legend (12" Powerbook G4)
Table of Contents
Summary
The slickest subcompact PowerPC laptop. This machine looked cool when I was a teenager.
Notes
Hardware
| Make | Apple |
| Year | 2005 |
| Model | Powerbook G4 A1104 |
| Chassis | Powerbook G4 12" |
| Processor | Freescale PowerPC G4 7447A - 1.5 GHz |
| Memory | 512MB DDR |
| Ports | RJ-11 Modem |
| RJ-45 LAN | |
| Firewire 400 | |
| 2x USB A 2.0 | |
| mini DVI | |
| 3.5mm Line in | |
| 3.5mm Line out | |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200 |
| Storage | 80GB Fujitsu MHT2080AH |
| Matshita UJ-835E DVD-R "Combo Drive" | |
| Display | 12" 1024x768 |
| Int. Peripherals | Airport Extreme 802.11bg WiFi |
| Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth | |
| Motorola SM56K Jump 56K Modem | |
| Ext. Peripherals | |
| Dimensions | |
| Length/Depth | 21.9 cm |
| Width | 27.8 cm |
| Height/Thickness | 2.9 cm |
| Weight | 2.07 kg (4 lbs 9 oz) |
Software
| Operating System | Mac OS X 10.4.11 |
| Unique applications |
Log
Ebay purchase
Bought on ebay in as used, untested model A1010 (1.33GHz).
Turned out to be a A1104 (1.5GHz). Condition was quite good. Aluminum case is free of major dents and dings. Everything tested functional. Minor cleaning was needed. The slot drive is a bit crunchy sounding.
I reinstalled OS X 10.4, but it seems classic didn't get installed. When I tried to install it from the second disc after running software updates to 10.4.11 it would fail.
Upgrades
Bought a 1GB stick to bring RAM up to 1.25GB total. A 2.5" msata ide adapter with enclosure. Aftermarket Mini DVI to HDMI adapter. UJ-846-C Superdrive (for 2006 iMac) which will hopefully be in better shape and support dual layer media unlike the current combo drive.
I'm waiting to get everything together so I only have to tear the machine down once. Looking at the iFIXIT guides it is a fairly complicated machine to take apart.
Teardown
Teardown was pretty long. The iFixit guides are good, but the screw organizer was a bit hard to follow. One of the heatsink screw's stud broke off the logic board during reassembly. The used super drive I bought fails to read discs and spits them out after several tries.
Went ahead and ordered a new condition superdrive. When I swap out drives I'll try epoxying the heatsink mounting stud in place again. Someone mentioned Araldite epoxy so I got their 5-minute version to try out.
I had trouble booting off an external USB DVD drive. The guide I found that worked is at Boot a PowerPC Apple from USB, but I found it via a comment from loonatic on this MacWorld thread.
Managed to get everything installed so far without issue. The machine definitely feels like it has a cooling problem. Fan seems to ramp up under light loads, and stay at full blast. Hopefully it's just the heatsink being off a bit due to the stud detaching.
Second rebuild (Reattaching the heatsink studs)
Pulled the machine apart to swap in the new optical drive, and repair the logic board's heatsink studs. I resoldered the heatsink studs (one was detached, the other had a cracked joint). I tried scratching the stud base with a carbide scriber to give the solder a bit more hold. Used plenty of solder to attach to the whole pad.
I reassembled after getting some new thermal pads. Unfortunately on reassembly I discovered one heatsink stud's threads were stripped. I ended up sticking some kapton tape in the nut-screw to force some thread interference. This isn't the best fix, but I think it will hold, and there's a shield above the heatsink so it can't pop up much and interfere with the keyboard. Did an install from disc after and had no issues with the optical drive or cooling fan being excessive.
