[iREZ]

I got one of the first iBook Blueberry notebook sitting around my place, and I wanted to know what I could get this system running up to with the usual upgrades and some more difficult ones, ie. HD.
Here are the specs

266MHz
3GB HD
160 MB RAM
CD-ROM
Airport installed
1 USB
1 headphone
ethernet jack
modem jack

I want to just get this running again at a decent speed. I guess the best way to put it is if someone gave you this machine and told you to upgrade as much of it as you can, what would you do with it?

[Red Wolf]

Are you sure your processor isn't a G3/366 or G3/466? The slowest iBook was a G3/300.

A new hard drive (any 2.5" drive will work) and maxed out memory (576MB with a 512MB stick installed) are the basics. The hard drive should be at least 10GB but larger than that all depends on what you want to do with the iBook. Replacing the CD-ROM drive with something else would be expensive and if you don't have FireWire you can't do a cheaper external option. There is also the issue of labor. iBooks aren't the easiest notebooks to take apart and a professional Mac tech is going to cost you $80-$120 just for labor.

If you are wanting to run Mac OS X then I would suggest taking your money and investing in a used iBook G3/500 or better with a combo drive. If you just need Mac OS 9 then definetly get more memory (around $160 for 512MB) and you'll have to shop around for laptop drives under 20GB. But keep in mind this is an old system that is on the bottom of Panther's minimum requirments lists. That means it will be totally outdated by Mac OS X 10.6 if not sooner. I would only put money into it if you're willing to do all the work yourself but even then I would say you need to have a specifc use for the iBook in mind before blowing hundres of dollars on it.

I would also be very concerned about the iBook's current battery life. New batteries are hard to come by and $200 is not a ridiculous price for one. Sorry to be so negative but a Mac below G3/400 and no FireWire as well isn't worth messing with IMHO.

[iREZ]

My bad put in old iMac proc. speed, yeah my iBook is running at 300MHz. I don't need it as I got my 12" PB for my school work and so forth. Just thought It'd be fun to fix up my old baby. I guess I'll keep the computer as is and just run it in OS9, which leads me to a second question. How can I uninstall OSX and just keep OS9 installed on my iBook. I want to rid my HD of unnecessary space, and since I'd be using this book with OS9 I see no need to have OSX installed still.

[rytc]

Originally posted by iREZ:
My bad put in old iMac proc. speed, yeah my iBook is running at 300MHz. I don't need it as I got my 12" PB for my school work and so forth. Just thought It'd be fun to fix up my old baby. I guess I'll keep the computer as is and just run it in OS9, which leads me to a second question. How can I uninstall OSX and just keep OS9 installed on my iBook. I want to rid my HD of unnecessary space, and since I'd be using this book with OS9 I see no need to have OSX installed still.

Just chuck out the folders named System, Application, Users, and the files which are called mach.sym (or somethimg) that are in thr root of the HD.

OR might be a better option copy off files you want, erase the HD and just reinstall OS 9 from scratch.

[Robertk2012]

Would you like to sell it?

rmk3@students.uwf.edu

[Red Wolf]

Originally posted by rytc:
OR might be a better option copy off files you want, erase the HD and just reinstall OS 9 from scratch.

I'd backup, wipe, and reinstall. The majority of Mac OS X files go with the folders you see but a few hundred MB can linger in the form of hidden files. That isn't really space you want to give up given the smaller drive. That and reinstalling is always cleaner and leads to less problems.

[RadarBob2]

In the been there done that department:
I upgraded my bb iBook 300MHhz with a 512MB memory stick and a 40MB drive. Now running OS 10.2.8 and OS 9.2,

Bottom line: It was worth it.

Yeah OS X is kinda slow, but so what? I can attest that it is usable.

I understand a CD burner requires a firmware change. I'm not comfortable w/ that so I've never explored the possibilities.

A broadband connection and Safari make internet surfing more than acceptable. The OS X mail client is a dog, it really does try my patience; but it's also a dog on our 700MHz iBook, go figure.

Scrolling through a directory listing is slow, so I avoid it. But between the dock, "recent items", aliases, file search, etc. I don't need to scroll through long file lists.

I can still use quicken 98 in classic mode - yay! It's OS 9 fast as far as I can tell.

If any widely used program is graphic and computationally intensive it might be TurboTax. I think performance was quite acceptable.

I use the OS9 version (in classic mode) of MS Office. Works just fine.

[RadarBob2]

iBooks aren't the easiest notebooks to take apart and a professional Mac tech is going to cost you $80-$120 just for labor.

Working on the clamshell iBook was not hard. Keeping track of all the screws was hard. I know there are old posts here on MacNN that give links to illustrated instructions.

[rytc]

Originally posted by RadarBob2:
In the been there done that department:
I upgraded my bb iBook 300MHhz with a 512MB memory stick and a 40MB drive. Now running OS 10.2.8 and OS 9.2,

Bottom line: It was worth it.

I upgraded by clamshell 466 to 320 Mb of RAm and a 40 Gb HD and it's been great. Recently I was changing RAM and managed to fry the RAM slot, now I'm stuck in OS 9 again with only the 64Mb of built-in RAM. I used to get annoyed at OS X's sluggishness, but that was nothing compared to how slow things are now in OS 9 with only 64 MBs. Add to that the fact that no decent up to date browsers exist on OS 9 and I'm really missing OS X. I'd say go for it,