Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

sujith · Jul 31, 2006, 02:22 PM

Hi all:
I am relatively new mac OS/PB user.So i bought a used PB off ebay...and boyy am so happy i made that dec.
Am having some trouble connecting to wireless networks..though !

My GF has an Ibook(rel. newer) and hers seems to detect and easily connect to the networks that arent even visible on mine.
Do i need to upgrade or replace my airport card?I bel.(i read somewhere) that 1 Ghz 12" PB do not support airport extreme...please help !

imitchellg5 · Jul 31, 2006, 02:37 PM

The 1GHz PB does use airport extreme. iBooks have better range however then PowerBooks, due to the placement of the card, and the iBook's case.

sujith · Jul 31, 2006, 02:59 PM

Thanks for the fast reply...so theres essentionally nothing that can be done?
Also..i have a 40 GB hard drive. Is it advisable to do an upgrade yourself? Any sites/ info abt the same?
Thanks in advance.

ibook_steve · Jul 31, 2006, 03:15 PM

Originally Posted by imitchellg5

The 1GHz PB does use airport extreme. iBooks have better range however then PowerBooks, due to the placement of the card, and the iBook's case.

Not sure where this is coming from. This person is probably thinking of the Titanium PBs that had the antennas in the bottom case. All aluminum PBs have the antennas in the top case and typically have good performance. In any case, you don't mention what problems you are having with Airport. Do you mean you can't even see a network or the connection drops or the signal is weak or what? More details are needed to help. Check to make sure the antenna cable is firmly seated in the card by opening the little door in the battery bay.

Steve

imitchellg5 · Jul 31, 2006, 03:46 PM

According to MacWorld and Mac Addict's test, the iBook and MacBooks have always had longer range and found more networks then the PowerBooks and MacBook Pros. www.macsales.com should have the HD you want. I would make a thread in the Mods forum for installation.

sujith · Jul 31, 2006, 04:52 PM

Hey guys...thank you so much for the replies.
First off , I am new to mac.So please forgive my silly questions.

My PB does not detect any of the wireless networks seen as available on my GFs ibook.
I tried refreshing the networks available..doesnt help either.
Can you please guide me thru the process on checking if the card ahs been installed properly.
Also will installing a airport new card change any thing?
Where can you find out if the wi ficard installed is airport or airport extreme ?
Should i invest in a signal booster ?Will it improve the performance?

Also have noticed that my PB gets "very hot (compared to ibook) Any idea?

Thanks in advance.

ibook_steve · Jul 31, 2006, 05:05 PM

All aluminum Powerbooks are Airport Extreme. You shouldn't need a new card. As I stated, check to make sure the antenna cable is firmly seated by opening the little door in the battery bay where the Airport card is installed.

As for heat, that's usually subjective, but aluminum is going to get hotter than plastic in general. Make sure you have the latest updates installed on the machine. I don't recall if there was a firmware update for that machine, but Software Update should let you know if there is one.

Steve

imitchellg5 · Jul 31, 2006, 05:19 PM

Your PowerBook will get substantially hotter then your iBook, iBooks are very cool due to the plastic.

marissa · Jul 31, 2006, 07:04 PM

One major question -- are you sure you even have an Airport Extreme card installed? Either you should see a pie-looking thing in the upper right corner of your screen or click on the Apple on the opposite side of the screen --> click on "About This Mac" then "More Info". Under "Network", you'll see "Airport Card" and if you click on that, you should see something displayed on the right side.

If you do need to reseat your Airport card, it's located near the battery. Remove your battery and on the right side (towards the middle of the computer), there's a little door that you can open up and you'll see the Airport Extreme card in there. Make sure the cable is plugged into it all the way.

imitchellg5 · Jul 31, 2006, 07:26 PM

Normally OS X does not show the Airport icon in the menu bar if it is not installed/

iREZ · Jul 31, 2006, 10:33 PM

haaahahah...welcome sujith. im systemfrog, the guy who sold you his powerbook. glad to see you made it here, hope this isnt the last time we cross paths.

the airport worked fine before i sent it and should still be working fine now. your best bet is to go right besides the working wifi router to see if it connects to it at all (which it will)..then slowly start walking away with the powerbook in your hand to see how far your threshold is seeing how the ibooks have far superior range than powerbooks due to their plastic cases vs aluminum enclosures of the powerbook.

you have an airport extreme card as your powerbook could only use the airport extreme card.

oh...and just for the record im sending the letter to applecare tomorrow for the transfer. hope this helped.

chipchen · Aug 1, 2006, 01:33 AM

It's not incommon for the antennae to come slightly loose (especially if the PB has been shipped somewhere). Take out the battery and open the door to the AirPort Extreme card and push the antennae as far into the card as possible.

On the hard drive... I would not recommend doing it yourself on that model. It involves quite a bit of screws. But, a bigger hard drive is definately recommended... for instance, an 80GB 5400RPM drive would make that puppy scream.

Anyhow... welcome to the community!

ghporter · Aug 1, 2006, 07:01 AM

The location of the card inside the computer has NOTHING to do with performance. It's all about the antennas. The titanium cased PBs had problems for a number of reasons, including antenna location and the particular RF characteristics of titanium. Aluminum-cased PowerBooks got MUCH better performance because the antennas were moved to the display cover AND because of aluminum's different RF characteristics. However, a plastic case trumps it all because there's NO intererence with the antennas' performance, so iBooks (and MacBooks/MBPs) WILL have better AirPort performance.

Finally chipchen is 100% right about the antenna cable thing, particularly with computers equipped with the original AirPort card. It is a good idea to check that the antenna connector is all the way in the jack. It's simple on an iBook, but I don't have a PB so I can't walk you through it-but Apple's got a knowledge base article on installing an AirPort card in EVERY laptop that supports one, so you could search there to get details on how to get at your card and double check the cable.

sujith · Aug 1, 2006, 08:50 AM

I will check if the card is plugged in properly.
Thanks a lot guys and thanks irez for the update.