Comment by RogerPollack | Hacker News Reader

Comment by RogerPollack | Hacker News Reader

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This is not an easy task. For those of you that don’t know the iBook G4’s logic board and hard drive are essential hermetically sealed in the plastic case AND a second layer of metal. I ruined my first iBook G4 when attempting this same upgrade as the ribbon cables that connect the power button and LEDs ripped in half from age (very brittle). I bought another used iBook G4. It still has the stock 60 GB hard disk and now the slot-loading “Super Drive” is dead so I will have to fix it eventually If I want to keep using it. I actually bought a used PowerPC G4 MacBook Pro to use and these are WAY easier to work on, just a few screws and you have access to everything.

I will note to anyone reading this the €79 Amiga-like Morph OS is really good experience on these 32-bit single core PowerPC Macs, very snappy. I also installed Debian 12 Trixie using the Sid branch on my iBook G4 via the USB-A port and using guides (and links to files to get WiFi working) on the Mac Rumours forum I got it working perfectly. Using the Window Maker Window Manager it’s snappy and you get NeXTStep?OPENSTEP experience.

Ouch!

I did the ssd upgrade to a G4 PowerBook* and it wasn't that dangerous. Nothing glued. Jut had some geek fun with 2 friends, all worrying about the tiny tiny screws and short and fragile cables.

If the iBooks are glued together, that's a totally different animal.

* unfortunately the GPU needs a reballing and without it the laptop only displays right in cold weather or for the first half an hour since power up :(

I hosed an iBook G4 repairing a hard drive back in the day. Oops

It is easily done. The IFIXIT guide mentions it for anyone interested.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iBook+G4+12-Inch+800+MHz-1.2+GH...

"The connectors at the ends of the cables are attached very firmly to the sockets on the logic board. Pulling directly on the cable will either separate the cable from its connector or the socket from the logic board."

I did a LOT of work on my iBook back in the day. I never found it too challenging, maybe it was because it's how I learned.

Ah. So this is what Apple did to force you to buy their super expensive storage before custom drives and serialization.

> the iBook G4’s logic board and hard drive are essential hermetically sealed in the plastic case AND a second layer of metal.

The CPU's heatsink is attached via adhesive. That is not "a hermetic seal."

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