Screw you, designer of the 12 inch Powerbook!

[theducks]

I replaced the HDD in my cousin Steve's PowerBook G4 1.5ghz today. I had heard stories that they were a nightmare to get into, and was relieved at how easy it was to swap the hard drive. Then I went to re-install MacOS.. and found the optical drive didn't work.

No problem, I thought. I'll just get him to buy a MacBook Air optical drive, open that, swap the optical drive out, and it'll be good as new. Looked pretty accessible. Guess again! Turns out you need to deroute EVERY cable inside it, then disassemble the heatsink assemblies and remove the logic board. To change the optical drive. Thanks guys. His computer could also do with a new LCD panel, which doesn't seem like that much work, once you've removed the logic board. Perhaps I need some new hobbies. This one is doin' my head in.

I think in retrospect, I'll just tell him to buy a USB Optical drive off eBay :P

Comments

[fee.livejournal.com]

LOL alex... this is why i pay someone else to fix my computer. then again you said "remove the logic" which sounds like its required to play with the mac book. ;)

[dannipenguin.livejournal.com]

Speaking of optical drives...

[theducks.livejournal.com]

I mentioned to Steph on both Friday and Monday nights that I have the drive for the machine.

Because I have to retrofit a few other parts into her machine, I'd rather do it at my place.. so if you want to come over for an hour or so at some point and bring it, that could work. Maybe we could watch a movie or something.

I also have the "old" (11 months old) 250GB drive out of my MacBook Pro, if you want to offer me $50 for it for an upgrade. Just let me know a day or so in advance so I can make sure I've got all my data off it.