[Eriamjh]

I am a former Pismo owner. I miss it. A little heavy, but definitely sexier than the TiG4 that followed. Thinner isn't always better.

[scottiB]

Originally posted by SEkker:
Pismos were the first Mac built for adding airport capability. And the reception is better than almost all of the newer PBs, IMHO.

It was the first PowerBook to have the capability, but, actually, the last Mac: the iBook (Summer 1999), PowerMac G4 (late-Summer 1999), and iMac (Fall 1999), all had it before Pismo (February 2000).

I had a Pismo for 2 years (a business lease by my former employer)--and loved it. My brother recently bought a 14" iBook, and it gave me a bit Pismo-ish feelings (14.1" screen @1024x768; similar dimensions and weight).

[preslove]

Anyone willing to sell their pismo to a pc user in need of a cheap laptop willing to make the daunting switch?

email me at [email protected]

[rambo47]

My first Mac was a Wall Street PowerBook and I missed it so much I just bought myself a Pismo on eBay. I was shocked to see it in brand new condition! Not a scratch or blemish to be found anywhere. I mean, this thing looks like it just came out of the original box!! I slapped in 1 GB RAM (pc133 works just fine) and a 30 GB 5400 RAM hard drive. Now I'm running Panther and YellowDogLinux in dual-boot configuration. The built-in AirPort is a huge convenience and is primarily why I went Pismo instead of another Wall Street.

[legionare]

My second-hand Pismo 500 with 512MB RAM, 80GB hdd, dual batteries, dual yo-yo adapters, and AirPort card is going to be four-years old in June when the AppleCare runs out. Never have had any problem except the LG DVD drive. Even that LG was just a minor issue in that it wouldn't play one particular DVD movie, rather than crapping out completely like so many of its brethrens. The decision to sell my Lombard 333 and go for a 500Mhz Pismo was one of the best I ever made. I will keep the Pismo around as a dedicated recording studio for the ADS Instant DVD USB for Mac.

[urrl78]

I came in to the Mac scene by buying my first 500 Mhz Ti. I was not sure what a Pizmo was until I went to help a school teacher with hers. As old as it was it didnt have a scratch and the screen was surprisingly bright. I loved the ability to swap the bay with a floppy drive for windows compatability. What has me gritting my teeth is not with the Pizmo; it is the fact that Apple has prohibited the ability of my 17" to use OS9...I MEAN THE REAL OS9. I bought a $1500 synthesizer keyboard, a Nord Electro 2, but I cannot download new sounds with Panther's Classic; it requires OS9. This is one thing Apple did not have to do; that is wiping out OS9 capability this early. Now I have to slink over to my friends house after touting all of the advantages of Macdom and ask to borrow her PC laptop. Anyone know where I can get a Pizmo?

...Thanks Jobs.

[stevesnj]

Try the Macnn Marketplace...and it's Pismo not Pizmo...thats just blasphemy!!...lol

[CadetStimpy]

The Pismo was, IMHO, the best laptop that Apple ever cranked out. Good form factor, great features, and just darn sexy. I've recently added a Bookendz docking station and a drive bay CDRW to mine and it just gets better with time. Hope it runs forever, or I'll have to be looking for another one.

[iMan]

I think that the Pismo's were the absolute best looking laptop has ever made. I have no idea what the next revision of the PowerBook will be. But I say it should be black!

[iomatic]

you're all oddly sentimental.

say, would you know of any pics, close-ups and the like for those 15" aluminum owners curious about the past (that was a powerbook line I completely passed-- wallst., lombard, pismo)?

[d_oob]

My Pismo going on 4 years. It's been on tour to Europe and back 2x, to the Philippines, to hawaii... everywhere i've gone it has come along. 2 spills, once was a whole big gulp all over the keyboard, the second was a tiny spill of coffee (which actually caused more damage than the big gulp) Did many vj shows, theater shows, editing with FCP 1-3, FCPXP, Premiere, dropped by my girlfriend, stress cracks, broken keyboard but all of a sudden coming back to life...

THIS MACHINE IS BEYOND SOLID.

Originally a 400MHz machine NOW a Powerlogix 900MHz running Panther. A 40Gig toshiba drive, airport, new bottom casing, 512MB ram...

solid.

[SEkker]

I think the last note is a prime example why I miss my Pismo. Despite being 4 years old, and now a second owner machine, it still has an untarneshed screen, functional keyboard, etc. One hinge is a little loose. Otherwise, I had to replace the battery and a dead power brick last year.

