Successful Repairs

Guide Image

PowerBook G4 Aluminum 15" 1.5-1.67 GHz Hard Drive Replacement

You can install hard drives up to 12.5mm thick.

Notes

  • Installing PowerBook G4 Aluminum 15" 1.5-1.67 GHz Upper Case Oct 31 @ 2:13 PM

    By "rotate" they mean tilt... You tilt the upper case (which contains the keyboard" up so that it rests against the screen. If you happen to have a helper nearby, get them to gently hold the upper case, when it's tilted up, in place so that you can do step 10.

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  • Installing PowerBook G4 Aluminum 15" 1.5-1.67 GHz Upper Case Oct 31 @ 2:03 PM

    I recommend that you have several (ie 10-12) little cups nearby with a pen and some small scraps of paper to write on. As you remove screws, step by step, place that step's screws into one cup and label it "Step #X". That way, when you're putting everything back together, you won't have to guess as to which screws were for which step. I did this, on a recommendation of a friend who did this very same repair, and it made the reassembly even easier.

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Discussions

Replies

  • Re: looking to buy my first ever laptop Oct 16 @ 6:51 AM

    The PowerBook G4 is a great machine (I am still using mine from early 2005). I work in an office doing architecture, some 3D modeling and image editing and it still does quite well, speed wise. I have 2GB of RAM in it. I am in the process of replacing the HD from the original 100GB one to a 320GB one from iFixit. (I think I got pretty lucky that the original drive lasted almost 5 years as HD's usually don't.)

    One thing to keep in mind though... You won't be able to install OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) on it though, since it's not an Intel-based machine. Gradually of course 3rd party software and updates will no longer be written to run on pre-Intel machines, so spending even $500 now on a PowerBook G4 is not going to be a very long term investment.

    Instead, I would recommend seeing if you can increase your budget. You would be FAR better off getting the cheapest (new) MacBook Pro or checking out Apple's current selection of refurbished MBP's. While you will spend more money you will be getting a machine that has MUCH more life ahead of it than a PowerBook G4 (and therefore you won't have to spend the money to replace it that much sooner, and keep the PB G4 out of the trash/recycling.)

    If you can't get a new/refurbished machine, at least look for something that is an Intel-based MacBook Pro, even if it is 2 or 3 years old. This will keep your cost down but still give you a machine with a decent lifespan if you take care of it and keep it fed with RAM.

    I hope this helps.

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