Mac OS 9 booting on: PowerBook G4 17" Aluminum 5,1 (Detailed Posts)

[GigaG]

Update: I'm typing this from the 17" PB G4!

One odd thing nobody has mentioned - there's a high pitched whine that comes from the area near the DC in jack. On OSX, it only happens when the machine is under some loads or scrolling through certain menus, but it's near-constant under OS9. It seems to cease when the trackpad button is active, for whatever reason.

[robespierre]

That type of phenomenon is called "microphonics" and can especially affect SMD caps and inductors. The idea is that the component changes size slightly as current passes through it, which is audible if the waveform pulses are at sound frequencies. It can sometimes be cured by judicious use of rubber pads or RTV silicone.

[GigaG]

Is there any way to get external speakers or headphones working on this?

[LarsG5]

I'm using a cheap chinese USB sound card - it works out of the box.

[mrhappy]

Just got it running on my Aluminum G4!

I have a few questions though

1. Can I dual boot with Tiger?

I Have mine dual booting with 10.4.11

2. To enable the speakers, does the device plugged into the headphone jack have to be a working device, or could I just cut the plug of a cheap garbage pair of earbuds and use that?

A Dummy plug will enable the speakers to work, however on mine only the left speaker works so not sure if that's a thing or if speaker is cooked?

[Roman323]

I know this was asked before, but someone on this website told me that the DLSD G4 PowerBooks will boot into OS 9 with simple open firmware commands. Can someone try this, as I was able to get the boot loader to see OS 9 universal installer from this website, but when I tried to boot it the system turned off, possibly incompatible video or sound maybe.

Here is the link:  https://mac-classic.com/articles/mac-os-9-on-unsupported-systems/

He told me to apply some screamer script. but still getting the samething. Can someone give this a try and see what is the reason why once OS 9 disc is selected, it will start booting, but then turn off.

Thanks,

I think we are making progress, if we can get the G4 DLSD 15 and 17 inch models to boot, I think we can safely say the G4 PowerBooks can all support, though unsupported OS 9.2.2

[DieHard]

I know this was asked before, but someone on this website told me that the DLSD G4 PowerBooks will boot into OS 9 with simple open firmware commands.

Well, he actually said "I don't remember if it was a DLSD Model..." (Double Layer SuperDrive/High-Resolution)
Which unfortunately, is all the way up to a 5,8 model and uncharted territory, the more you stray, from the chips/chipsets and other board features of the OS 9 compatible hardware, you will be SOL when it comes to a workable OS9 unit; the 7447a is OK, but you are introducing DD2 (instead of DDR1 PC2700 like the unit I made this thread about) and other motherboard changes. 

If you have an old G4 desktop or older Mac OS 9 native G4 laptop...
The 7447a will still need OF patch, but then you can put the unit in target mode (the 5,8 model still has a FW port) and install to the Laptop's HD (as I did here), then replace the ROM file with the iMic ROM, after that try to boot, if that does not work and it "reboots" it's safe to say the 5,8 models are too different for the iMic ROM

[LarsG5]

A Dummy plug will enable the speakers to work, however on mine only the left speaker works so not sure if that's a thing or if speaker is cooked?

Your speaker might be cooked - mine work just fine. Btw, have you tested them under OS X?

[mrhappy]

Your speaker might be cooked - mine work just fine. Btw, have you tested them under OS X?

I just noticed the speaker issue when I checked the dummy plug for GigaG... haven't tested under OS X.

I've mostly been using headphones and had the volume cranked/maxed while playing drums so I could have fried it doing that! Haha! 

[Protools5LEGuy]

Heat sink pad on upper lid is critical, replace it and no CPU overheating and it will fix cache error

Can you elaborate it, please?

I have two thermal blue strips unused from a nvme disk.

Back to Powerbook 5.1 17", everymac have removed the wayback machine links for disassembling the machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20100413102532/http://www.ifixit.com:80/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-17-Inch-1-1-67-GHz-Hard-Drive-Replacement/246/1

The guide to dissasemble

Page 1 https://web.archive.org/web/20100413102532/http://www.ifixit.com:80/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-17-Inch-1-1-67-GHz-Hard-Drive-Replacement/246/1

Page 2 https://web.archive.org/web/20100413104658/http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-17-Inch-1-1-67-GHz-Hard-Drive-Replacement/246/2

Page 3 https://web.archive.org/web/20100413104703/http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-17-Inch-1-1-67-GHz-Hard-Drive-Replacement/246/3

Page 4 https://web.archive.org/web/20100412203936/http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-17-Inch-1-1-67-GHz-Hard-Drive-Replacement/246/4

Page 5 https://web.archive.org/web/20100413104708/http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-17-Inch-1-1-67-GHz-Hard-Drive-Replacement/246/5

Page 6 has pictures broken on all wayback machine backups AFAIK

[DieHard]

Heat sink pad on upper lid is critical, replace it and no CPU overheating and it will fix cache error

Can you elaborate it, please?

I have two thermal blue strips unused from a nvme disk.

OK, so this is one of those weird mind fucks that makes you think you are crazy,  I just watched 3 videos from OWC and a bunch of videos from other people and the thermal pads are no where to be seen ?!!