Compare to its successors:

TiPB -- Used heavily for 1 year, paint peeled, palm rest came unglued, right hingr broke, and the screen is showing signs of age. Airport functionality really sucks.

PB17 -- dead modem, dead logic board, and white spots on screen. Indeed, the hinges 'bent' by simply lifting the machine up by the screen briefly.

These machines were similarly used. Indeed, I have successively purchased more complex computer bags to carry these more fragile machines.

I doubt we'll ever see machines built again with a 4+ year life expectancy. A tribute to Pismo, indeed.

[DeRobeHer]

I have a Pismo, I bought it the day they were announced. I think I paid $3600 for it, or close to that. I used it daily for two and a half years, and gave it to my girlfriend as she started Graduate school, because work bought me a TiBook. The ram has been upgraded to 512mb (it was 1Gb, but she didn't need that much) and the harddrive is now a 48gb drive. My girlfriend has since become my wife, and she's writing her doctoral thesis on the Pismo now.

This Friday our new PowerBooks will arrive. A Powerbook G4 12" for me, and an iBook G4 12" for her. We're both looking forward to the new machines, but the Pismo will remain in the family. My mother-in-law is buying it off of us.

[tigas]

I'm writing this on what once was a Pismo/400/64/12GB, but I don't know if I can still call it a Pismo: this screwdriver jockey's friend has now

-512M ram (two minutes work)
-Toshiba 40GB 5400rpm disk (5 minutes work + two hours for CarbonCopyCloner to do it's stuff)
-Zip Drive (10 seconds)
-LS-120/floppy Drive (ditto)
-DVD-R recorder (a Toshiba SD-R 6112) (45minutes)
-a new LCD panel (two hours with my heart pounding in my head)

It's now lighter, (a lot) more silent, faster and has a better screen than when I bought it. I think I'll get a G4/550 upgrade from Daystar because after all this investment, I'd like to keep it for some time, and the G3/400 is letting it a bit down. It has been my first Mac for the last 2 years and I love it and I'll never sell it. And I'm not sure I'll give it away, either...

[edit] - I forgot to mention that when I bought it second hand, it had a whiney 12GB IBM drive that made my teeth rattle and a LCD with a dead, black horizontal line and keymarks. But I looked at it and fell in love and when the previous owner got that line on the LCD and wanted to sell it for a song to buy another one, I jumped on it...

[GlobalNomad]

My mom has a Pismo and it just keeps on ticking.
She bought it mainly to do email and acctounting.
It has only been moved from her desk twice. She hates desktops cause of the noise and because they take up so much space.

She actually runs Virtial PC (6.0) so she can us the PC version of Quicken cause in australia we have GST (I think you can use the candian version but meh its not so bad). Virtual PC does a great job of running Quicken, its like what VPC was made for .

She runs 10.3.2 and it runs fine (for what she uses).
Specs:
- 500Mhz g3
- 384Mb
- 12 (i think) gb HD
- Airport
- however with the grafics card 8mb i don't think it can use quartz extreme (please correct me here) [but really my mom doesn't need eye candy]

I just released the other day when i got the aiport card installed (stuiped australian store did it) that the modem no longer works . I am thinking of sending it off to apple to get it fixed.

But my mom now wants to upgrade her Pismo, she doesn't want a new iBook.
what do you recon:
- 1x 512 stick + excisting 256
- 40Gb HD
- is it possible to get a superdrive?
- 1Ghz g3 (when it comes out... will this increase the overal heat?)
I don't want the 1ghz g3 to increase the heat much cause she doesn't really like fans and the Pismo fan hardly ever comes on. But 500Mhz G3 is fine... I mean she isn't play games or anything, the most work the computer ever does is run VPC or the occasional DVD.

Story time:
I rember one day the cable modem guy came to setup our modem (Testra). (I didn't let him touch any of my computers... but he did install the cable in the wall) Well he just couldn't keep his eyes off the powerbook (at the time it was 2 weeks old).

Pismo is in my opnion the greatest Apple computer ever.

[tigas]

Well, you can do all of those things, you know? I did...

Just a new HD (preferably a 7200 Hitachi if you can find one) and extra 256 or 512 RAM would give it a big boost. Maybe your mom won't need the CPU upgrade.

The PowerLogix CPU upgrades mess with the heat exchanger (they didn't have to, it's a shame) and the CPU will heat a bit more and sometimes the fan will start.

