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You are here: MacNN Forums > Enthusiast Zone > Hardware Hacking > More Successful iBook 2001 Mods!

More Successful iBook 2001 Mods! (Page 2)
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El Diablo
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Feb 19, 2002, 12:13 PM
 
It is so encouraging to hear the successes people have had OCing their iBook 500s. I have a friend who's an electrical engineer who will do mine for me. I'm just waiting to buy a 40Gig Toshiba drive so I can do 2 mods at once.

BTW, if someone figures out the voltage, or part number for a replacement LED, be sure and post it in a new thread so it doesn't get lost. I would love to change mine to red.
     
x user
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Feb 21, 2002, 12:52 AM
 
Find a 100mb IBM SCSI Harddrive. Thats where I got mine
     
Lateralus
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Feb 28, 2002, 01:08 AM
 
Carl Norum,

Is the site up yet?
I like chicken
I like liver
Meow Mix, Meow Mix
Please de-liv-er
     
Carl Norum  (op)
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Feb 28, 2002, 02:26 AM
 
Yikes! Sorry guys - too many midterms (and a tube guitar amplifier project) have been keeping us pretty busy.

I can walk people through the process if they want to send me an e-mail.

We have all the pictures - they're just not web-ready. I can fire those off if anybody wants them. Be warned - 38 MB of JPEGs is a lot of photos.
     
sine -''-..-
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Feb 28, 2002, 11:50 PM
 
Originally posted by El Diablo:
<STRONG>It is so encouraging to hear the successes people have had OCing their iBook 500s. I have a friend who's an electrical engineer who will do mine for me. I'm just waiting to buy a 40Gig Toshiba drive so I can do 2 mods at once.

BTW, if someone figures out the voltage, or part number for a replacement LED, be sure and post it in a new thread so it doesn't get lost. I would love to change mine to red.</STRONG>

i find it funny that i used to replace the green and red leds in all my macs with white, and now people want to change the white to red... go figure.
sine -''-..-

now known as pillowcase

     
x user
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Mar 1, 2002, 02:16 AM
 
I always hated the white one in my iBook. It just made it too plain boring.
     
El Diablo
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Mar 1, 2002, 02:27 AM
 
There are some people who remove the top and lay a piece of colored plastic or film in between the case and illuminated apple logo. It looks sweet.

I always though the custom paint jobs and hacked hardware apple porttables of all time were the powerbook 2400c's.

My question is, for the folks who have overclocked their ibook, do you notice a significant increase in heat discharge and/or battery life. I remember the 2400's were really compact and gave off a lot of heat too.

Thanks
     
x user
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Mar 1, 2002, 10:09 PM
 
I've already did that with colored paper .

With the overclock, heat yes, battery no.
     
<philrobberson>
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Mar 8, 2002, 01:33 AM
 
Hi, I really need that Open Firmware tweak you have. I used the one avaiable on xlr8yourmac with terrible results. How do I get the rom from a real 600? Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Philo

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<philrobberson>
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Mar 8, 2002, 12:31 PM
 
By terrible i mean that with the OF patch all audio and video were slowed to a snail's pace. QT video runs at frame rates of about 1 fps, and audio plays at half a second on/half a second off. Aqua moves as if made of molasses. I removed the OF patch to get some kind of usability but am nonetheless experiencing some quirks, particularly with IE. Sometimes IE freezes, sometimes links do nothing when clicked, sometimes a web page refuses to load until IE is pushed to the background, sometimes Apple/tab doesn't change apps unless IE is in the background, sometimes Apple/option/Esc doesn't bring up the force quit dialog, sometimes clicking on a Dock icon has no effect unless IE is in the background. And, most recently, my menu bar clock and battery indicator are stuck--they haven't changed for over half an hour. And quirks are getting worse over time.

This is all without the patch, mind you. The patch made the system practically unusable because audio/video were so slow. I tried the patch 3 times with the same result. I wonder if there is really another mobo out there in addition to the ones where folks have successfully OCd. Mine seems quite stubborn. I'm considering putting it all back to orignal configuration, Any ideas? [email protected]
     
x user
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Mar 9, 2002, 11:15 PM
 
I believe we all used the same OF patch from xlr8yourmac. I've had no problem with anything except 3D games. Perhaps your processor just can't handle the 600mhz...
     
