Say hello to a newbie..

Hey guys,

My name is Chris and I'm new to the Mac laptop world but not to Apple products. In the past I've owned quite a few iPods, a couple iPod Touches and now have an iPad2 that I use almost all day every day.

My birthday was two days ago so I decided to upgrade to a better laptop since my current Acer Aspire 3690 needs work (new DC jack, new battery and new touchpad on top of a few other things). I was going to buy a 12" 1.07GHz iBook G4 off eBay but got my money back and my brother gave me his 15" 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 which is running 10.5.8 Leopard and has 768MB RAM. I'll be maxing out the ram to 2GB and that should be perfect for what it's going to be used for. I'm also going to clean it up a bit by removing ITunes, Safari, Firefox etc.

Any tips for me? I've been doing a lot of research and have a few apps in mind that I'm planning to install (Maintenance, TenFourFox and AppZapper).

That's fine, but I wouldn't remove iTunes unless you have another computers to sync and backup your ipods to

as for maintenance, Onyx is your best bet

As for app zapper, the free AppCleaner does the same thing

I hardly use ITunes and if I do there's another computer for that.

OnyX does sound like my best bet for maintenance. Thank you for that.

I'll probably use AppCleaner > AppZapper (apparently the newest version can only be used on Snow Leopard). Again, thank you.

Anything else?

Quick question:

I'm running Monolingual and I'm now removing architectures. My current architecture is PPC G4+. Can I remove all others?

Monolingual has been troublesome on the Intel line. Since your machine is a PPC I just don't know what impact it will have on removing other architectures. Make a backup before you continue, would be my advice.

chscag said:

Monolingual has been troublesome on the Intel line. Since your machine is a PPC I just don't know what impact it will have on removing other architectures. Make a backup before you continue, would be my advice.

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Well I removed the other architectures except for PPC G4 and PPC G4+. Everything is fine so far but I was wondering if I could remove PPC G4 as well.

So far by removing the languages and all other programs that I don't use, I've been able to remove 24GB total.

Just because you don't often use something doesn't mean you should remove it. In particular I think it was quite wrongheaded to remove iTunes, you'll never be able to sync your iDevices to to it again and good luck getting the outdated copy your removed back again!

While I'm happy you have a Mac and I hope you enjoy it, I predict you'll find it quite frustrating over time as that's a nearly 10-year-old computer and it just can't cope with anything modern. For isolated purposes its still great (I loved mine), but given your zeal in removing possibly vital pieces of the OS as well as the general obsolescence of the machine, I hope you will be able to move on to a computer made much more recently in the very near future so that you can have a "real" Mac experience.

chas_m said:

Just because you don't often use something doesn't mean you should remove it. In particular I think it was quite wrongheaded to remove iTunes, you'll never be able to sync your iDevices to to it again and good luck getting the outdated copy your removed back again!

While I'm happy you have a Mac and I hope you enjoy it, I predict you'll find it quite frustrating over time as that's a nearly 10-year-old computer and it just can't cope with anything modern. For isolated purposes its still great (I loved mine), but given your zeal in removing possibly vital pieces of the OS as well as the general obsolescence of the machine, I hope you will be able to move on to a computer made much more recently in the very near future so that you can have a "real" Mac experience.

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I have another computer for iTunes and I rarely even use that. I never need to sync my iPad.

Although I appreciate your concerns, it's not necessary. I'm having zero issues using this Powerbook. It's pretty quick and I haven't even maxed out the RAM yet so I imagine that it can only get better from here. 2GB from NewEgg is already on the way

Way to go CM287.

Sounds like you're going to have a blast migrating to Mac.

CanuckBoater said:

Way to go CM287. Sounds like you're going to have a blast migrating to Mac.

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So far so good! I'm extremely happy with this machine. It's pretty flawless as well. It's just missing the return/enter key. I've already got a new one on the way along with an OEM charger since this Chinese one doesn't charge the battery.

Download Youview and spotify. I recommend them

Danielg4 said:

Download Youview and spotify. I recommend them

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I would but I've got my iPad2 for stuff like that lol

I hope Sandy calms down by tomorrow so I can get my RAM and OEM charger lol

ChrisMan287 said:

I would but I've got my iPad2 for stuff like that lol

I hope Sandy calms down by tomorrow so I can get my RAM and OEM charger lol

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Lol yeah. I have a Powermac G4, but I am looking to get a Powerbook G4 or G5 How much did yours cost?

Danielg4 said:

Lol yeah. I have a Powermac G4, but I am looking to get a Powerbook G4 or G5 How much did yours cost?

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I actually got mine for free But I still see them go for $100-$250 online.

About all I can say is, as you start trying to open and run more apps, when one of them won't work a couple of months from now and everything looks like it should work - remember back to when you used monolingual.

bobtomay said:

About all I can say is, as you start trying to open and run more apps, when one of them won't work a couple of months from now and everything looks like it should work - remember back to when you used monolingual.

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LOL. I guess I'll see.

I really don't run any apps and don't plan on running any other than what I run now. I've got no need for more apps.

Quick question if anyone can answer this:

I got my OEM charger yesterday and tried hooking it up when I got my power back about an hour ago. The ring flashes green for a second but does not charge my battery (not even enough for me to turn on the laptop like with the cheap charger). The ad said that it was working and it looks mint.

Do you think the battery is bad or it's the charger? It was packed extremely well so I doubt it got damaged in shipment.

EDIT: Never mind! I figured it out. Both the new OEM and old Chinese chargers are 45W units. I need a 65W charger. D'OH! Time to buy a 65Watter.

ChrisMan287 said:

I actually got mine for free But I still see them go for $100-$250 online.

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Lucky!!!!!!!!!
I got a $2500 mac pro from my friend for free.

Danielg4 said:

Lucky!!!!!!!!! I got a $2500 mac pro from my friend for free.

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So why are you looking to buy a PowerBook?

Update:

I finally got my 2GB RAM upgrade from NewEgg and I'm very pleased with the improved performance. I highly recommend them. They shipped the same day I ordered and it was recognized by the laptop immediately.