Swap hard drive from G4 14" 1.33 to a G4 14" 1.2?

Question

After my display in my G4 14" 1.33 bit the dust (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6439953) and giving up on a fix, I've come across another G4 14". According to the owner, a Genius has said the hard drive is dead. While I'm proceeding with caution, if this is indeed the case, it may be worth the fix.
Here are the differences between the two machines:
- It's got a 1.2 in it vs. my 1.33
- It has a little more RAM: 768 vs. my 512
- It has a Combo drive vs. my Super drive
The magic question: Can I drop my 1.33 working hard drive into this machine without major consequences? While I don't want to lose all data, it's not a big deal if I do. I just want the drive to work in this machine.
The secondary question: Is swapping out the Combo for my Super possible? Is this as simple as taking out the old one and popping in the new one?
Thanks for your help!
Message was edited by: Lactoes

Answer 1

Lance,
Well here we are again.
Well so that new 1.33 did boot but you're getting the folder-? Do you have the original installer or the silver on black retail installer. Will the new one boot from the install disk? You might want to reinstall the OS cleanly in the new machine in situ.
Another thing:
only to completely lock up a few minutes later.
Now that still sounds like GPU.
Look on the bottom of the logic board. See that open area about 2" inboard of the headphone output jack. That should be directly under the graphics chip. It's a
ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 4x AGP (More about this later). Try placing a shim in that area. Those large square adhesive feet/bumpers that they sell at the hardware store are perfect. Make sure it's fat enough to put pressure there when the iBook is flat on the table.
Now remember in that last post when this exchange happened.
The ext display works.
So good GPU.
Well turns out that's not exactly true. Here's an email from Mike on this board:
"One thing I would like to add is that there is a misconception out
there that if the iBook will run an external display and the iBook
screen is black then the monitor/wiring/ or inverter is at fault and
the logic board is ok. Maybe ok. Mine ran an external display
perfectly and had a totally green screen on the iBook. The Apple Tech
showed me that by pressing on the area where the graphics chip was
soldered to the logic board he could make the iBook screen go from
green back to full color. As soon as he let off the pressure the
screen went green again. The eternal monitor looked perfect
throughout. I was also experiencing intermittent kernel panics as well
and the Tech told me he thought that was also a result of the loose
graphics chip explaining that the GUI ran through the graphics chip
and when the current was briefly interrupted by the loose chip this
forced the system into a kernel panic. Thought I would pass that along
maybe it will help someone. Unexplained kernel panics also could be an
early warning that there is a problem with the soldering on the
graphics chip."
So try the same trick on that board.
One bit of good news is that chip is a ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 4x AGP and there are thousands of them out there that could be swapped in if it turns out that chip is bad.
Richard
Message was edited by: spudnuty