Very Slow, worth taking spare parts from other machine?

[gerry87]

Hey, my ibook g4 has gotten tediously slow lately and i've been trying everything to speed it up.

I have another g4 bought at the same time that has been out of action for over a year with motherboard damage.

Would there be any benefit in taking parts from one machine and installing them in the other? eg the motherboard from this in the other one, or ram from the other one in this. (Is it possible to take the ram out of that one and put it in this, are there enough slots?)

Does it work like this? The other parts were bought at the same time but would have had much less use, would that allow them to speed things up or would they just be the same?

Thanks

 

[ADKhikerVW]

It depends, what are the specs of your current machine? If your RAM is already maxed out then there isn't much you can do. The iBook only has one slot for RAM, in addition to what is built in to the motherboard. The only other part you could really swap out is the hard drive, which won't have much of an impact on performance.

 

[gerry87]

It depends, what are the specs of your current machine? If your RAM is already maxed out then there isn't much you can do. The iBook only has one slot for RAM, in addition to what is built in to the motherboard. The only other part you could really swap out is the hard drive, which won't have much of an impact on performance.

Processor: 1.33 GHz, PowerPC G4
Memory: 512 MB
(the other one is the exact same)

Am I right in thinking the memory is currently one 256mb soldered to something and one loose 256mb one? So the 'extra' slot is already filled? Or is it a 512mb card and an empty slot so that i could take the 512 mb card from the other machine?

Would the HD have any impact on performance at all?

 

[dtravis7]

if this is a 1.33Ghz 12" ibook then there is one 512Meg Dimm soldered to the mainboard and one empty slot. You can put a 1GB PC2700 SoDimm into that slot for 1.5GB RAM.

If it's the 14" 1.33Ghz it might only have a 256 on board and one in the slot.

Here are the specs on the 14" 1.33Ghz model iBook:

14" iBook G4/1.33 GHz (Late 2004)

Here are the specs on the 12" 1.33Ghz iBook:

12" iBook G4/1.33 GHz (Mid 2005)

 

[pigoo3]

If the two laptops are the same...then there really is no advantage to swapping any parts.

If you had two remote controls for your TV...both exactly the same. One has been used a lot, and one is brand new. If you all of a sudden used the "new/not used" remote...do you think that you all of a sudden would get better/faster remote control performance...no!

The same goes for computers...if they're exactly the same model/configuration...they will perform similarly.

Your iBook is slow possibly because:

- it's an older computer, and running modern programs & internet is just more than it can handle
- your hard drive is getting full, so maybe deleting some unnecessary stuff would help
- you need to repair your permissions
- you have too many programs open at the same time

Hope this helps,

- Nick