:08
Quote:
Originally Posted by ElThomsono
I don't think so, they're too big (using the HDD as a scale). Just that they've soldered together a load of cylinders and stuck them in a square box, not very space efficient :?

That's what all battery packs are - powertools, laptops, cameras, etc. That's why it's such a swizz when they charge you loads for them - and you know what it's not even the cells that go it's the controller boards on the packs.
Quote DreamTheEndless 21st October 2005, 19:08
Quote:
Originally Posted by -Xp-
It's such an anticlimax to see that there's simply "normal" hardware inside there. I was expecting magical glass tubes filled with blue plasma and lots of shiny round bits everywhere.

...As I've been saying for years. SDRam, now DDR and DDR2 (ecc or not); scsi, IDE, sata; usb; pci; agp; pci-x; pci express....

My (now gone - donated to a good cause) beige 300mhz g3 powermac took SDram and had a pci video card. I know a long time ago they used different hardware than most of the x86 world, but times have changed.

And yet - you still have people who say you shouldn't buy a mac because you can't upgrade them or can't find parts for them......

I bought new ram for my sisters clamshell (toilet seat cover) iBook in the electronics section of the grocery store!!

Yes - it's the same hardware.

Sorry - just realized this was a rant and didn't mean it to be. It's just that this is a conversation that I have had too many times over the last several years. I have counted to 10. I am calm now. I swear.

(It's the same hardware.)
Quote ElThomsono 21st October 2005, 19:28
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meanmotion
That's what all battery packs are - powertools, laptops, cameras, etc. That's why it's such a swizz when they charge you loads for them - and you know what it's not even the cells that go it's the controller boards on the packs.

Yeah, but at least on my laptop they've accepted it, the battery pack looks like 2 long cylinders side by side, a sort of 8 shaped prism.

But yeah, batteries are a huge rip off
Quote joshua 21st October 2005, 19:28
Good to see you picked a non-Toshiba drive, crappy crappy drives. Not a lot of joy explaining to a user the benefits of loosing 5-7 years of email/files and to look at the positive benefits of the situation. To see the situation as a kind of data enema cleansing the bowels of their laptops.

I've had to do this today due to the failure of the same exact model drive you had, and replaced 20 over the last year. luckly toshiba's and hp's only have 2 screws holding drives in, makes replacing far easier.
Quote BurntKona 22nd October 2005, 11:13
Nice work disassembling. Got to do the same myself with an Acer Aspire 1500. I guess it isn't only Apple that doesn't believe in making things easy for the techy user to repair.

And it was a Toshiba drive that went Kaputt. 17 months old. At least it hinted at impending doom and back-ups were up to date.
Quote Silence 22nd October 2005, 14:15
Nice write-up :) I've taken apart many mac laptops, and they can be complete swines at times. The earlier model ibooks in particular :(
Quote Fruitloaf 22nd October 2005, 15:28
Even my Dell laptop which is designed to be far easier to dissasemble is a pain in the ass when it comes to getting at the main system, something like 20 screws to get inside. That said its 2 screws to remove the hard drive tray, same for RAM and mini-pci and only one for the DVD writer - thats the sort of flexibility I like :D
Quote K 23rd October 2005, 13:45
Quote:
Originally Posted by xheadinthecloudsx
Disassembly/repair guides for most powerbook/ibook models can be found on: http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide ... and they show you how to open it up without damaging the front of your optical drive.

Fantastic link. What a God-send. I've been considering upgrading my ageing hard drive.
Quote radek 25th October 2005, 08:24
Wil, you should see this:

http://www.macmod.com/
Follow the translation link...

Some kid just overclocked his PB to 1.83! I have seen work done on minis, I have one on my own and I would never approach this thing with a soldering iron. But Power Book, which is "only" 3 or 4 times as expensive?
Now, that is some modding!
Quote dw_drummeruk 25th October 2005, 22:01
does anyone know weather or not i'd be able to put a 7200rpm drive in my 17" 1GHz like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-Hitachi-7K100-100Gb-7200-rpm-2-5-Laptop-HD_W0QQitemZ6814611586QQcategoryZ42184QQssPageNameZWD2VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

or will i just melt it....?



cheers

Stoof
Quote Zidane 25th October 2005, 22:47
dude! hire someone to carry around that lappy! bulging dvi ports, 'bent' optical drive slots (i really cant beleive you actually bent your optical drive port, you have a smiley-mac now), all those scratches and dents......

i'll volunteer to be your official lappy-carrier, i'll even put up with the inevitable lap-dog jokes. of course, you'll be needing that laptop when e3 comes around, so dont forget to get an extra ticket for me...... *snickers*
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