Can My iBook G4 Hold Leopard?

Question

I have an iBook G4, here are the specs:
Processor: 1.33 GHz
The rougly 60GB of disc space it came with
RAM: 256 or 512MB (supports up to 1.25 or 1.5GB, but I just have what came in it, though I'm not sure which is in mine)
I have a disc to upgrade it to Tiger, but I'd love to go one step further and upgrade to Leopard. However, I'm not sure if my laptop will support this. I've read that I need more RAM to install Leopard. I've also read discussions of people who have the same model I do, and other people told them to install Leopard to fix whatever problem they may have been having. So, should I assume I need more RAM, or should I assume it's safe without it? Also, I'm not entirely sure whether or not I have 256MB or 512MB or what, and I can't get on it to check. That's part of the reason I'm trying to reinstall the OS, because it won't start up, and I've narrowed it down to this solution, but I figured I'd just upgrade at the same time. So, should I add more memory, or will it work as is?
Also, is it extremely difficult to add a new (larger) hard drive, so I can store more stuff? Like.. 320GB. Is this a hard exchange, or simple as pulling out the old one and putting in the new one?
And one last question. I'm sure this is a dumb crazy question, but would it be possible to switch an iBook G4 to an Intel chip in order to support Snow Leopard? I probably wouldn't actually do it, I'm just curious if it's possible.
Message was edited by: AnthonyOmPLHDreads

Answer 1

If the same computer is having difficulty as suggested was the case
in your earlier post, were any of the ideas brought up then & there
tried in regard to resolving them, back within this other thread?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2230651&tstart=0
If the computer is a 1.33GHz 14" iBook G4, the fixed RAM as shipped
would have been a 256MB chip on the logic board; but the later 1.42GHz
14" iBook G4 would have 512MB on the board. {Either one could take a
1024MB 200-pin SO-DIMM PC2700-DDR333 upgrade RAM chip.}
An iBook G4 14" with 1.33GHz processor, shipped with a version of 10.3
on installer discs and installed in the hard disk drive; the later model 14"
and 12" (mid-2005) shipped with versions of Tiger 10.4.x on DVD discs.
The hard drive, as indicated in the earlier thread link above, was suggested
as a probable cause of earlier issues back in November. So, it likely still is.
The moving parts and wear items generally are the first to check into, when
or if a computer stops working; that is, after the more obvious likely causes.
Power issues, such as they are in a portable (battery, charger, DC-in board,
and PMU reset) can also contribute to a failure to start. An overly full HDD
can result in the corruption of the hard drive's basic directory and if that is
bad, then a tool such as Disk Warrior could be used to rebuild the directory.
An upgrade to a new OS X over the top of a damaged hard disk drive will not
fix the underlying low-level drive problems; if only directory damage, a repair
via Disk Warrior is likely. If failing hard drive damage, a new drive is needed.
If there is nothing to be saved or salvaged from the ailing drive, and it is open
to experimentation, then the computer could be booted from an OS X install
disc and the Disk Utility on there may be used to "secure erase" one-pass to
wipe the drive content, and then choose to reformat the hard disk drive, the
partition map APM would be used, and for format scheme HFS+ before a new
installation is tried, could at least let you know if the old original hard disk drive
has a few more hours run-time in there before a catastrophic failure costs all
the data and work on a computer. You can sometimes get an old worn drive to
work awhile longer by fixing it with Disk Warrior, and/or totally wiping & reformat
the drive, so no old directories or data exists, and start over.
You could try recovering existing data from that iBook's drive via FireWire Target
Disk Mode, and use a FireWire cable to access data in another Mac. Such data
could be saved to a blank CD or DVD media in the healthy Mac for later recovery.
There are other ideas which could also be tried or used in these matters.
And there is every chance an installation of Tiger or Leopard *will not*
fix this issue, by itself. There is more going on.
Good luck & happy computing!