[yakumo2897]

Hey guys I just picked up a very old ibook g3, this is my first mac so I have a couple of questions.
First here are the specs.
500mhz
128 ram
12" screen.
osx 10.4
My first question is why is it slow. Is it because I dont have enough ram? I probably going to through a 512 stick in, how much of an improvement will I get.
Second, There is a slight scratch in the screen that is refracting light (you can see it if the monitor is on) its really slight but is there any way to get rid of it.?
Third The outside has a lot of scratches do you guys have anything that you can use to take out light scratches and bring back the shine. Also the metal part on the inside near the track pad. Any tips?
Lastly I know the logic boards die often on these because of heat, every two hours should I put it in stand by, Just trying to make sure it doesn't die on me.
Thank you all in advance. I really am new to the whole thing (been using pc's since i was one in 1988 lol)

[ibook_steve]

Not exactly the greatest machine to get started on for a new Mac experience.

With 128 MB of RAM on the oldest white iBook there is, yes, Tiger (10.4) is going to be dog slow. Definitely put a 512 MB stick in there (it won't see any size memory bigger than that).

Others may have suggestions for scratches on the case, but there's not much you can do about a scratch on the screen like that short of replacing the screen.

The very first white iBooks did not have the dying logic board problems of later models. You should not worry about heat or putting it to sleep ("stand by" is so PC; we put our machines to sleep and wake them up when we need them).

Steve

[OreoCookie]

500 MHz is way too slow to have a pleasant OS X experience. I've owned a 500 MHz iBook and the initial OS X experience was disappointing. A 600 MHz iBook (which I've also owned) is also too slow, the slowest machine that I recommend is an 800 MHz iBook for several reasons:
(i) The GPU is fast enough to support Quartz Extreme. This does not sound like a biggie, but it is: the CPU isn't the fastest, but with the GPU taking over a lot of the Quartz effects, you have more CPU cycles available to apps.
(ii) The CPU is significantly faster.

Furthermore, don't run OS X with anything less than 512 MB, but even that is pretty anemic. In my opinion, you should save up a little more money and get a more recent Mac.

[Koralatov]

Whilst I don't necessarily disagree with what either of the previous posters have said, I don't think that a G3 iBook is an unmitigated disaster. Personally, I use a 466MHz Clamshell iBook for a good portion of my computer use these days, and I think the iBook you've bought is perfectly adequate for light day-to-day use.

It's not a heavy-lifter by any means, and more processor-intensive apps (Photoshop, the iLife apps, etc.) will run unbearably slow. If, however, you just intend on using it for surfing, email, IM and the occasional bit of iTunes, it's fine. One thing I would warn you about, though: it won't run YouTube videos at anything like a decent frame-rate.

I fully concur with the other posters about upgrading the RAM: whoever sold you it with Tiger and only 128MB did you a massive disservice. I run Tiger on 576MB (64 + 576), and I'm quite happy with the performance when using it for the aforementioned tasks.

[OreoCookie]

Despite going through four motherboards, I loved my iBook 12" G3 800, it was a nice, trusty, light machine. And the first machine that OS X ran well on.

I bought my first iBook specifically to run OS X on it (I had a PowerBook G3 Kanga before which wasn't supported by OS X), and I was disappointed by the performance (also because using 10.0.3 felt like swimming through molasses). When I goy my iBook 800, it felt snappy, fast and ready for prime time!

[yakumo2897]

Thanks for the advice I have a 512 stick in the mail now. Any tips for cleaning it and taking scratches out of the plastic?

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by yakumo2897 

Thanks for the advice I have a 512 stick in the mail now. Any tips for cleaning it and taking scratches out of the plastic?

I'm not entirely sure if it will work on larger areas, but I got quite a good result on an white Apple Pro mouse using a nail buffer on it to get rid of some light scratching. It may not work on larger areas, or deeper scratches, but it's probably worth a go. One word of warning, though: it requires a lot of elbow grease.

Good luck!

[x.l.r.8]

I went from a powerbook G3 Pismo to a 500 ibook and realised it doesn't matter how much memory you put in your still runnning a 66Mhz board, this is where is really slows down. I stupidly thought both being G3 500 processors I would get a more compact package with better battery life and not notice any difference. I had not realized the boards were that much slower. I personally would enjoy your iBook untill you want to go faster then just replace the board with a good used 800/900 mhz G3. All G3 iBooks ran the same screen resolutions, The G4 will not fit straight in so I would stick with a G3 board. Also the original 500 10GB hard drive is not the fastest spinner out there, if your going to go to a bigger drive you may want to think about a quicker one.
I have a 512MB chip in mine and didn't notice much difference between that and the 256 chip I had. I only use mine for surfing where I have dial up so it works well but anything more like using video it's inadequate, however they are very very cheap. I also run 10.4.11 and to me it seems no slower than with 10.3.