Recently acquired two well-used PowerBooks...what can I do, now?

[splifingate]

While working at a Client's house, it was the white box with the Apple that first drew my eye...

Turns-out, Mr Client had a large stash of old laptops/comps on a shelf in the garage. He let me have everything.

In addition to the PBs, there were a handful of Dells, and a pristine MacBook5,1 (with original install disks).

Everything will be (to the best of my ability) restored to functionality, and re-purposed, so that I (or another) can use them. The Dells are a no-brainer, as is the MB5,1

The PowerBooks look to be intact, though well-used (a few cracks/dents).

First is a PowerBook5,8 (M9969LL/A).

Second is a PowerBook6,7 (M9848LL/A).

Neither has a power adapter.

AFAIK, these units have not been power-on in ~15y

Based-upon the Dells, password-locked accounts were not a priority, so there is a good chance everything will be accessible as it was when last powered-on.

I don't currently have pwr adapters, but I'll source one/two soon.

Thoughts on first-steps, "don't do this!" wisdom, and "Could you...?"'s would be highly appreciated

 

[TheShortTimer]

Congrats on the haul!

I'd ask that if you can, please show us some photos.

 

[B S Magnet]

While working at a Client's house, it was the white box with the Apple that first drew my eye...

Turns-out, Mr Client had a large stash of old laptops/comps on a shelf in the garage. He let me have everything.

In addition to the PBs, there were a handful of Dells, and a pristine MacBook5,1 (with original install disks).

Everything will be (to the best of my ability) restored to functionality, and re-purposed, so that I (or another) can use them. The Dells are a no-brainer, as is the MB5,1

The PowerBooks look to be intact, though well-used (a few cracks/dents).

First is a PowerBook5,8 (M9969LL/A).

Second is a PowerBook6,7 (M9848LL/A).

Neither has a power adapter.

AFAIK, these units have not been power-on in ~15y

Based-upon the Dells, password-locked accounts were not a priority, so there is a good chance everything will be accessible as it was when last powered-on.

I don't currently have pwr adapters, but I'll source one/two soon.

Thoughts on first-steps, "don't do this!" wisdom, and "Could you...?"'s would be highly appreciated

Well done, especially, on the PowerBook5,8! That was the model I used for virtually all the testing and work on the Snow Leopard on PowerPC project. Also, that’s the final 12-inch iBook offered, which (like that PowerBook) shipped with an updated logic board design (back when Apple were still planning on sticking with PowerPC processors for a few more years, but ultimately didn’t). Both were the only models in their respective series to have an integrated AirPort/Bluetooth card built-in (and not something one needed to add in later on).

So long as the logic board and power board on each are good, and the displays haven’t “vinegared”, then the adding of a power adapter to each — 65W for the PowerBook, 45W for the iBook (the 65W will also work on the iBook) — ought to get you up and, at least, to a boot screen (holding down “Opt” key immediately after pressing on the power button). Getting to the hard drive, if you plan to put in a much faster SSD, is easier to access with the PowerBook. There are how-to guides on doing this on iFixit.com (PowerBook and iBook). You’ll definitely want to review those first.

New batteries will be fairly tough to find for both, and the price you’ll pay will likely be high, even for the aftermarket versions (which are, basically, the only ones for sale now). Aftermarket batteries also tend to be of mixed quality (putting it nicely). You may be able to find lightly-used, Apple-branded batteries on your local buy/sell site or at a local swap meet. They might even be found on non-working iBooks and PowerBooks.

 

[eyoungren]

Thoughts on first-steps, "don't do this!" wisdom…

Do not search through the HDs for useful stuff other than applications. I made the mistake of doing that once and ran across…'personal' photos. Once seen, certain things cannot be unseen, which you wish you'd never seen to begin with because you now have the problem of not being able to unsee it.

Find any useful apps. don't dig around in home folders and then wipe the drives.

 

[B S Magnet]

Do not search through the HDs for useful stuff other than applications. I made the mistake of doing that once and ran across…'personal' photos. Once seen, certain things cannot be unseen, which you wish you'd never seen to begin with because you now have the problem of not being able to unsee it.

Find any useful apps. don't dig around in home folders and then wipe the drives.

Put another way: always know what you’re allowing yourself to get into when you find personal files on a new-to-you used Mac, prior to a total wipe or drive replacement.

