I was luckily able to obtain my first mac computer EVER. I unfortunatly could not get the top of the line b/c it is way out of my budget. It is an Ibook 500 MHz PowerPC G3 computer, running MAC OS 10.4.11. So far, ive been able to clean out the old stuff and finally settled into using it. I have maxed out the RAM to 640 MB SDRAM, and bought a new battery.
I am very unhappy about the cd-rom drive, as it only plays cds. I was hoping that someone who is really good with MAC upgrades for the slightly aged(haha...what 8 years?) Mac notebooks. I have an idea, but i fallen in love with this computer that i dont really wanna screw up anything inside.
If anyone can help me, or stir me in the right direction of help, I would greatly appreciate it.
Patch
iFixIt sells combo drives for your machine:
http://www.ifixit.com/Products/G3-12-Inch-iBook/Optical-Drives/15/50
...and they offer installation guides too.
Thanks for your help Dr. Webster. Another question I have is that I have the original bezel that came with the Ibook. Do I have to update that as well with the combo drive installation, or is it universal and can fit the original?
I've never done an optical drive upgrade in one of the G3 iBooks, but I'd assume you would swap the bezel from the old drive to the new one.
First off, Congrats on your iBook, i used a similar one through high school, until i started doing heavy video work
Also from what i hear, the 500mhz series is less likely to develop the GPU issues that my 600mhz did.
I would recommend buying a Firewire DVD Drive for your iBook. If you really want to go the internal route, make sure you organize the screws and take your time, i upgraded my CD drive to a CD-RW/DVD drive and it involved dissembling most of the computer.
Good Luck,
mak
Thanks for your help. Im still concerned about buying a combo drive since some websites say that you need to buy an extra bezel to support the replacement one. I have a SONY CD-RW CRX700E drive that came with the computer, but the websites that I have visited don't explain too much on that end. Since the drives themselves are over 100.00, i want to be sure im buying something that will use the same bezel.
Going into the computer will be a headache anyway, so i looking to make it less painful.
These are the specs on the cd-rom drive:
Firmware Revision: 1.3s
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 8192 KB
Reads DVD: No
CD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: No
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO
Media: No
Thank you webster and Mak for your help! I really appreciate your help!!
Patch
Or you could search ebay for a Combo Drive pulled from an iBook
http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-12-14-iBook-G3-CD-RW-DVD-ROM-Combo-Drive-CRX820E_W0QQitemZ170200806035QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item170200806035
..and i can use the same bezel and connector wires?
It will come with a bezel, and the IDE interface is the same
THANKS SO MUCH.
really stupid question....is ebay safe?
Personally i dont worry about it too much, i try to only buy things that have return policies :). But between Ebay and Paypal, i haven't had any issue
this replacement will also take care of the issue that the drive comes out when you push the side of it? because thats what happens with mine.
it might. depending on how the replacement drive is set-up. otherwise I know you can rig a way for it to stay in. I'm not going to give out any ghetto-rigging instructions though. My collection is rag-tag enough as it is without helping someones main mac be ghetto too