<philrobberson>
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Mar 10, 2002, 01:32 AM
 
Okay, here's an update on my situation. First, someone suggested that perhaps my processor simply can't handle the upgrade. That's certainly possible, although that would be a count against the prevailing wisdom here that all dual usb iBooks were 600, with the early ones crippled to avoid competing with the Powerbook line.

Patching the open firmware BEFORE installing 10.1 made a difference. Sound and video were damaged beyond usability when the patch was applied AFTER the 10.1.3 install. However, then upgrading to 10.1.3 returned the 'book to terrible audio and video. I'm currently trying each of the incremental upgrades to see which is the culprit. I wouldn't mind sticking with 10.1.1 or 10.1.2 until 10.1.4 comes out this spring. Maybe that'll solve the problem.

BTW, the patch forces the OS to recognize the faster clock speed, but the menu bar clock now runs appreciably FASTER than real time. I'll keep trying and keep posting for others experiencing similar troubles.

Finally, anyone also reading the Apple Discussions board on dual usb iBook Usage may have noticed that, as predicted by one poster, the overclock thread has been erased. Makes me want to b*tch slap someone.

Phil
     
<philrobberson>
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Mar 10, 2002, 09:56 AM
 
Okay, a further update. After spending the whole weekend downloading updates 10.1.1, 10.1.2, 10.1.3 both incremental and combined versions, and trying each, this is what I've found. Only 10.1.0 (a full install created from the free update CDs passed out at Apple retail outlets) allowed the OF patch to work. All updates WITH the OF patch previously installed returned my iBook to its molasses slow state, with impossibly slow video and essentially no audio.

I understand that another incremental OS update is expected within the next month or two so I'll have to decide whether to hang tough and wait, or to return the iBook to its original state. The iBook, btw, works fairly well WITHOUT the patch. Things are faster overall and audio/video are fine. The System Profiler still reads 400, and errors and glitches seem to increase over time, particularly related to IE, as noted above. Tough call.

Any comments or advice would be appreciated.

[email protected]
     
Kate
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Mar 13, 2002, 06:49 AM
 
Originally posted by &lt;philrobberson&gt;:
<STRONG> The iBook, btw, works fairly well WITHOUT the patch.
[email protected]</STRONG>
How did you set the OF back to its initial state? The script posted above tells not what the original setup looks like, no?

Did you apply the patch after you booted into X or after booting ito 9?
Could you move your X partition to another external (firewire)drive, sweep the X partiton and check, wether it is still affected when booting from the external drive?

Would be interesting to know.
     
x user
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Mar 15, 2002, 10:36 PM
 
Thats quite wierd. I've been running now for a month or two with no apprecible problems. I looked at the processor on mine and I think it was a 550mhz G3 (which would still make 600mhz possible). If you for some reason got a 500mhz.... But that doesn't explain the 10.1 working. Tough call I agree, If I had had those problems, I'd probably either switch it back to 500mhz or go to 550mhz 100mhz bus.

Also my clock doens't run fast.
     
<philrobberson>
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Mar 16, 2002, 01:45 AM
 
It was news to me, too, that the OF patch resides in the PRAM. Resetting the PRAM (apple/option/p/r held on startup until chime sounds 3 times) eliminates the OF patch.

I only tried applying the patch from within 10.0, 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3. I didn't try booting from an external drive. I'm tired. I'll return the ibook to its original configuration and try to speed thing along with advice from other posters about Disk Warrior and chrontab. Hacks that eliminate some Aqua "features" also seem to help. Particularly dock animations, genie effect, and drop shadows seem to slow things down and there are utilities out there to eliminate all of this unnecessary bloat.

Originally posted by Kate:
<STRONG>

How did you set the OF back to its initial state? The script posted above tells not what the original setup looks like, no?

Did you apply the patch after you booted into X or after booting ito 9?
Could you move your X partition to another external (firewire)drive, sweep the X partiton and check, wether it is still affected when booting from the external drive?

Would be interesting to know.</STRONG>
     
<philrobberson>
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Mar 16, 2002, 01:49 AM
 
Originally posted by &lt;philrobberson&gt;:
<STRONG>
Finally, anyone also reading the Apple Discussions board on dual usb iBook Usage may have noticed that, as predicted by one poster, the overclock thread has been erased. Makes me want to b*tch slap someone.

Phil</STRONG>
Apologies to Apple's Discussion Boards people--the thread is still there.
     
