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Home Forums 68kMLA iBook G3 to iBook G4 hackery — #1
Post #1 by techknight
Source Forum68kMLA
CategoryHardware
Post DateFri, 22 Oct 2010 - 02:33
Original URLhttps://68kmla.org/bb/threads/ibook-g3-to-ibook-g4-hackery.21555/
Post
I figured some might like to read this, but some may not, but I figure ill go ahead and post what I did today as a good read for the day.

I have an ibook G3 900mhz unit as my main mac laptop. aside from the lombard i just aquired, and the TiBook G4 thats missing a boatload of stuff, like CDROM, battery, etc......

A friend of mine gave me an ibook G4 1.33ghz with a cracked screen.

Well, since im cheap, and if i get the G4 working i wont need the G3 anymore, i figured what the heck. lets transplant the screen.

I took the bezel apart and removed the broken screen and set it aside. it was a CHI-MEI screen. I removed the screen from the ibook G3 and stuck it in the G4 bezel and hooked it all up.

Well, no video. Also the G3 screen was from a different brand/manufacturer other than CHI-MEI. and the LVDS Data cable going to the LCD was also visibly wired slightly different between the ibooks as well.

soooo.... I completely tore down the ibook G4 anyway, because the CD slot load aluminum bracket was bent and causing CDs to get chewed up and stuck. So i fixed that too...

I tore apart the G3 and noticed the cable was slightly longer, and the plug angle was a 90degree instead of a 45 degree from plug to wire, but the plug actually fit in the G4 motherboard, so i figured i would try it.

so i removed the old cable from the G4 bezel, and put the one from the G3 in it. I had to remove the modem from the G4 to make room for the cable, as the G3s cable was a little too long, AND it was the wrong angle as i said, so it blocked the modem connection port. Who uses a modem anymore anyway? so what the heck...

after getting the cable bundled up and plugged into place, allowing it to fit, I was able to put the metal shrouds back on without bowing or clearance issues.

I tested out the G4 after the cable/screen transplant and it worked!!! so that means you must keep cables with screen brands or they wont interchange.

So i put the machine all back together, what a pain that was... and the machine now sings perfectly. I got a new to me G4.

But now with the bad... I have a G3 900 now that is basically scrap because i scavenged its LCD/Cable to fix the G4. So now what to do with the remaining parts? still good of course...

mp.ls