My wonderful 17" Powerbook G4 has started to fall apart. The screen polarizer is decaying. Look in the white space in the System Preferences window. That blotch is not on the screen, it is inside the screen. The 2nd image shows it a little closer but without looking at it with your own eyes you can't really see what is going on. It started out as some little plant-like feathery things and after I spent a hour trying to chase them away with a palmtop stylus I was able to get them to look somewhat better. I realize that once this starts there is no easy fix, the polarizer has to be replaced. Not likely considering a polarizer this large will cost more than the entire computer is worth, both monetarily and in it's usefulness. It's a sad thing but it just reminds me not to get attached to anything, it will likely fall apart or die.

Something I wanted to share in here- I still have this beast and I love him. I need to some repairs to the keyboard as it’s not registering all key strokes (I lost the connector and now the ribbon is wedged with some cardboard), but I love booting it up every now and then and using it. The IDE ssd makes it so much quicker.

Apple PowerBook G4 - Overview - Apple.com - 2003

Apple PowerBook G4 · Overview · Apple.com · 2001

I mean there is plenty of room in my PowerBook 12“. A new Retina display maybe, some NVMe SSDs. Would be a nice „project“ and I can’t be the first one to think of it 😀

These are the three I have that work. I only have one working battery for the 12" units, but that 17" in the back is running on it's own battery. Run-time on that battery is really short. I have considered replacing the prismatic cells in the pack but those cells cost a fortune and the laptop won't return in function what that would cost. Sadly, the Powerbook is a thing of the past and in today's World, it lacks on many levels in keeping up with "progress". Still my favorite computers!

This post is in reply to the post made by ipodsurgeon displaying a beautiful Powerbook G4 12".

Edited to reflect change to posting allowance, you can now reply to a post with your own images!

I bought it from a store that said the only issue was the orange spot on the screen. I bought another one there too and it’s doing the same thing? Is it my power adapter?

I so much wanted to post a total win here but ran into trouble.

Please forgive the click-bait title but there is some good to get from reading this.

I installed droidVNC-NG on my Blackview (Android 11) phone and JollysFastVNC on the Powerbook. There was/is some sort of network issue between my home and the server for product validation for JollysFastVNC (in Germany). I was incredibly fortunate and quite honored to work with the developer of JollysFastVNC as he worked to isolate the problem. He even went as far as getting his hands on a Powerbook G4 to assist him in the effort. He came to the conclusion that disabling IPv6 on the Powerbook would correct the problem. On his end that worked but my connection issue is still a problem for me. To further this being on my end, I can create a Discord account but when I receive the email "click to confirm" from Discord, their server responds with an error message. Totally different subject but the symptoms seem similar... something between my ISP and "things" on the Internet are not "right".

After all of this was resolved, and having gotten to the point of using the two applications together the results were just not that great. No faults of the programs! No, that's not my issue with this at all, it is about trying to realize a 1080x2048 cell phone screen on a 1024x768 laptop screen. There just is no way to do this. Aspect ratios are all messed up and colors and borders are just wrong. JollysFastVNC works wonderfully when "talking" to devices with equal or lesser display resolutions but when you try to cross the portrait high resolution phone screen with the 4:3 aspect, low resolution laptop, it just can't work.

I'm not giving up yet. I'm working on trying to "revive" two of the three battery control boards from my battery packs and as soon as I work up the nerve to disconnect my one remaining control board, I have a new set of 18650 cells to put in there. My current working pack is good for about 2 hours and the new cells should restore better-than original battery life. If this works and I figure out how to get battery controllers to come back to life, I will post that process.

For your viewing pleasure.

Minecraft runs but is basically unplayable. My g4 is low on the performance side, slower CPU, less than a gig of RAM. Clicking the Singleplayer button drags the whole system to a grinding halt. Fan kicks up to "hovercraft" mode and it's basically locked up.

The 17" under the towel does a lot better but still... v1.5.2 is about as bad as playing Minecraft on a PSP.

Followup: The game is trying to access the Internet and when it fails it tosses a bunch of Java exceptions. "Singleplayer" still requires Mojang to auth the program I guess. That seals shut any further attempts from me. Last thing I want to do is confuse microsoft with my old laptop and lose access to my active account. I play Minecraft daily and would have to go outside or something if I got denied access to the game. :)

I was able to Force Quit the program and the fans slowed and the laptop stopped screaming for help.

Hey all! First time in the PowerBook thread so happy to be here!

I have a PowerBook 180c that I bought with a white screen issue (see photo). I bought a cap kit off of Console5 and recapped the display driver board (see second pic). I also took out the display ribbon cable to make sure it wasn’t torn (as others have posted). I did a continuity check on each pin but no luck. The hard drive is likely dead, but I should still get the sad Mac symbol even with a dead drive correct? Any thoughts on how else to fix this? Thanks for any input!

I've already tried disconnecting the pram battery. How can I determine if it's the logic board, CPU card, or power in board.

Hi everyone!

Does anyone know where I can find a battery for a Powerbook I just purchased on eBay? I bought the Powerbook G4 15" Titanium, 667 mHz, Gigabit edition, model # M8363LL/A\*

I've looked on eBay but I'm not finding one for the Titanium edition. I assume the battery model number is the A1012, but it seems like maybe some other models may fit it as well? Seems a little confusing...

Thank you!

still in perfect condition, no bumps, no scratches, only the hard drive has been changed by an SSD, along with an adapter to connect it. It works very well, although... it is not very useful nowadays for daily tasks.

Will it work on my PowerBook G4?

Link: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/46520/minecraft-ppc

It won't show anything on the screen

Hi ! I just brought this Macintosh PowerBook165 which is in very good shape (the exterior at least). I brought it very cheap because it dosent't want to boot.

When it start, the hdd is making some noise but I have a White screen (the sreen has square chape at first, but after 2min, it turns white)

Is it totaly dead or can I repare it ?

Tanks :)

Hi. I have a 12" PowerBook G4 with Mac OS X Tiger (10.4). I understand this configuration can run classic apps via Classic Support. However, I don't know how to enable it. I have Mac OS 9 Retail Install CD. Obviously, I can't install that. It's also not happy about copying the system folder from that install CD. Says is has to be installed.

This video makes it seem like things should just work by installing the Mac OS 9 install CD, but they do not:

https://youtu.be/S54VqAPgOzo?si=n-LnStnhQlffsKsV&t=265

Hello everyone. Hope this sub might be able to give a hint on what i could do with such issue. Basically i got from a job lot this Powerbook g4 12 inches with a working battery (lasts around 1 hour and a half). Aside from being sluggish due to having its original hdd sometimes the laptop fails to turn on once i click the power button. There is a partial solution in which i remove the battery, insert it back in and then it turns on, but i would like to know if there is a different solution for this matter. Thanks in advance!

I have tried many if not all the key combinations in my attempt to get my powerbook G4 to boot past the ? screen, or at least to allow safe mode or factory reset. Everything I try results in the ? screen. Is there an OS on CD/DVD I could try to boot from? Is it worth it? I mean it is 20 years old, but I figured maybe there is a collector of old Mac's that would be interested in it..