Gametes
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Mar 17, 2002, 11:01 AM
 
Hey, would you guys be willing to replace the HD and do some OC'ing in a clamshell-model iBook? From what I've read, it's way easier than the 2001 model; I'm just too quesy to do it myself. My old blueberry's been itching for an upgrade for some time now.

hehe...to think, I'm drooling at the prospects of getting past my 300MHz@66Bus, 3GB level...
you are not your signature
     
x user
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Mar 18, 2002, 02:21 AM
 
Actually, from what I've heard, the clamshell is harder to take apart. If I had instructions I'd be willing to do it. But since I don't.... Sorry, nope.
     
anim8ing
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Mar 18, 2002, 02:59 AM
 
Hey all, I had my iBook apart this evening and was planning on OC'ing it to 600/100. I've soldered many things in the past, as well as in my current job (aircraft electrician) but i must say that i've never seen anything as tiny as these resistors. I knew they were small, but I would think you would need a great soldering station in order to do this accurately. I can't see anyone just sitting the 'book on the table and going to town. If you have done it this way w/o a magnifying glass, let me know how hard it was. I'd LOVE to squeeze some more power out of this bad boy. Also if anyone wants to offer to do it for me, i'd be more than willing to compensate them.

Thanks,
Anim8r
     
Carl Norum  (op)
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Mar 18, 2002, 11:40 AM
 
Originally posted by anim8ing:
<STRONG>If you have done it this way w/o a magnifying glass, let me know how hard it was. </STRONG>

The four (soon to be five) we did were done without a magnifying glass and with a CDN$15 soldering iron from Radio Shack. So it is possible. It's not like Stan has the steadiest hand around, either.

The basic MO is to take off the component you want to move, then carefully place it with tweezers where you want to resolder. Then just heat the component up, and both ends will fuse with the solder.

Good luck!
     
cinabar
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Mar 18, 2002, 11:33 PM
 
I'm still scared. I just put an IBM 40 gig drive in mine and while it was open I looked wisfully at the necessary resisters with one hand on my very own Radio Shack sodering iron. I HAD a magnifying glass and still I chickened out. I put the thing back together and it's working great and for some reason it seems to be faster with just the HD upgrade. There might be a larger cache on the drive that's speeding things up a bit or maybe it's just subjective. Is it possible to damage the resisters by heating them and removing them with tweezers? It's really great to have my whole 10 gig mp3 collection on this little beast with room to spare and my 10,000 photo collection. (not in iPhoto)
     
Carl Norum  (op)
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Mar 19, 2002, 12:38 AM
 
Originally posted by cinabar:
<STRONG>I put the thing back together and it's working great and for some reason it seems to be faster with just the HD upgrade. There might be a larger cache on the drive that's speeding things up a bit or maybe it's just subjective.</STRONG>
Placebo effect, methinks.
     
x user
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Mar 19, 2002, 01:11 AM
 
When I did mine I did it without a magnifing glass (OR tweezers). DId you know that the resistor will stick to the soldering iron, if your quick enough you can switch it over and press the top with your finger (OUCH, but it works ) and then tack the other end. Not the prettiest, but it doesn't take a soldering expert, just someone thats familer like yourself. I really need a new HD, I got the DVD.

I've now been running for a month and 10 days with no problems other than the normal program freezes in X. I think this is the best thing I've ever done to a computer I owned :
     
<mrgaskell>
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Mar 19, 2002, 03:21 AM
 
I'd LOVE to do this but have NO experience whatsoever in this realm. Even just the 100mhz bus would be nice...and a 30gb HD. 10 gigs is just too little! Just with Office v.X, and a couple of games I've soaked up 60% of my drive! If I want a more sizable mp3 collection, or to do some iMovies I'm screwed. Anyone in the Denver area willing to do this upgrade for some $$? Oh, by the way, someone was complaining of a faster system clock earlier, there's a patch at xclerateyourmac or whatever the site is to fix that problem.

Once again, if anyone is interested in making some $$, please contact me!

John
     
anim8ing
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Mar 23, 2002, 09:45 AM
 
Well, i've done it. I got all the resistors removed, and added. There seems to be a problem though. Clockometer reports the machine as a 233/66 !!! I tried the open firmware, and nothing changed. I'm going to take the iBook back apart today, to check my soldering, but i'm pretty sure it's right on. Any ideas on what could have caused this ? It doesn't "seem" to be running any slower but i guess it could be.