About the Superdrive: you *can*, but it's expensive (MCE) or fiddly and ugly. I chose fiddly and ugly: my DVD drive was dying on me, so I bought a Toshiba OEM drive for laptops - it's better if you can find a Pioneer or Matsushita drive similar to the ones Apple use, I couldn't - took the expansion bay off, unscrewed the old drive, broke some plastic latches, screwed the new drive, placed the caddy back in the expansion bay and it worked. Trouble is, I now have a flat gray strip on one side of the machine instead of the curve that used to be there. And I can't burn from Disk Utility or from iTunes: just Toast for me. If it were an "Apple" drive, I could.

Really, a Pismo is almost like a desktop in "void your warranty" capabilities.

MCE superdrive: http://www.mcetech.com/dvdmultipbg3.html

[GlobalNomad]

Ok here is the plan... Talked it over with mom.
- Get a 512Mb Ram slot (throw away one of the 128)
- Is the Hitachi drive one of thoes near silent ones... with like 8mb of cache (maybe 60 gb)
- I don't think i can get the MCE drive or the CPU upgrade here in australia. But oh well

Originally posted by tigas:
Well, you can do all of those things, you know? I
did...

Just a new HD (preferably a 7200 Hitachi if you can find one) and extra 256 or 512 RAM would give it a big boost. Maybe your mom won't need the CPU upgrade.

The PowerLogix CPU upgrades mess with the heat exchanger (they didn't have to, it's a shame) and the CPU will heat a bit more and sometimes the fan will start.

About the Superdrive: you *can*, but it's expensive (MCE) or fiddly and ugly. I chose fiddly and ugly: my DVD drive was dying on me, so I bought a Toshiba OEM drive for laptops - it's better if you can find a Pioneer or Matsushita drive similar to the ones Apple use, I couldn't - took the expansion bay off, unscrewed the old drive, broke some plastic latches, screwed the new drive, placed the caddy back in the expansion bay and it worked. Trouble is, I now have a flat gray strip on one side of the machine instead of the curve that used to be there. And I can't burn from Disk Utility or from iTunes: just Toast for me. If it were an "Apple" drive, I could.

Really, a Pismo is almost like a desktop in "void your warranty" capabilities.

MCE superdrive: http://www.mcetech.com/dvdmultipbg3.html

[tigas]

I think MCE will ship to Australia. The trouble is: can you pay their price?

And yes, the Hitachis I'm talking about are near-silent. I use a Toshiba 40GB 5400rpm with 16MB of cache, which is totally silent unless it's reading/writing: the head seeks are a bit noisy, but idle noise is less than a whisper. And the Hitachis (even the 5400) are faster than this Toshiba; but with portables, you'll always be rather limited in choice...

[PacHead]

The Pismo was the last of the classic Apple Powerbooks before the Tibooks. Also the last Powerbook from Apple to feature an upside down logo on the back of the screen, i believe.

Nowadays, all the laptops are too whitey, greyish, squarish and downright cheap looking in a few cases.

They need to get back to the "classic" design of the Pismo. A G5 in an updated Pismo design would rock.

My Pismo has served me well in the almost 3 years since I purchased it. My harddrive died on me a few months ago, but the new one i put in is so much better, faster and quieter than the old, stock 10 gig drive that it turned out to be a good thing. I put in a 20 gig seagate momentus, which is just crazy quiet, and much faster than the stock 4200.

I'm hoping the G5 powerbooks will be as classy as the pismos. Trends come and go, and I'd like to see some more black/darker powerbooks from Apple again.

[quietjim]

i have the hitachi 60 GB 7200 rpm drive and it is virtually silent in operation; occasionally a little hd noise which all disks have. i love it and it makes the machine 'feel' snappier.

Does anyone have know where i can find a diagram for disassembly? I need to replace the bottom of the case. Have the part, need to know what to do.

[dagmar]

Try here. You can download it for $9.95. I have, and have found it very helpful as it's illustrated with photos.

powerbookmedic.com

[SEkker]

I used this site for similar directions to refit a Lombard. They worked for me to replace my AC card, which meant almost completely dismantling the Lombard.

Here's the Pismo page:

http://homepage.mac.com/sysop/PhotoAlbum7.html

And it's free.

[SDW2001]

Well,

I sold my Pismo (500MHZ/384MB/12GB/Airport/Jaguar) when I got my Albook.

The Pismo was a great machine. Though, I honestly have to say that my Albook spanks it in pretty much every way. It's much faster, has a SuperDrive, a much better screen and keyboard and cost about $1000 less than the Pismo did. There's just no comparison.

