Another VCF Midwest $10 Mac project (Michigan Vintage Finds at table B620), I’m delighted to report it fires right up and is already helping with projects such as the iMac G3 Indigo + 500 GB Maxtor, and this iBook will remain a dedicated Mac OS X Tiger machine (especially since I haven’t had one in years).

With the original 10 GB drive out and a new 60 GB drive in, it’s a temporary stopgap before getting a 128 GB mSATA SSD in here as a boot drive – the only thing in the way being a faulty adapter. In the meantime, this is the perfect “Swiss Army Knife” for software restoration, Target Disk Mode, and all sorts of Macs up to year 2004.

Upgrading the drive and RAM

It came with a 128 MB module, although I have a whole plastic briefcase full of SDRAM/DDR/DDR2/DDR3 RAM.. enough to find a 256 MB module.. juuuust enough for Mac OS X Tiger. It’s been nearly a decade since disassembling one of these, but still just as fun.

These can take up to 576 MB RAM, when paired with a 512 MB module along with the 64 MB built-in system RAM onboard. Other models in this generation can take up to 640 MB RAM, if the iBook’s logic board has 128 MB RAM soldered-in.

I wanted an SSD, but got an HDD instead

Something about this adapter just wasn’t working right, may have to order another one. It has a 128 GB mSata SK Hynix SSD, but works intermittently. After plugging it all back together and trying Target Disk Mode.. nothing. Fortunately, I had a 60 GB spare IDE drive just in case, which identified itself right away.

It’s nice to see a few things in the second picture, simultaneously: It’s a thermal pad, and there’s no persistent worry about putting new thermal paste on the chip. Secondly, it’s clearly a PowerPC 750CXe – which means it has 512 KB L2 built-in, giving it significant leverage over earlier 750 chips. The old 10 GB drive was completely wiped, and put aside.

Booting Tiger

Looks like there’s a line through the screen.. still doesn’t take away from the fact this iBook successfully boots Mac OS X Tiger, helped clone an iMac G3’s 500 GB Maxtor IDE drive, and overall runs consistently.

The backlight goes out sometimes.. and when it does, it stays off; but if the machine is shut down, remains off for a few and powered back on, the LCD lights up again. Looks like a candidate for an LED conversion down the road. Worst comes to worst, i can shine my iPhone Air’s LED onto the screen, everything becomes visible again – no longer is pressing and holding the power button the do-it-all solution.

It has a combo drive for now… until I swap it with a SuperDrive. In years’ past I would have replaced the ODD with some HDD adapter and a 500 GB+ HDD, but a DVD drive has a utility on it’s own these days. I’m gonna make sure it’s a Dual Layer DVD drive, too.

Helping the Indigo iMac G3

As soon as the iBook could fire up on it’s own, is as soon as it got to work setting up a 400 MHz FireWire iMac G3. The 500 GB Maxtor was the iMac’s upgrade with the help of SpeedTools Hi-Cap drivers.

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What sparked the idea

Back in 2010 I had a few of these.. was somewhat familiar with disassembly/reassembly, had a bit of nostalgia for the iBook, and imagined a music streaming machine playing MP3s off of iTunes. With a whole library of purchased metal CDs, why not have a dedicated jukebox, too?

Since this 3.5mm jack was used for video output as well, if you plug a modern Beats Studio 3 headset into this, it”ll just have a straight buzzing sound without end. If you offset the headphone connector slightly just like this – the audio will sound incredible. It might take a few tries to get it right, though the modern Beats headphones will work like this, as pictured below.

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iTunes not launching..? No problem.

This is quite an old saved disk image.. I don’t at all remember what I did to cause this. It’s okay though, QuickTime can also play music. With the headphones plugged-in and the music playing, this quarter century-old Mac springs back to life!

(Pictured: An iBook G3 500 MHz, Beats Studio 3, and Obsidian Gate – The Nightspectral Voyage CD)

If you’re someone who happens to dabble into the world of Metal music, especially Atmospheric/Symphonic Black Metal, I highly recommend this album – particularly the song “The Obsidian Eternity and Anguish”.

(Above: Highly recommended album; Advent Sorrow – Before the Dimming Light)

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System Specs

• Model: iBook G3 500 MHz (PowerBook4,1)
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• CPU: 500 MHz PowerPC G3, PowerPC 750 CXe
  • 1 CPU, 1 Core, 32-Bit, PowerPC 750, <8.3W TDP (Source: See IBM Datasheet)
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• RAM: 192 MB – Temporary.
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• Graphics: ATI Rage 8 MB, 1024 x 768 LG LCD
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• Boot: 60 GB IDE HDD, originally out of a PowerBook G4.
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• Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger