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PHoynak · Mar 5, 2004, 04:56 PM

I just bought a used Powerbook G3 333 Mhz notebook. Where can I find the G4 upgrades for this? Is it worth the effort? What else can I upgrade besides the ram. I know the model is older so finding the parts may be hard.

Luca Rescigno · Mar 5, 2004, 05:30 PM

PowerLogix made a G4/500 upgrade for Lombards (your model) for some time. They are discontinued now, but they still have information up about the product here.

Someone wrote into Low End Mac about this very issue just last week. Here's the letter. Looks like there might be another one coming out soon, but I wouldn't count on it. I guess eBay would be one of the only places to pick one up, and of course you could ask at various classified websites like the one here or at PowerBookCentral.com. Good luck.

ibook_steve · Mar 5, 2004, 08:35 PM

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com is your friend. Daystar, Powerlogix, et al. made and still do make upgrades for this machine. The only guy who posts his column at http://www.macopinion.com just upgraded his machine as well and wrote a column or two about it. Lots of info about an upgrade is available.

Steve

PHoynak · Mar 6, 2004, 07:05 AM

I just installed the 10.3.2 update on the Powerbook and kept getting kernal panics at boot. Finally after the 3rd try it booted ok. The first one said it it could not find a driver for the cpu (?). Should I worry or just hope it doesn't happen again? What could the problem be?

PHoynak · Mar 6, 2004, 04:29 PM

I just had to reboot because I downloaded the latest updates for OS X and I hear the hard drive spin for about 10 seconds but the powerbook hangs at the white screen with the Apple logo on it. Does anyone know what is wrong?

Kami · Mar 6, 2004, 04:32 PM

Was this the first attempt at installing OS X or did the Lombard come with X installed?

There are some Lombards that don't do well with X. There is a long thread over at macfixit that documents this problem. I'll look for it and post back

PHoynak · Mar 6, 2004, 06:33 PM

It finally booted ok. I ran Diskwarrier but no real problems were found. It takes about 3-4 times to boot then it works. Could it be the ram? I was thinking of changing out the ram and seeing what happens.

masugu · Mar 6, 2004, 09:39 PM

Hmm...would it really be worth upgrading the Lombard? As a Veterna Macnn person, surely you other more modern Macs??

Or is this one of those, "I just want to see how much I can Trick out a Lombard" kind of things? Perfectly fine...I just like 'em stock

Luca Rescigno · Mar 7, 2004, 12:53 AM

I'm normally not part of the "just sell it instead of wasting money on upgrading" camp, but in this case I have to say stick with the stock processor. Lombards are somewhat flakey, even without 10.3... they have had problems with RAM for a long time, even before OS X.

I'd just say to keep the Lombard around for fun. If you want a PowerBook to trick out, the Pismo is the way to go.

PHoynak · Mar 7, 2004, 10:25 PM

I just ordered 256mb of ram from OWC. I will put it in the bottom slot only and see what happens.

PHoynak · Mar 8, 2004, 10:18 AM

The battery that came with the powerbook gets about 2.5 hrs of use. Is that normal or should I get a new battery? I think you are supposed to get 5 hrs but I know in the real world that never happens.