Thanks,
Anim8r
     
anim8ing
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Mar 23, 2002, 12:46 PM
 
Update: I found the problem with the bus only showing up as 66. The resistor on 340 was not making perfect contact. Once I got that fixed, The bus decided to show up as 100mhz. This is good, however, my clock speed is not at 350. I believe the problem lies with R57. I'm having difficulty getting that resistor to adhere to the board. I'm going to have a friend look at it in a little bit, and maybe add a little more solder to it. Will keep you posted.


Anim8r (with burned pinky)
     
SpeedRacer
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Mar 23, 2002, 05:46 PM
 
Kudos to Carl/Tycho and crew for discovering this great mod!

Just going to echo the comments of wafffle earlier. I've stripped a Powerbook G3 down to it's core, torn apart many a Cube and iMac, but have no real circuit board soldering experience (just the occassional car stereo wire soldering).

So Iif there's anybody in this thread with a steady soldering hand, hands-on experience with this process, and interest in making a few bucks, i've got an iBook/500 here just itching for this mod.

Get back to me at speedracer022@emaildotcom.

PS: I've been party to some heavy debates on the effect of bus speed (66 v. 100mHz) on the iBook v. Powerbook to performance in OS X. Can anybody comment on the performance differences they've seen? The original xlr8yourmac article did not appear to mention X speed in its benchmark tests.

Speed

[ 03-23-2002: Message edited by: SpeedRacer ]
     
x user
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Mar 23, 2002, 07:10 PM
 
X speeds are slightly increased. Just enough to make X not quite as annoying. I really like the difference.

Anim8ing... X will report 350mhz without the OF patch, the trick is to go into 9 and look at the System profiler, it should say 350/600mhz. If it does, your good, just keep trying the OF patch, I had trouble getting it to work. If it doesn't, contact me at [email protected], I can give you a utility to use to see speed .
     
jcadam
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Mar 24, 2002, 01:31 AM
 
Originally posted by x user:
<STRONG>X speeds are slightly increased. Just enough to make X not quite as annoying. I really like the difference.

Anim8ing... X will report 350mhz without the OF patch, the trick is to go into 9 and look at the System profiler, it should say 350/600mhz. If it does, your good, just keep trying the OF patch, I had trouble getting it to work. If it doesn't, contact me at [email protected], I can give you a utility to use to see speed .</STRONG>
if x reports 350mhz, does is still run the CPU at 600? If so, who cares right?
Caffeinated Rhino Software -- Education and Training management software
     
SpeedRacer
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Mar 24, 2002, 05:15 PM
 
Ok... after looking over the xlr8yourmac article several times and reading this thread several times, i'm getting serious speed envy and seriously considering doing this thing (or the very least finding a EE friend that can walk through it with me!).

My question is pretty basic...

When moving resistors for the CPU speed, are we basically talking:

moving R341 -&gt; R340
moving R271 -&gt; R57
moving R44 -&gt; R45
removing R43

???

I'm no EE, so the PLL tables are a bit new. TIA for any response.

Speed
     
x user
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Mar 26, 2002, 10:52 PM
 
Just to keep the the machine knowing that it's 600mhz I guess...
     
SpeedRacer
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Mar 28, 2002, 09:41 AM
 
Originally posted by SpeedRacer:
<STRONG>When moving resistors for the CPU speed, are we basically talking:

moving R341 -&gt; R340
moving R271 -&gt; R57
moving R44 -&gt; R45
removing R43

???
</STRONG>
Anybody?

Speed
     
Carl Norum  (op)
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Mar 28, 2002, 08:40 PM
 
That sounds about right - check the chart at XLR8yourMac
     
Carl Norum  (op)
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Apr 1, 2002, 02:51 PM
 
One more success story thanks to Gary Joynes of Mother's Music in Edmonton, Alberta! We OC'd his iBook from 500/66 to 600/100 this past Saturday.

Jesus would be proud.

Total - 4 iBooks from 500/66 -&gt; 600/100, 1 iBook from 500/66 -&gt; 550/100.

BTW, anybody from around here going to WWDC this year? I won a scholarship, and I'm looking forward to it.
     
SpeedRacer
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May 27, 2002, 02:13 AM
 
Oh boy... i think i'm having an "x user" situation here... O/C'ed the Icebook today to 600/100 put the drive back in, and tried testing according to Carl and Stan's instructions and there's nothing. The Icebook has been put on ice! I am a bit concerned b/c we although the move/remove went fine on the lower board resistors (340 and 271) we had some definite issues in applying R45 and removing R44. R43 lost one of it's metal legs and we substitued R271 in it's place but it was a rough process and both R45 and R57 are a bit askew on the board.

