Good luck to you trying to upgrade the RAM in this thing. Those early clamshell iBooks are notoriously difficult to work on. There is no room to work inside them and they have to be nearly completely disassembled to replace anything inside.

You should install the Marathon games on there. Granted, nowadays the second and third ones aren't Mac exclusive, and there's a TC for Marathon 2 that's supposed to recreate the first game, but I don't believe that there was an official release of the original game on the PC.

sliderider wrote:

Good luck to you trying to upgrade the RAM in this thing. Those early clamshell iBooks are notoriously difficult to work on. There is no room to work inside them and they have to be nearly completely disassembled to replace anything inside.

Honestly, popping the battery out, prying the keyboard off and removing the AirPort adapter to expose the RAM socket doesn't look so difficult if you ask me. I've actually seen worse... A LOT worse.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

You should install the Marathon games on there. Granted, nowadays the second and third ones aren't Mac exclusive, and there's a TC for Marathon 2 that's supposed to recreate the first game, but I don't believe that there was an official release of the original game on the PC.

Thanks, that looks like a neat one!

NOW I bang my head against the wall as I try to establish an Ad Hoc connection to my Ubuntu laptop. GRR

Does anyone know if this system will support 512MB RAM upgrade? I keep seeing sites that claim this but the official Apple site and Crucial only mentions up to 256MB?

It will. Apple just didn't bother to update their specs once 512MB SODIMMs came out, and Crucial is probably just going by Apple's published spec.

TBH, though, there's really no need for 512MB if you're going to keep OS9 on it. 256MB (or rather 288, with the onboard memory) would be plenty.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Does anyone know if this system will support 512MB RAM upgrade? I keep seeing sites that claim this but the official Apple site and Crucial only mentions up to 256MB?

It will. Apple just didn't bother to update their specs once 512MB SODIMMs came out, and Crucial is probably just going by Apple's published spec.

TBH, though, there's really no need for 512MB if you're going to keep OS9 on it. 256MB (or rather 288, with the onboard memory) would be plenty.

I agree with not NEEDING 512MB, but since it's almost the same cost as 256MB... What the heck, right?

Ah, for some reason I was thinking you already had a 256MB stick. If you have to buy one anyway, then yeah, may as well go with 512MB.

Anyone else suggest some good exclusive classic Mac games? I need those eyes that follow the mouse cursor and flying toasters!! 🤣

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

You should install the Marathon games on there. Granted, nowadays the second and third ones aren't Mac exclusive, and there's a TC for Marathon 2 that's supposed to recreate the first game, but I don't believe that there was an official release of the original game on the PC.

Not official, but Aleph One will run the original just as well as the second and the third – it's not really a TC.

Let's not rehash old threads.
Re: Best OS9 and earlier exclusive games?
Re: Gaming On A Mac QS 733Mhz

simbin wrote:

sliderider wrote:

Good luck to you trying to upgrade the RAM in this thing. Those early clamshell iBooks are notoriously difficult to work on. There is no room to work inside them and they have to be nearly completely disassembled to replace anything inside.

Honestly, popping the battery out, prying the keyboard off and removing the AirPort adapter to expose the RAM socket doesn't look so difficult if you ask me. I've actually seen worse... A LOT worse.

But how many other laptops have you seen that require removal of the keyboard to access the RAM slots? Most have a special compartment underneath where you just pop the cover off and there they are. iBooks weren't designed with user serviceability in mind as they were Apple's low end model. They were meant to be used as is until they wore out and then discarded. If you wanted a higher spec'ced laptop, they wanted you to move up to a Powerbook rather than upgrade. In any case, the larger limiting factor to using these for gaming is the video. The screens are only 800x600 and the ATi Rage Mobility has only 4mb RAM. The Powerbooks that were current at the time had Rage LT Pro video with 8mb and 1024x768 resolution.

Dell Latitude D620/D820/D630/D830 models had a second "upgrade" RAM slot on the underside, but the first slot was underneath the keyboard.

Apple is still terrible when it comes to that crap though. 😉

Stull wrote:

Dell Latitude D620/D820/D630/D830 models had a second "upgrade" RAM slot on the underside, but the first slot was underneath the keyboard.

Apple is still terrible when it comes to that crap though. 😉

Yeah,I know some machines were even more awkward. My emachines M6911 had one slot accessible from underneath and the other required complete disassembly to get to but most of the ones I've seen have both slots accessible externally.

sliderider wrote:

simbin wrote:

sliderider wrote:

Good luck to you trying to upgrade the RAM in this thing. Those early clamshell iBooks are notoriously difficult to work on. There is no room to work inside them and they have to be nearly completely disassembled to replace anything inside.

Honestly, popping the battery out, prying the keyboard off and removing the AirPort adapter to expose the RAM socket doesn't look so difficult if you ask me. I've actually seen worse... A LOT worse.

But how many other laptops have you seen that require removal of the keyboard to access the RAM slots? Most have a special compartment underneath where you just pop the cover off and there they are. iBooks weren't designed with user serviceability in mind as they were Apple's low end model. They were meant to be used as is until they wore out and then discarded. If you wanted a higher spec'ced laptop, they wanted you to move up to a Powerbook rather than upgrade. In any case, the larger limiting factor to using these for gaming is the video. The screens are only 800x600 and the ATi Rage Mobility has only 4mb RAM. The Powerbooks that were current at the time had Rage LT Pro video with 8mb and 1024x768 resolution.