Sometimes it can be as innocuous as fifteen-year-old lesson plans and assignments (made with Word 6.0 for OS 9) for a grade school classroom (as was once the case for an iBook G3 I picked up).

Sometimes it can be a casual glimpse into the lives of people who were social, even self-indulgent creatures (like the rich dude who bought the BTO/CTO A1139 I have, who seemed to party a lot, who didn’t seem to have a job, and who, based on many low-res digital pics typical of the mid aughties, posed with equally posh pals at posh bars around a certain expensive city whose name shall not be shared here).

And sometimes — sometimes — it could uncover grim, criminal-level artefacts whose images and videos, if such are there, can scar one for life. Mercifully, I have been spared of this personally, but I have known of others who were less lucky in that sense.

And then there are countless shades of these three extremes. Random people can be messy and complicated and sometimes horrible as much as they can be sometimes delightful. For the latter, it can be like witnessing a glowing presence from afar, whom you will never, ever meet or know, but are glad such people still exist out there and can give you a sliver of hope in humanity more generally.

 

[eyoungren]

Put another way: always know what you’re allowing yourself to get into when you find personal files on a new-to-you used Mac, prior to a total wipe or drive replacement.

Sometimes it can be as innocuous as fifteen-year-old lesson plans and assignments (made with Word 6.0 for OS 9) for a grade school classroom (as was once the case for an iBook G3 I picked up).

Sometimes it can be a casual glimpse into the lives of people who were social, even self-indulgent creatures (like the rich dude who bought the BTO/CTO A1139 I have, who seemed to party a lot, who didn’t seem to have a job, and who, based on many low-res digital pics typical of the mid aughties, posed with equally posh pals at posh bars around a certain expensive city whose name shall not be shared here).

And sometimes — sometimes — it could uncover grim, criminal-level artefacts whose images and videos, if such are there, can scar one for life. Mercifully, I have been spared of this personally, but I have known of others who were less lucky in that sense.

And then there are countless shades of these three extremes. Random people can be messy and complicated and sometimes horrible as much as they can be sometimes delightful. For the latter, it can be like witnessing a glowing presence from afar, whom you will never, ever meet or know, but are glad such people still exist out there and can give you a sliver of hope in humanity more generally.

Yeah, uhm well…here's an example of what I found on a 17" HD-DLSD bought in mid-2010.

You get the pickture.

I got contacted by the seller via the eBay message system about three months after buying his Mac. He wanted to know if I had perhaps made a backup of the drive.

Uh. No.

 

[B S Magnet]

I got contacted by the seller via the eBay message system about three months after buying his Mac. He wanted to know if I had perhaps made a backup of the drive.

That the seller thought his… member was worth saving. 🤦‍♀️

Speaking as a woman who’s received one too many such pics, unprompted and unsolicited, by rando dudes on the internet, why… why does this not seem like an outlier circumstance amongst dudes out there?

 

[eyoungren]

That the seller thought his… member was worth saving. 🤦‍♀️

Speaking as a woman who’s received one too many such pics, unprompted and unsolicited, by rando dudes on the internet, why… why does this not seem like an outlier circumstance amongst dudes out there?

I can't answer that. It's never been any mindset I've ever had, even when discombobulated.

 

[splifingate]

Congrats on the haul!

I'd ask that if you can, please show us some photos.

thx

My first AAPL was a release-day Mac Pro 1,1, then a store-bought 2015 MacBook (cough) Pro . . . these lead me into the realm of archeology

They'll rest on the shelf until I can get a power source.

In the interim, I'll snap a few photos.

 

[splifingate]

Well done, especially, on the PowerBook5,8! That was the model I used for virtually all the testing and work on the Snow Leopard on PowerPC project. Also, that’s the final 12-inch iBook offered, which (like that PowerBook) shipped with an updated logic board design (back when Apple were still planning on sticking with PowerPC processors for a few more years, but ultimately didn’t). Both were the only models in their respective series to have an integrated AirPort/Bluetooth card built-in (and not something one needed to add in later on).