The iron we're using is a high-end 60W adjustable temp unit is it possible there could have been damage to the resistors themselves with the higher wattage? Should we substitute a cheaper/lower watt iron for any additioanl work? In measuring the resistance across each of the mounts i'm getting:

4.65 on R340
0.00 on R45
0.00 on R57

And again... NOTHING is occuring on power-on. I'm starting to get serious concerned here folks. We're going to try to resolder/mount tomorrow, but please folks... ANY help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Nerves are seriously twitching at the thought of deadBook here!

PS: And due to difficult web access over this WE, a request to copy any suggestions to [email protected] (removing the obvious spam tag).

TIA for any and all help!

Speed(Nerves)Racer
     
Carl Norum  (op)
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May 27, 2002, 10:46 AM
 
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Originally posted by SpeedRacer:
<strong>R43 lost one of it's metal legs and we substitued R271 in it's place but it was a rough process and both R45 and R57 are a bit askew on the board. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Do you mean that the jumper component lost its metal terminal, or do you mean that you tore a pad off of the circuit board? If it's the first case, you should make sure to check all of your components carefully, and measure their in-circuit resistances. Also make sure to check that there is infinite resistance between the pads where you took components off of the board. If it's the second case, you may be in in big trouble - try to follow the trace to another pad and solder a piece of wire on to jumper it to the remaining pad.

Good luck!

-- Carl
     
x user
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May 27, 2002, 05:55 PM
 
I had the exact problem you are having, What I did to fix it (Disclaimer AT YOUR OWN RISK, etc.) is put a small fine piece of copper wire (Striped phone wire in my case) over one of the jumpers and melt the solder to it, this insured the 0 resistance value was actually there. I also checked all my solder joints for bad connections, which was ultimately the problem.
     
JeffZPgh
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May 28, 2002, 09:56 AM
 
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Originally posted by Carl Norum:
<strong>One more success story thanks to Gary Joynes of Mother's Music in Edmonton, Alberta! We OC'd his iBook from 500/66 to 600/100 this past Saturday.

...

Total - 4 iBooks from 500/66 -&gt; 600/100, 1 iBook from 500/66 -&gt; 550/100.
</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Any particular reason one OC job was only to 550/100? Is there something safer about stepping only to 550? I'm considering this mod, but I'm more interested in speeding up the bus than anything.

Jeff
     
x user
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May 28, 2002, 03:09 PM
 
The 550/100 setting is more conservitive, since your technically clocking a 500mhz chip up to 600, thats a 20% overclock, whereas a 550 is a 10% overclock. Now since the Chip in my iBook was actually a 550mhz UNDERCLOCKED by Apple. So going to 550 wouldn't have been overclocking it at all. However, your most major benefit would be the bus speed increase. I believe the person that has the 550mhz overclock was just a bit more aprehensive about speeding up the processor. I'd also imagine the 550mhz will run cooler, and with less power (battery) then the 600mhz.
     
Carl Norum  (op)
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May 28, 2002, 07:15 PM
 
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Originally posted by JeffZPgh:
<strong>Any particular reason one OC job was only to 550/100? Is there something safer about stepping only to 550? I'm considering this mod, but I'm more interested in speeding up the bus than anything.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">That's my brother's machine that's at 550. It was quite unstable at 600 MHz. The speed difference between the 550 and 600 machines is infinitesimal. Try for 600/100 (because it's easier), and if it doesn't fly switch to 550/100.

Good luck!
     
JeffZPgh
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May 28, 2002, 08:10 PM
 
Any comments on this (quote from the comments page on xlr8yourmac.com):

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">
if you can get away with changing the FSB speed by simply changeing the one resister on the bottom of the mobo I'd sugest you ONLY do that... be happy and don't even think about takeing the top apart!
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">I really think the bus speed increase is the part of the job that's worth it - comments? Is 500/100 a valid configuration? The xlr8yourmac page has claims ranging from 500/100, 550/66, 550/100, 600/100, to 650/100. My bet is that without access to a profiling tool, the 66mhz bus users wouldn't know what CPU speed they had and the same for the 100mhz bus users. The guy who clocked back down to 550/66 is probably just happy he got his machine working again.

