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Booting up a PowerBook G4 12 inch without the top case
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Brushton, New York (middle of nowhere)
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Hey everybody!
I recently purchased a PowerBook G4 that needs a hefty bit of work. Basically it's nothing but LCD display, logic board, lower frame, SuperDrive and modem along with the internal cables.
It has no top case, and I'm wondering if there's a way to start it up without a top case. The pictures on the eBay bid showed that it had booted up without the top case. Anyone know how to do this, so I can see what needs work?
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The Mac Collection:
Power Mac G4 Sawtooth at 450MHz, Power Mac G4 Gigabit Ethernet at 400MHz, three Power Mac FW800's at 1.0GHz, MacBook Pro at 2.0GHz, my late father's G3 iMac at 350MHz, an iMac at 500MHz, a PowerBook G4 (12-inch VGA) and a PowerBook 170
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Wasilla, Alaska
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There is a connector you can short with a screwdriver to boot it up, but I'm having a hard time finding a decent picture of the location.. It's where the top case plugs into the logic board.
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Moderator  Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Jose, CA
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You have to short across the power button connector, which may be a small, two-pin, white Molex connector or a wider one with other pins depending on the model.
Steve
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Celebrating 10 years and 4000 posts on MacNN!
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Brushton, New York (middle of nowhere)
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Thanks guys! The thing boots up, albeit showing only an 867 MHz processor instead of the full 1 GHz and no built in RAM, and a lot of bad RAM tests. At least the screen is in decent condition.
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The Mac Collection:
Power Mac G4 Sawtooth at 450MHz, Power Mac G4 Gigabit Ethernet at 400MHz, three Power Mac FW800's at 1.0GHz, MacBook Pro at 2.0GHz, my late father's G3 iMac at 350MHz, an iMac at 500MHz, a PowerBook G4 (12-inch VGA) and a PowerBook 170
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Moderator Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Jose, CA
Status:
Offline
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Not sure what you mean about the processor. Either its an 867 or a 1GHz. If you were sold a 1GHz and it says it's 867MHz, you got screwed. And if it doesn't see the onboard RAM, that really sucks.
Steve
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Celebrating 10 years and 4000 posts on MacNN!
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Brushton, New York (middle of nowhere)
Status:
Offline
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Originally Posted by ibook_steve 
Not sure what you mean about the processor. Either its an 867 or a 1GHz. If you were sold a 1GHz and it says it's 867MHz, you got screwed. And if it doesn't see the onboard RAM, that really sucks.
Steve
It's a 1 GHz 12 inch (DVI), but I think the logic boards somewhat fried. Ironically I booted it up, used Target Disk Mode hooked up to my MDD machine and was able to load Leopard on it. It booted up and shut down fine, so as long as I have no kernel panics, I'll be happy. But I'm not counting on it.
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The Mac Collection:
Power Mac G4 Sawtooth at 450MHz, Power Mac G4 Gigabit Ethernet at 400MHz, three Power Mac FW800's at 1.0GHz, MacBook Pro at 2.0GHz, my late father's G3 iMac at 350MHz, an iMac at 500MHz, a PowerBook G4 (12-inch VGA) and a PowerBook 170
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