page
5
The
Ultimate PowerBook 1400 Upgrade guide (also the PB 2400 & 3400)
Going in deep,
cover me – cont'd
If you search around the Internet used Mac hardware sites and eBay,
you will likely find many selling various working G3 kits pulled from
PB 1400, 2400 or 3400 models for various reasons, like selling for parts
or the LCD screen had died. You may surprisingly find “old stock”
kits that were never installed for cheap, just be real careful what
you are buying and ALWAYS buy with a credit card like VISA where you
can dispute the charge for a refund if you get ripped off.
Open up and ready to install
the G3 466Mhz. Click pictures
I found a
new discounted Sonnet Crescendo™ PB/G3 466Mhz kit for only $262.45
plus $10 shipping on the internet in about eight minutes of searching.
It arrived in two days and it only took ten minutes to install the software
and the kit. Even though the original 603e 133Mhz processor was surprisingly
acceptable, the new G3 466Mhz is a barnburner under OS 9.1. It will
even give my G3-500 upgraded Wallstreet (PDQ) a run for its money running
OS 9.2.2 and clobbering it when running OS X 10.2.8!
G3 466Mhz kit took a few minutes
to install, 184% faster!
One additional side benefit of the Sonnet G3 upgrade is that it uses less battery because the G3 had a lower wattage requirement to run than the 603e processor did. I say about an 18% improvement in battery life, something precious to the now archiaic NiCad batteries short use life.
Just use
it –
This has indeed been a lot of fun and I’ve regained a lot of respect
for my old warhorse, which now is pretty fast with the G3 processor
in it. Just a rough benchmarking with Photoshop 6 running under OS 9.1,
it ran some tough filters at 184% faster than with the original 603e
133Mhz processor.
I did want to
add a few small items you can still do and some parts to stay away from.
One of the PowerBook 1400c we bought on eBay, for some unknown reason
had its Serial and ADB ports suddenly die, you could smell something burning.
After researching a bit, I’ve found that this isn’t all that
rare on PB1400’s. No one seems to know why it happens when it does
happen. We did find a good used 1400c 133Mhz logic board on eBay for only
$15.51 + 6.75 shipping, a great find and some skillful bidding.
One part that
you frequently see on eBay and other sites that are a complete waste of
time, is the 16-bit internal to external video port. The video on the
PB1400 just doesn’t have the poop to justify the often $60 to $80
sellers want for them. If you want to go to an external Mac monitor, looks
for the Apple made 8-bit port card and Apple monitor adaptor cable.
I hope to add an ftp site that you can download the difficult to find drivers and applications for the various Modem, Ethernet and 802.11b PC Cards we mentioned and found with months of research. Check back here at the end of the article for the link.
Now go have some fun.
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