So long as the logic board and power board on each are good, and the displays haven’t “vinegared”, then the adding of a power adapter to each — 65W for the PowerBook, 45W for the iBook (the 65W will also work on the iBook) — ought to get you up and, at least, to a boot screen (holding down “Opt” key immediately after pressing on the power button). Getting to the hard drive, if you plan to put in a much faster SSD, is easier to access with the PowerBook. There are how-to guides on doing this on iFixit.com (PowerBook and iBook). You’ll definitely want to review those first.

New batteries will be fairly tough to find for both, and the price you’ll pay will likely be high, even for the aftermarket versions (which are, basically, the only ones for sale now). Aftermarket batteries also tend to be of mixed quality (putting it nicely). You may be able to find lightly-used, Apple-branded batteries on your local buy/sell site or at a local swap meet. They might even be found on non-working iBooks and PowerBooks.

Advice noted, and stored. thx

Very excited to restore such beauty.

Yeah; it's the battery situation that concerns me the most.

Mr Client's assertion was "Well, maybe you can make some $ off these things."

ha! The lofty goal is--if I can even afford to get them running--they might come into the hands of someone who can use 'em.

My sentimentality always gets the best of me

More to come....

 

[splifingate]

Do not search through the HDs for useful stuff other than applications. I made the mistake of doing that once and ran across…'personal' photos. Once seen, certain things cannot be unseen, which you wish you'd never seen to begin with because you now have the problem of not being able to unsee it.

Find any useful apps. don't dig around in home folders and then wipe the drives.

Have already seen more than I needed to see

I am pondering a C2J Moment with Mr Client . . . but, I may just extract the neodymium/platters for my future art projects

 

[B S Magnet]

it's the battery situation that concerns me the most.

With noted exceptions (like certain Titanium PowerBook G4s models), Apple didn’t include firmware on the aluminium PowerBook G4s or (all) iBooks to auto-downclock the CPU in absence of a (working) battery. (Contrast with the Intel laptops all downclocking to 1.0GHz when no working battery is present.)

Which is to say: even if the batteries in those two laptops you acquired hold no charge, each system should still run from the mains at full processing power. They might not be immediately portable, but they should otherwise perform every bit their full capability.

Mr Client's assertion was "Well, maybe you can make some $ off these things."

Even with the A1138, which was the final 15-inch PowerBook G4, and which was on sale for a brief four months, secondhand prices for used examples are low. As for iBook G4s: I picked up three (including one identical to yours) locally for free. To wit, Macs-as-commodities is reflected in finding local posts of people getting rid of working, 2013 iMacs for free, so long as one is willing to pick it up.

Macs, as with other computers, have so saturated the world, not unlike automobiles, that only outlier examples (typically, fully-outfitted examples) during recent years tend to hold relative value over time. The Power Mac G5 quad-core is a flagship example from the PowerPC era. Before that, however, one must look to special editions or delve into the truly “antique” (i.e., “Old World”/Gestalt) models, pre-1998 for, again, oddball and exceptional models which receive a collector’s premium.

The client is naïve. Just find ways to enjoy those laptops for what they do well.

ha! The lofty goal is--if I can even afford to get them running--they might come into the hands of someone who can use 'em.

For now, concentrate on finding a single 65W power adapter brick for PowerBook/iBook. That at least affords you the means to power on each laptop and to assess their working condition, their onboard RAM, and so on.

My first AAPL was a release-day Mac Pro 1,1

Figure 1. Ways to tell someone’s an Apple shareholder without them saying they’re a shareholder.

 

[splifingate]

For the latter, it can be like witnessing a glowing presence from afar, whom you will never, ever meet or know, but are glad such people still exist out there and can give you a sliver of hope in humanity more generally.

Mr Client (&Co.) thankfully fall into this grouping

Acceptance of such things implies an acceptance to assume the role of a Caretaker.

As a Side Note:

I once was a property caretaker for a Client, and--during the (messy) divorce--a number of photo albums came into my hands.

Complete (and comprehensive) photo albums of a family member's photographic documentation of their participation in the European Theatre (c.1940-45).

Many hundreds of original photographs.

I could not satisfy re-patriation; so, it's so: they reside, with dignity, on a shelf; all awaiting digitisation, and storage.

 

[splifingate]

With noted exceptions (like certain Titanium PowerBook G4s models), Apple didn’t include firmware on the aluminium PowerBook G4s or (all) iBooks to auto-downclock the CPU in absence of a (working) battery. (Contrast with the Intel laptops all downclocking to 1.0GHz when no working battery is present.)

