[Carcenomy]

Hey all

I thought I'd hit up some more savvy Apple users, as I'm taking some drastic measures with my recently acquired iBook Clamshell.

It's a G3 366, with 320Mb RAM, 6Gb drive (got a 20Gb waiting to go in). Yoyo has broken twice, holds about 90 minutes charge.

So far it seems in its lifespan, it's had nothing but abuse. It's original owner was a principal from a primary school and as such, it went everywhere. It's proudly got his name and the school's name etched into the lower plastics too. Because of the arduous work this poor old dear has seen, it had accumulated a thick layer of black grime between the shielding and the plastic body. Furthermore, I think it's been left in the sun, and all the rubberized coating on the outer coloured sections have changed shade.

So no longer is it a graphite, it's turned a horrible dark green.

At this point I've had it apart, cleaned it thoroughly, removed the shielding and cleaned behind it, and reassembled it. It looks okay but the off-coloured body isn't so nice.

Has anybody attempted to polish the plastics to take the stipple off, leaving the computer completely transparent? And what is the rubbery coating made of - what type of paint could be used to cover it?

[The Fluffy Duck]

The poor thing. After reading that story I am instantly reminded of somebody picking up a dog from the RSPCA

[sanjay]

the fact that it still gets 1.5 hours battery life is formidable...

[Currawong]

Might be a good candidate for the "picture frame" modification or similar.

[Byrd]

As dinky as it looks, the Clamshell is one tough little notebook . Cracking plastics and dirt accumulating in the screen is a common fault.

I'd consider wet sanding the "graphite" sections of the moulding to bring the original colour back to normal. Removing the moulding will look terrible IMO, and I don't think it can be removed easily. With regards to painting, vinyl paint could be an option s it "seeps" into the plastic to create a scratch-free finish. I'd seriously doubt the hard plastic on an Clamshell will permeate this though

JB

[conufsed]

My old Blueberry iBook is still running (except for the cdrom drive), mind you it picked up some corrupt sectors, so it doesnt actually boot at the moment. My son when he was younger managed to pull it off the couch while open & running, and it made a loud thud noise (this happened more than once), and come out the other end unscathed. I really loved the handle, I was amazed at how useful it was

[Carcenomy]

I was suspecting sanding it might do the trick. It's only the bottom plastics and the top curved, coloured section that have really been affected... I'll try giving them a very gentle wet sand when I have it apart for the hard drive upgrade.

Now if only AirPort cards weren't still selling for $100NZ...

Currawong - I have too much fun with the little iBook for picture framing it just yet *chuckle*

[themacuser]

http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/...that-old-ibook

It is possible to hack up a standard Orinoco Gold or Lucent WaveLan to fit in that slot, apparently.

[mivory]

I like the handle on them too! I know there were some issues with them, but if they could re-do that idea with a stronger design (maybe one that also flicks under to become a laptop stand to keep the underside cool) on the new models I think it'd be a great idea.
I made a digital photo frame out of a powerbook 5300 about 3 years ago, and it is on every day, 24hrs, even restarts itself when we have power failures. It's a real focal point in the house and visitors always ask about it. It seems a shame to me to do that to a machine like an ibook though which is still a cool machine in it's own right IMHO.
I've got an airport card for sale in the forums (only for regulars) too. I t seems one Australian dollar is about $1.11 in New Zealand at the moment though, so it'd be a little more expensive for you to bid against Australian buyers I suppose.
Have you had a chat with your paint shop about the idea of painting it? Being portable you could take it in and show them.

[Carcenomy]

The Orinico Silver/WaveLAN hack isn't very friendly with Clamshells, to make 'em fit you have to remove a large section of aluminium... which turns out to be the G3's heatsink. And I like my Clammie too much to send its G3 to a fiery death. Although, I don't really need that 56k modem... perhaps I should concoct an aftermarket cooling setup?

Good tip mivory, I probably should go see the local paintshop. I was thinking of trying Tamiya Polycarbonate paints, but that rubbery coating looks like it could cause trouble.

[sanjay]

Originally Posted by themacuser

http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/...that-old-ibook

It is possible to hack up a standard Orinoco Gold or Lucent WaveLan to fit in that slot, apparently.

all thats done is drive the prices of those cards up...

ive heard that other cards will still work in the PCMCIA slot...gotta try this CISCO one in my snow ibook one day...

(that said, a USB one will generally work fine - not sure why apple was so stingy that they only gave 1 USB port in the clamshell ibook though).

[Carcenomy]

Apparently the DSE cards work - there's drivers for Jaguar on their website? Don't know how you'd get on attaching a dodgy old Realtek based DSE card to the Clammie's antenna though.

I'll post some pics of how it looks at present shortly.

[Byrd]

What DSE cards work Carcenomy - they sell quite a few PCMCIA models.

Of course while you're at stripping the iBook down, it's ripe for a bout of overclocking. The 366Mhz iBook should reach 433Mhz no hassles. Just make sure when putting it back that the exact screws go back where they live, otherwise the heatsink won't make contact with the CPU.

JB

[Carcenomy]

DSE XH6821, based on the Realtek RTL8180L. Not sure if it actually would work though - knowing DSE's cheap Realtek stuff, it might misbehave.

Been thinking about clocking it up a little, 366MHz just doesn't seem to be enough for running Jaguar smoothly.

Right, some pictures!









Hmmm... they're not bright enough to really show the difference, but the bottom speaks for itself. The top side is even worse.

These pictures are a little old now, from when I was experimenting with Ubuntu. What a mistake that was I want to remove the modem shielding too - I never use the modem, so why shield it?

[Byrd]

Looks OK to me! And yeah, pull the shield off that modem! I did a similar clear iBook mod, found in the articles section of this website.

JB

[Carcenomy]

Once I've sorted out the discolouration and do the drive upgrade, I might polish all the internal metal surfaces that are now visible - make it really gleam

I guess the only other real option if I can't bring the colour back up is either paint, or find alternate plastics - which is next to impossible here. Clammie G3 300s are still going in stock configuration with bad batteries locally for well over $200... too much just for plastics to go on a free notebook

[natakim]

Originally Posted by Carcenomy

These pictures are a little old now, from when I was experimenting with Ubuntu. What a mistake that was

i was about to ask, from the screen i thought i recognized something. a little saddened by the mistake remark though

[jubilantjeremy]

Originally Posted by natakim

i was about to ask, from the screen i thought i recognized something. a little saddened by the mistake remark though

It would have been a bit too slow, is my guess.. Which ubuntu was it? It looks like it could have beeen 5.04; 7.04 is much better I think.

Ubuntu is great for PCs though

- Jeremy

[natakim]

Originally Posted by jubilantjeremy

It would have been a bit too slow, is my guess.. Which ubuntu was it? It looks like it could have beeen 5.04; 7.04 is much better I think.

Ubuntu is great for PCs though

- Jeremy

ubuntu rocks, feisty is mighty.

[froggy]

Originally Posted by sanjay

(that said, a USB one will generally work fine - not sure why apple was so stingy that they only gave 1 USB port in the clamshell ibook though).

Glad that you can get a USB airport dongle working … I can't get my D-Link one working either in my clamshell iBook nor in a PowerMac G4.

Cheers,
Andrew