Jeff
     
SpeedRacer
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May 28, 2002, 11:22 PM
 
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Oh boy... i think i'm having an "x user" situation here... O/C'ed the Icebook today to 600/100 put the drive back in, and tried testing according to Carl and Stan's instructions and there's nothing. The Icebook has been put on ice! </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Woozah! I have no idea what i did, but after resoldering both jumpers, testing to find the machine still unresponsive, i put the IceBook back together again, hit power and the "Angels" were chiming again! Oh man i see the white lights already!

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After a day of testing i am thoroughly amazed at the performance change in this machine. Particularly important to me was increasing the performance in OS X and in this facet i am definitely not disappointed - much of the "stickiness" that had driven me away from running "X on the Ice" is now gone (Office X still a bit slow), web browsing is noticeably improved (?!), and honestly, it really does not even feel like the same machine anymore. OS X is now totally useable on what, i deemed before, as a totally unsuitable machine for OS X.

Now regarding this modification... Those top jumpers... oh my god! I have to agree with comments made earlier... these components are seriously small and there is no way i could have accomplished this without the help of assistance from someone working with surface-mount soldering on a daily basis. Thinking back through the anguish of considering the possibility that this IceBook was completely dead, i doubt very much there is any way i'd do this again. This is not an "average-Joe" procedure.

On the positive side... you've got some of the best step-by-step instructions i've ever seen posted by Carl & Stan. I would never have accomplished this procedure on my own, but following their lead step by step the actual disassembly and resister/jumper locating was a breeze. Again, it's the soldering that you'd best know what you're doing on.

Regarding Jeff's question, though i never ran the machine @ 500mHz to compare, if you're at all concerned about going in and soldering a $1k mobo you should know that the bottom job (system bus O/C'ing) of removing R271 and moving R341 is considerably easier (and that is stated truly in a relative form) than the process of soldering the components on the top (CPU O/C'ing). There is just a lot more close components on the top than the bottom. If i hadn't been such an absolute performance demon, i'd likely have likely been perfectly happy with the much less risk/nerve-wracking bottom-only system bus O/C'ing.

Again, many thanks to Carl and Stan for taking this procedure and outlining it in a way that even mere mortals can accomplish. The performance increases in OS X alone are completely changing my perspective on minimum configurations for running X and it would amaze me if someone with tougher nerves and more business savvy does not pick this procedure up as a standard hardware performance upgrade. Seeing the performance increase on this machine alone demonstrates the real value of this procedure for all 1st rev, iBook2's out there.

Thanks again for all your help Carl/Xuser!

PS (Carl): One suggestion for the procedure... on step 7 of your instructions (as well as the outline listed by Tycho @ xlr8yourmac.com) there is mention of bending heating copper tube in order to access the heatsink. Though i never had the courage to start bending this tube, a considerably more straightforward method i found was to merely unscrew the 2 screws for the top of the heatsink and 2 screws for the LCD panel. This allows you to completely remove the cooling aparatus as well as get your LCD panel out of the way when you're actually soldering. Ultimately, just a matter of preference, but for those that end up appling and removing the heatsink multiple times, it might more optimal to remove screws than bend copper.

Speed(ier)Racer
     
Carl Norum  (op)
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May 28, 2002, 11:47 PM
 
Okay - Important.

You CANNOT just move R341 to R340 (the bus speed change) and expect your machine still to work. I don't know where this idea comes from, but the machine WILL NOT work if you try to do this. It's why 600/100 is the best way to go. It has the least soldering involved, and because you end up with a leftover piece, you have some leeway to destroy one component.

My younger brother's machine is at 550/100, not 550/66. The change in bus speed is HUGELY noticeable - set a 66 bus machine next to a 100 bus machine and test them - you'll see. What I was saying is that a 600/100 machine and a 550/100 machine are indistinguishable. They're both above the magic multiplier of 5x, so that's only to be expected. 550/66 isn't even a valid combination - the processor speed must be an integer multiple of half of the bus speed (33 for a 66 bus and 50 for a 100 bus).

Again *DO NOT TRY TO CHANGE THE BUS RESISTOR ONLY AND EXPECT YOUR COMPUTER STILL TO WORK*.
     
