Saturday, February 23, 2008

Powerbook survived HD-ectomy

My beloved "old" (3.5 years) powerbook (G4, 15", 1.5 GHz) started to make humming noises, especially when tilted. A couple of weeks later there were sudden hangups, it would only restart after given some cooling time.
That it finally survived my amateur-surgery - albeit somewhat battered - let me immediately regret my fancying a new macbook. Some notes:

  • I followed this guide

  • I did need to poke into the dvd-drive-slit. I found a corkscrew useful for that - Just don't apply too much force unless you actually love that slightly battered look ...

  • As replacement, I chose the Hitachi Travelstar 5K160, 5400rpm, 8MB, 2.5", 120GB, P-ATA. In Switzerland it can be had at 107 SFr (e.g. at digitec ). Subjectively it's slightly louder and noticably faster than the original.

  • When re-assembling, don't absent-mindedly put screws into the holes meant for DVI-plugs. You'll never get them back out. But, anyway, there are plenty of screws, and even with one lost in the plug-hole, it won't fall apart (I hope).

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