[GlobalNomad]

Originally posted by SDW2001:
Well,

I sold my Pismo (500MHZ/384MB/12GB/Airport/Jaguar) when I got my Albook.

The Pismo was a great machine. Though, I honestly have to say that my Albook spanks it in pretty much every way. It's much faster, has a SuperDrive, a much better screen and keyboard and cost about $1000 less than the Pismo did. There's just no comparison.

Yeah after 4 years.

[scoop417]

i love my pismo (500Mhz, 1GB RAM, Airport card, OS X 10.3.2). i've worked it hard for 3-1/2 years. only a few quibbles:

* the rubber pads on the bottom fell off.
* the screen shows marks from the keyboard.
* the decals on the keyboard are wearing off. (good thing i can touch-type)
* it's heavy.
* i had to replace the battery.
* can't upgrade the video card.

someday i'll get a new powerbook, but this one is holding it's own quite well.

i'm surprised no one has mentioned yet that it had a prominent role for many years on "sex and the city," as carrie bradshaw's computer.

[tigas]

And after six seasons, it's still a Pismo! (last time I checked...)

[waffffffle]

My Pismo:


I still use it every day. It sits next to my bed on my loft and I use it for email, web browsing, etc, when I am too lazy to climb down out of bed.

More info on my custom Pismo is here.

[iomatic]

I never knew; i always assumed it was one the wallstreet/lombards.

do you think carrie would have an episode about modding it out with a pimpin' hard drive and fast proc?
thought not.


man, that's a good show. **** the FCC!

...
...

Originally posted by tigas:
And after six seasons, it's still a Pismo! (last time I checked...)

[angelmb]

Originally posted by PacHead:
I'm hoping the G5 powerbooks will be as classy as the pismos. Trends come and go, and I'd like to see some more black/darker powerbooks from Apple again.

A long time ago I started a topic about where the PowerBooks will be black again. A PB with the 'not real black look' of the original Apple Pro Mouse�ll kick ass

I also have a 17" PB, but here is the 500MHz 1GB RAM Pismo that actually my little brother has:



and my all time favourite Pismo photo, it with its little brother, a black GBA SP

[poocat]

goddam do i love this pismo.

my friend rolled in to my place the other day. he's got a great ti, loves it to death, absolutely hot for the thing, and started typing on my pismo. first words out of his mouth were "wow. i always forget how much better your keyboard is than mine."

there's nothing better. sweet, curvy, black, dual batteries, great keyboard.

if it weren't for the graphics i'd never think of upgrading.

i love, love this machine. going on four years old, has taken a ramen bath, gotten a new hd, and is still rocking out. what a comp. i can only hope the new ones are as solid.

wonderful.

poocat.

[dagmar]

Maybe you all should start a "pictures of my Pismo" thread, or has that already been done here? I've seen a few at Applefritter, I think

[PacHead]

Regarding Sex and the City and Pismo, I rarely see that show, 'cause I'm a guy, but my GF watches it, and I almost fell out of my chair once, in the episode where she had to bring her Pismo in for repair to TechServe in NYC. I was like "hey, i know that place, thats where I brought my mac !"

[seanyepez]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
Pismo... Greatest notebook ever made.

I miss mine to death...

Amen.

[iomatic]

Why do you have to be a female to appreciate good writing?

Originally posted by PacHead:
Regarding Sex and the City and Pismo, I rarely see that show, 'cause I'm a guy, but my GF watches it, and I almost fell out of my chair once, in the episode where she had to bring her Pismo in for repair to TechServe in NYC. I was like "hey, i know that place, thats where I brought my mac !"

[PacHead]

Originally posted by iomatic:
Why do you have to be a female to appreciate good writing?

Oh, I'm not knocking the show or anything, I can see why it's popular, I'm just not into relationship type shows.

My gf will usually watch sex & the city, while I'm probably watching some WWII stuff on the history channel.

And my gf Hates WWII stuff. Can only males enjoy WWII documentaries on tv ?

[dagmar]

Made this imovie on a Pismo 500 running 10.3.3. rendering wasn't super quick, but it worked out fine. Amazing what this "old" machine can do!

