Reply 60 of 64, by yawetaG
wrote:wrote:In 2008 I paid $1,250 for a mint in box PowerBook G4 17" purely as a collectible. I knew it would lose value, but if I waited another five years for prices to hit bottom the chances of finding one complete in the box would be zero. It's probably only worth about $500 today but in another ten years it will be a rare find and potentially worth much more, though I'll probably hold onto it - it's a beautiful design. I probably booted it once or twice and it's been on a shelf ever since.
You need to charge the battey once every 10 years or so or it will be hard to charge agan, at least with the laptop. I would do it every 5 years or perhaps even every other year just to be sure (I'm assuming they are Lithium cells).
Don't charge the battery to 100% but to ~80% and keep the battery outside the computer if it's removable then the battery should be as good as new even in 20 years time. 😀
I'm not sure this works with PowerBook G4 batteries, mine suddenly died after losing about 40% of its maximum charge over the years, and I almost never used the laptop on the battery.
Luckily, PowerBooks will happily work on the power supply with a dead or no battery installed.
Anyway, if PowerBooks are now vintage, mine cost me 2500 Euros new back in 2005 (and it still works; it lives under my desk... 🤣 ).