Finally, this manual on page 75 shows the pad and comments on it, even though all the photos in the rest of manual ignore it and do not show it on the logic board; on page 75 they even explain it may "stick" to the top cover (as it often does):

https://www.applerepairmanuals.com/the_manuals_are_in_here/PowerBook_G4_17in.pdf



NVMe pads should work fine, just test the thickness, or research the part numbered mentioned in the manual for specs.

It is also explains on subsequent pages that you can re-do the actual CPU arctic silver/pads if you remove the logic board, I never did that procedure on this model, the easily accessed thermal pad that covers the 2 chips corrected the cache error when I put back it back in place and secured the top lid; but knowing the age of these units, a complete breakdown, cleaning and cpu re-arcticing is probably a good idea for longevity as they run hot; maintenance on older macs (especially these laptops) is not for the squeamish.  It's funny that the Pismos are older, yet are sooo much easier to work on... literally a fraction of the time to break down an entire G3... unless you are talking iBook, I just throw those away as I hate them, so many hours of my life wasted simply changing a hard drive in those piss-poorly designed units.

[shazbot]

Just recently returned to this wonderful place. Well I have acquired a 17" G4 1Ghz. Upgraded the HD to MSATA 128GB. Target firewire to my Powerbook (TI) restore the Die Hard DAW, all good. I replaced the rom but the little shit will be not boot. Just a flashing folder. Is this because I have not installed OS9 drivers? Slightly confused, any help would be much appreciated.

[macarone]

>Is this because I have not installed OS9 drivers?

I've said this on previous posts, but here it is again:

To boot into OS 9, the OS 9 drivers must be installed on the Hard Drive, by erasing the whole hard drive.
You CANNOT install the OS 9 drivers on a single partition.

DiscUtility 11.1 will accomplish this, and after erasing and installing the OS 9 drivers, it will partition the Hard Drive.

DiscWarrior 4.3 will "bless" all Systems. Just run it on any partition you want to be bootable, and it will be.

If a Partition has information on it for Copy Protected applications, Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.7 is able to clone a partition, preserving the copy protection on the cloned drive. You must manually select "clone" instead of copy.

Drive Genius 2.2.1  is able to clone a whole hard drive rather than just a partition. I have never tested whether it copies the OS 9 drivers, which are installed on the first 8 invisible partitions. To test this, you would need 3 Hard Drives (NOT partitions)
  1)  a bootable OS X hard drive with Drive Genius on it
  2) a hard drive with OS 9 drivers installed and with a blessed OS 9 System Folder
  3) a hard drive that you want to clone OS 9 to

Please report back your results!

[IIO]

yep, no OS9 drivers, no OS9 boot.
requires a reformat of the whole drive.
and in case you only have 10.5.x installed, discutil wont do it anymore, so you have to do it via console (or via a 10.4.x or OS9 bootabale media - this is how we basically suggest it for the macmini by providing a CD image)

[shazbot]

Well I finally made the destination and could have saved myself a whole load of coasters and going the scenic route!

I did think OS9 drivers were the issue but needed to verify hence the last message. Several attempts in Target Firewire mode with my TiBook to no avail - Tried Diskwarrior, I purchased this many years ago and managed to get it boot and rebuild but nada. I went hunting for Jaguar OS discs also, found them and burnt them. Wouldn't boot. Tried OS 10.4 disc 1, no drivers. In the end my last shot was the Disc for Unsupported machines - to my suprise, booted straightaway and installed in 10 mins. Everything now setup. Just finished installing my old Logic Pro and dug out the XS Key, a long with Reason 2.5. Got an old Mbox so will grab LE from here also. Just need to decide the most stable interface. Firewire Edirol FA101 could be my next purchase. Recently acquired an old Triton and JV1080 also so will be getting everything midi'd up to my MT4. Will be interesting to see how it pans out over the next few weeks. Currently working in Live/FL Studio on MacBook Air M1 & Mac Pro.

As for the Powerbook G4 17" - this is the 1GHz version with 2GB ram installed. Fastest machine to date for me re OS9, so snappy and amazeballs. I have a few TIBooks, 1 with a MSata, it flies but sounds like a wind tunnel on full whack after a while. 

The only issues with 17" is the speakers. Cannot figure out the exact part to replace. When I first got the machine I had OSX 10.4.11 installed but audio only worked through plugged in headphones, can live without it but would be nice at some point.

Thank you all to making this possible.

Cheers,

Shea.

[kahuna]

I decided to pull the trigger on a first generation PowerBook G4 A1010 867Mhz. I really like the 12" form factor 

What will be the best/easiest way of installing MacOS 9 on it? Any chance that it can dual-boot with Sorbet, or even better triple-boot: MacOS9, Sorbet, Linux ? (yeah, Linux guy, sorry!).
I do not have a Titanium that I can connect over Firewire... I do have a G3 Clamshell 366Mhz (no firewire) with MacOS 9.2.2 and a PowerMac G5 with Firewire (but running MacOSX Sorbet, Linux & MorphOS)

Thanks!