My puppy and cat roughhousing
http://homepage.mac.com/nearpass/iMovieTheater3.html

[Kami]

Dagmar, thanks for posting the link. You have one incredibly patient and good natured cat. Great to see that you have hours of entertainment in your kitchen

[Fyre4ce]

Hey! I just want to let you all know that I'm selling my Pismo. It's in great condition. It's a 400 MHz G3, with 512 MB RAM, an aftermarket 30 GB hard drive, an AirPort card, and all the other goodies that the Pismo came with (56k modem, 10/100 ethernet, DVD-ROM, 14" screen...). It's a great computer, no problems, and no dead pixels. It has one minor blemish on the screen. I'm looking to get $700 for it, but I'm willling to negotiate. Please email me at cdd25 AT cornell DOT edu if interested. Thanks!

[Lateralus]

The one and only good thing about somebody selling their Pismo is that it gives another person the chance to own one.

Other than that, it is a sad say when an owner parts with his Pismo.

Good luck with the sale.

[Jim Paradise]

I would sell my 1ghz Tibook in an instant if it allowed me to get an upgraded Pismo. I've never owned a Pismo, but I do think it was the best laptop ever.

[Fyre4ce]

Originally posted by Jim Paradise:
I would sell my 1ghz Tibook in an instant if it allowed me to get an upgraded Pismo. I've never owned a Pismo, but I do think it was the best laptop ever.

I'll sell you my upgraded Pismo. No joke. It's only the 400 MHz chip but you can easily upgrade to 500 or 900 MHz for only a few hundred bucks. I bet the price difference between the two machines would cover the cost of the upgrade, plus some. And everything else is already upgraded. See my post above.

[bstone]

At long last, I am now (again) a proud Pismo owner. I dug one out of the trash and all it had was a poorly seated PMU. I have YellowDogLinux 3.0.1 running on it and it's sweet!

Specs:
400mhz
384mb
stock 10gb HD
Airport

I plan to:
Powerlogix 900mhz
1gb RAM
60gb 7200rpm HD

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by bstone:
I plan to:
Powerlogix 900mhz
1gb RAM
60gb 7200rpm HD

The 1GHz 750GX PowerLogix should be shipping next month, hopefully.

[bstone]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
The 1GHz 750GX PowerLogix should be shipping next month, hopefully.

That's so cool!

[bzImage]

A friend of mine got convinced of switching to apple and got a pismo 400 mhz/5gb hd/192 mb ram in the equivalent of 350 dollars. (4000 mexican pesos).

I upgraded the HD from 5 gb to 20, it was a lot easier than upgrading my ibook HD.

Installed panther on it and i feel that it runs faster than my ibook 600 mhz with 384 mb ram.

My friend its happy with the machine and it was a really good deal.

BTW, what pcmcia wireless cards can i use on that pismo ?

[Xestrel]

Originally posted by bzImage:

BTW, what pcmcia wireless cards can i use on that pismo ?

I used a wavelan and orinoco silver card with it (802.11b). There's a project called "WirelessDriver" for OS X which enables lots of third party wireless cards to work under OS X.

Check it out:
http://wirelessdriver.sourceforge.net/

-Xest

[macaddict0001]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
My Pismo:


I still use it every day. It sits next to my bed on my loft and I use it for email, web browsing, etc, when I am too lazy to climb down out of bed.

More info on my custom Pismo is here.

for that ibook thing you should leave it completely clear so that you can see the internals or paint it a different colour

[rambo47]

Originally posted by bstone:
At long last, I am now (again) a proud Pismo owner. I dug one out of the trash and all it had was a poorly seated PMU. I have YellowDogLinux 3.0.1 running on it and it's sweet!

Specs:
400mhz
384mb
stock 10gb HD
Airport

I plan to:
Powerlogix 900mhz
1gb RAM
60gb 7200rpm HD

Did you get AirPort to work on your Pismo with YDL? I've tried and tried, all to no avail. I followed the tutorials on exactly how to do it according to the YDL web site. If there is a trick to it, please tell!

[RooneyX]

My first Mac was a Lombard and I absolutely adored it. That lovely velvety cover, solid build, etc. I wouldn't mind a G5 PB with that same quality feel.

[Kristoff]

I have had my Pismo 500 for just over 4 years now.

I use it 8-10 hours a day every day for Enterprise Java development. It rocks. Never a problem.

I am just now starting to want a bit of a speed bump (compiles take longer and longer the bigger a project is).

I was looking at the new iBook 14.1" or the 12" PowerBook, but this thread is giving me second thoughts. Perhaps the G3 900 is the way to go?

I'm just weary of all these PowerLogix horror stories I hear ("turned my beloved Pismo into a paper weight", etc, etc).