Yea, I suppose it's not the easiest laptop to service. It's really not practical to upgrade it either, but I get a kick out of tinkering with old 'puters. I love the overall design and don't mind spending a couple bucks to tweak it up a notch. Besides, it keeps me outta trouble. 😀

Honestly, popping the battery out, prying the keyboard off and removing the AirPort adapter to expose the RAM socket doesn't look so difficult if you ask me. I've actually seen worse... A LOT worse.

I'd never actually seen the insides of one of those toilet seat iBooks, so I got curious and looked up what's actually involved in doing the various upgrades. Yeah, that's not difficult. Hell, even a complete disassembly looks easy compared to the pants-on-head-retarded designs that a lot of the mass-market PC laptops use. There were a few models of Sony Vaio that required you take the entire bottom shell off in order to get to the RAM or hard drive, and then take the whole damn motherboard out to remove the keyboard. And just this week I've had two Toshibas come in, and among other issues, both had sloppy hinges from the screws working loose on the lid side. No big deal, remove the screen bezel, drip some Loctite on the screws and tighten 'em back down. Except that, in order to remove the bezel, I had to remove 45 screws (give or take, I lost count) and take the entire lid assembly off the base of the laptop.

Doing a little more research, I can say the disassemble difficulty greatly depends on what you are going for. RAM isn't much of a hassle. On the other hand, replacing the HDD or CD-ROM looks to be a real pain, as you can see in the following video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCdO4eaE4xE

This is pretty much on par with some of the newer HP notebooks sort of. Difference being both RAM, HDD, WiFi are usually easy to reach, just not everything else. 40-50 screws, but most of the HP screws are the same size and the iBook has many different sized screws to keep track of.

While I know I could pull this off, I'm not sure I want to deal with the aggravation. An SSD drive would be cool though, making the unit completely silent except when accessing the CD-ROM.

Speaking of CD-ROM... mine seems to be on its last leg. I was able to clean the laser and install OS 9.2.2, but now it struggles to access discs and doesn't read all the files on them properly. DOES ANYONE KNOW if you can adjust POT tweak the laser or if there's a newer one you can swap it with? I've seen some used ones on eBay, but I hate to just get another one that ends up doing the same thing in a short period of time. I can always transfer files via LAN, WiFi or USB for now, but if I ever want to load a new OS/HDD I'd be SOL.

I have worked on the later models and found the worst part of it was removing the palmrest due to the snaps. Replacing the cd drive on this one is worth it if you are expecting to really use this machine. A CF to IDE upgrade works wonders one these old ibooks, upgrading the ram is worth it. 8GB ssd will be enough,

nforce4max wrote:

I have worked on the later models and found the worst part of it was removing the palmrest due to the snaps. Replacing the cd drive on this one is worth it if you are expecting to really use this machine. A CF to IDE upgrade works wonders one these old ibooks, upgrading the ram is worth it. 8GB ssd will be enough,

Went ahead and got 256MB RAM for $7 - may get 512MB later... but since I'm sticking with 9.2.2 for now, should be fine.

I have a LiteOn SOSW-852S DVD±RW (IDE) drive but I'm not sure if it will work. It's the same size and everything... guess I'll have to try and see.

Still looking for a good deal on a HDD. The CF cards seem a bit pricey to me... I'd settle for a 7200RPM drive.

Been watching every video I can find on taking the unit apart. It looks like you pull the palmrests part towards you when removing - that sound right?

The dvd drive might work but going with CF card is Worth it trust me, I did it to my iBook G3 dual usb and it made all the difference. Much less heat, longer run time on battery, and performance improved in other ways than expected as the gpu wasn't being overheated by the hard drive. 8GB is more than enough but a 16GB cf card by kingston that uses SLC can be had around $16-20 is even better.

Do not get a dual cf card adapter as there is only one active ide channel in use and the hard drive is master.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXTzaao5FrA

nforce4max wrote:

The dvd drive might work but going with CF card is Worth it trust me, I did it to my iBook G3 dual usb and it made all the difference. Much less heat, longer run time on battery, and performance improved in other ways than expected as the gpu wasn't being overheated by the hard drive. 8GB is more than enough but a 16GB cf card by kingston that uses SLC can be had around $16-20 is even better.

Do not get a dual cf card adapter as there is only one active ide channel in use and the hard drive is master.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXTzaao5FrA

I was under the impression the iBook was running IDE66 so SSD would have limited throughput anyway. I do however, like the idea of silent.

My battery doesn't hold a charge but I'm just going to use this as a stationary time machine for classic mac apps 😀

I think it's actually ATA33. But the throughput isn't really what makes the big difference with SSDs, it's the seek times (or rather, the lack of them). Compared to the old 4200RPM drive, it would be a huge upgrade.

And anyway, even if the transfer rates of the flash drive are choked by the ATA33 speed, it'd still be better than the ~10-12MB that old 3.2GB drive can probably muster.