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Just got a Titanium PowerBook


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Just got a Titanium PowerBook
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Luca
ಠ_ರೃ
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
 
2019-02-06, 12:33

So I was at my grandmother's house and went into a closet to get some stuffed animals for my kids when I see a PowerBook G4 just sitting there. Pretty cool. I take it down, plug it in, and fire it up. Starts right up!

It hasn't been used in years so she lets me take it home. Now I'm the owner of a Titanium PowerBook G4, 800 MHz DVI model. Battery still seems to work (it had two batteries but one is likely dead), and it also had a portable FireWire hard drive. OS X 10.3.7 is installed.

Biggest problem is the backlight stops working almost immediately. First time I started it up, it had probably been sitting in that closet for 5-10 years, the screen stayed on for about 5 minutes before shutting off. Closing and reopening the lid got the screen to turn on again, but only for a couple minutes, and getting shorter each time. Now it flashes on for less than a second before dying. I can still use the screen if I shine a flashlight on it, and I hooked up an external monitor so I can actually use the thing now. From what I've read, this could possibly be fixed by replacing the inverter board, but it might be the screen itself.

As a side note, it's too bad there's no option to use only the external screen without closing the lid. I can use mirroring, but that makes my 1280x1024 monitor run at 1280x854 instead. I can extend the desktop, but then I have a black unusable screen that stuff can get stuck on. And if I close the lid, I don't have access to the keyboard or trackpad.

My current plan is to make a backup of the internal hard drive onto the external with SuperDuper, then wipe the internal and install OS 9. I'll use FTP to transfer files to it across my local network, because holy cow the browser is NOT suited for the modern web. Even getting it connected to the internet required me to make a guest network without security, since the built-in wifi doesn't support WPA2.

I don't expect I'll use it for much other than playing old games. It was neat to get to use old OS X again, even if it's very slow. Modern computers have spoiled me.

Should be able to post some pictures tonight.
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chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: near Bremen, Germany
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2019-02-06, 14:08

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luca View Post
As a side note, it's too bad there's no option to use only the external screen without closing the lid. I can use mirroring, but that makes my 1280x1024 monitor run at 1280x854 instead. I can extend the desktop, but then I have a black unusable screen that stuff can get stuck on. And if I close the lid, I don't have access to the keyboard or trackpad.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/301847

I think this combination of (temporarily) disabling SIP, then setting an nvram boot arg might work.

I'm not going to try this at home™ though, as I don't have an external display here. (I suppose I could still try it over SSH, though.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luca View Post
holy cow the browser is NOT suited for the modern web
Yeah, that's gonna be tricky. Neither TenFourFox nor Classilla quite seem to fit the bill.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luca View Post
I don't expect I'll use it for much other than playing old games. It was neat to get to use old OS X again, even if it's very slow. Modern computers have spoiled me.
You'll probably get a WTF moment when you first boot OS 9…
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Luca
ಠ_ರೃ
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
 
2019-02-06, 15:21

I appear to be in a no man's land where TenFourFox isn't compatible (only 10.4.x) and neither is Classilla (only 9.x).

Way back in the day I had an iBook G3 and I remember how much faster OS 9 was than OS X. I've been able to use OS 9 through emulation and what stood out to me most was how dead simple it is.
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
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2019-02-07, 23:11

My fondest memory of OS9 was how often it crashed, as in at least once a day. An app would freeze in a way that OSX could easily overcome with force quite, would bring OS9 to a total lockup and forced reboot.

Then again things were so much simpler, there were only two ways to setup the finder, pictures or list, and the launcher for your apps, rather than the dock. Have a number of old games that are OS8/9 only. Miss those days, but like the downfall of Netscape Navigator, time moves on. To think at one point I was an OSX hold out, don't think I switched until just before Tiger (10.4) came out.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2019-02-08, 00:59

I recently ran across my old plastic white Macbook circa 2002. Loved that thing so much. It's so tiny. I think the GPU died in it. Have not had time to try and take it into target mode.


...
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2019-02-08, 08:42

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Ebby
Subdued and Medicated
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Over Yander
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2019-02-08, 12:50

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
My fondest memory of OS9 was how often it crashed, as in at least once a day. An app would freeze in a way that OSX could easily overcome with force quite, would bring OS9 to a total lockup and forced reboot.
Ohh! I forgot about those crashes. That suuuucked. I was really excited for OSX's "Protected memory" voodoo and was thrilled when my first app crashed and I just reopened the task. That felt futuristic.

I miss the extensions during boot though. When you get enough to bump up to a second line, it was like a badge of honor.

^^ One more quality post from the desk of Ebby. ^^
SSBA | SmockBogger | SporkNET
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
Send a message via Skype™ to PB PM 
2019-02-08, 16:19

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ebby View Post
I miss the extensions during boot though. When you get enough to bump up to a second line, it was like a badge of honor.
Our G3 tower must have had 3 or 4 rows, took forever to boot because it took so long to load them all up, all the scientific and teaching applications had multiple extensions which had a lot to do with it. I would usually walk away for five minutes waiting for it to finally get to a usable state.
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-02-08, 16:55

Quote:
Originally Posted by drewprops View Post
I recently ran across my old plastic white Macbook circa 2002. Loved that thing so much. It's so tiny. I think the GPU died in it. Have not had time to try and take it into target mode.


...
No you didn't.

The MacBook was released in 2006.

I might believe that you found an iBook circa 2002.

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chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: near Bremen, Germany
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2019-02-09, 16:36

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ebby View Post
I miss the extensions during boot though. When you get enough to bump up to a second line, it was like a badge of honor.
I loved how Q3A played homage to that. Its loading screen showed weapons and other items (and added them as icons once they were done loading) just like Mac OS Classic's extensions.

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Luca
ಠ_ರೃ
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
 
2019-02-10, 16:53

Well I installed OS 9 on it and it really flies. Stark contrast to OS X. It also crashed and required a reboot once during the hour I was using it. But I'm not doing any critical work on it, so I'll take the speed!

Also managed to get FTP working flawlessly so I can easily transfer files.

Having a broken screen is really a drag though. Greatly limits where I can set it up because I need enough room and two power outlets.

Overall, it's neat, but I'm probably going to rely on SheepShaver and Basilisk II to play old games. Even just using the interface is nostalgic.
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