Carl Norum  (op)
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May 28, 2002, 11:51 PM
 
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Originally posted by SpeedRacer:<strong>
Woozah! I have no idea what i did, but after resoldering both jumpers, testing to find the machine still unresponsive, i put the IceBook back together again, hit power and the "Angels" were chiming again! Oh man i see the white lights already!</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Well, good work on that! It's better to have a working machine. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif"><strong>If i hadn't been such an absolute performance demon, i'd likely have likely been perfectly happy with the much less risk/nerve-wracking bottom-only system bus O/C'ing.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Except that your machine wouldn't have worked (see above post).

Thanks for all your comments - I've been thinking about putting some information about that screen removal up on the page - you're the second person who's mentioned it. I need a photograph or two to make it more understandable, please!
     
JeffZPgh
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May 29, 2002, 12:39 AM
 
Thanks for clearning up the point about bus-only overclocking being a no-no. After reading this, I took a gander at the PLL chart on xlr8yourmac.com and saw the light regarding the configurations (and why 600/100 would be easiest to accomplish).

Time to do some thinking. I was brave enough to tackle the hard drive upgrade, so I won't be surprised by the patience involved in pulling the case apart. My primary concern will be to get damned comfortable with a soldering iron so I don't break stuff. Plus there's still the old "is it really worth it" question.
     
x user
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May 29, 2002, 09:45 AM
 
Give it a few weeks, after about a month, you'll feel confortible with a soldering iron again... *Waits for cube to overclock...*

Maybe your problem was that your speakers were disconnected when you tried to power up? I don't know, I know with the problem I had, the machine had power because the fan would spin momentarily, and you could hear the processor cycling (believe it or not...) Once I fixed it I was rewarded by a boot-up .

I tend to think if too many things are disconnected when you try to power up (Keyboard, trackpad, speakers, display.... welllllll) it won't run.
     
milhouse
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Jul 21, 2002, 10:26 PM
 
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Originally posted by &lt;philrobberson&gt;:
<strong>Okay, a further update. After spending the whole weekend downloading updates 10.1.1, 10.1.2, 10.1.3 both incremental and combined versions, and trying each, this is what I've found. Only 10.1.0 (a full install created from the free update CDs passed out at Apple retail outlets) allowed the OF patch to work. All updates WITH the OF patch previously installed returned my iBook to its molasses slow state, with impossibly slow video and essentially no audio.

I understand that another incremental OS update is expected within the next month or two so I'll have to decide whether to hang tough and wait, or to return the iBook to its original state. The iBook, btw, works fairly well WITHOUT the patch. Things are faster overall and audio/video are fine. The System Profiler still reads 400, and errors and glitches seem to increase over time, particularly related to IE, as noted above. Tough call.

Any comments or advice would be appreciated.

[email protected]</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">I experienced the same problem. It was due to mis-reading the last line of the OF tweak. I read the "ones" as "els". When I re-applied the OF tweak with the ones in the code, I had a nicely performing G3 600/100 icebook!

HTH
"-Dodge This"
     
<philrobberson>
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Jul 22, 2002, 03:22 AM
 
You might be interested to know that after all my trouble trying to get my 500 iBook O/C'd, I returned it to it's original configuration. All told, I probably had the machine apart 4 or 5 times. After the last time the Airport antenna refused to register a signal. I knew that I'd trashed the warranty, but I sent it to an Apple repair center anyway, and they gouged me for about $150. Turns out that I'd somehow cut the antenna cable. Don't know how or where, but that's what they said. They also wanted to replace the motherboard and the cpu, but as they were working fine when I sent it it I declined (they wanted a thousand bucks for it). Apple Repair Center Japan had a hard time with my machine, it seems. They returned it minus the English keyboard, replaced with a Japanese one. I never authorized the replacement at all. The connector clip was broken (50 cents, maybe?) so that was all I'd ok's in addition to the airport antenna. A phone call got an English kb sent out to me, but it didn't fit (probably made for the iBook 600 and up). Sent the whole iBook back again, this time came back with an English kb, but the track pad's acting up. To be fair, they noted on their original repair estimate that something was up with the track pad connector. Still, it was fine when I sent it in.

The moral of the story: don't fiddle with the insides unless you have the bucks to replace or repair your computer. And, while Apple Japan was very courteous and tried to be cooperative and helpful, the "repairs" may be more trouble than they're worth and further exacerbate whatever may have been weakened or damaged by fiddling around inside. I wish I'd just stuck to the HD replacement.
     
x user
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Jul 22, 2002, 11:46 AM
 
Yep, this isn't any consolation to you, but the sucess rate of this mod is extremely high.
     
 
 
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