Which is to say: even if the batteries in those two laptops you acquired hold no charge, each system should still run from the mains at full processing power. They might not be immediately portable, but they should otherwise perform every bit their full capability.

Ah!

This was the case when I attached the MagSafe charger to the MacBook5,1!

Great to know.

Even with the A1138, which was the final 15-inch PowerBook G4, and which was on sale for a brief four months, secondhand prices for used examples are low. As for iBook G4s: I picked up three (including one identical to yours) locally for free. To wit, Macs-as-commodities is reflected in finding local posts of people getting rid of working, 2013 iMacs for free, so long as one is willing to pick it up.

Macs, as with other computers, have so saturated the world, not unlike automobiles, that only outlier examples (typically, fully-outfitted examples) during recent years tend to hold relative value over time. The Power Mac G5 quad-core is a flagship example from the PowerPC era. Before that, however, one must look to special editions or delve into the truly “antique” (i.e., “Old World”/Gestalt) models, pre-1998 for, again, oddball and exceptional models which receive a collector’s premium.

The client is naïve. Just find ways to enjoy those laptops for what they do well.

Yeah, Buddy!

Ain't no way--on my Watch--that they'll end-up in a trash hole . . . but--just like puppies&kittens--one's House can only hold so much

I hold items with a hope that I can use them--as tools--with which to educate young people.

I can easily gift the Dells (I think!). The AAPL's will be reserved for something better

For now, concentrate on finding a single 65W power adapter brick for PowerBook/iBook. That at least affords you the means to power on each laptop and to assess their working condition, their onboard RAM, and so on.

Incoming, for sure.

Figure 1. Ways to tell someone’s an Apple shareholder without them saying they’re a shareholder.

Ha! As-if!

Obligatory Kliban

 

[rampancy]

Put another way: always know what you’re allowing yourself to get into when you find personal files on a new-to-you used Mac, prior to a total wipe or drive replacement.

Sometimes it can be as innocuous as fifteen-year-old lesson plans and assignments...Sometimes it can be a casual glimpse into the lives of people who were social, even self-indulgent creatures...

To add another data point to this, I remember getting an A1181 that had literally someone's entire life on it - family photos, tax slips, pay stubs, banking information (!!!), resumés, and - I'm ashamed to say I know this because I very briefly glimpsed it - a very angry and scathing letter to their estranged mother. Another unit I got my hands on was largely wiped...but their Safari bookmarks were collectively, basically an outline of a project they'd applied for grant funding under the Canada Council for the Arts.

Nowadays, if I ever snag a second-hand Mac, I'm going straight to reformatting the drive (even befofe I try booting up the machine), even if the previous owner says they'd "erased and reset" everything. What most people seemingly end up doing is deleting everything in ~/Documents (or maybe ~/Pictures) and resetting Safari before calling it a day.

I've had the fortune to not see anything gruesome or too scandalous while accumulating Macs for my hoard, but being now much older than I was when I first started collecting old Macs, I don't feel good at all about having in my possession a time capsule into someone's complete life without their consent or knowledge.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I’ve had no end of devices with owner’s content left intact, a MDD with an entire design business still on there, a G3 Powerbook with someone’s noughties porn archive and an iBook with an iPhoto library spanning about eight years and thousands of photos.

Some years ago I bought a Nokia 216 which came bundled with a battered Nokia 7250i - it contained a couple’s busy social life and their bedroom adventures caught in glorious 0.1 megapixel resolution.

I don’t find this salacious in any way but a touching artefact of a living memory of two people who were (and hopefully still are) crazy about each other - although the fact the phone found it's way onto ebay suggests they crashed and burned.

 

[weckart]

I collected a pile of old Mac laptops from an eBay seller once. All the four TiBooks in that pile had a striped picture with all the seller's several bank accounts as a wallpaper. The worst thing is the seller was a former authorised Apple reseller and servicer. You would have thought he would have at least have wiped the drives first.

Out of all the used notebooks I have bought, maybe a quarter cleaned up after themselves. The rest just left everything as per the last time they used them.

 

[TheShortTimer]

The worst thing is the seller was a former authorised Apple reseller and servicer. You would have thought he would have at least have wiped the drives first.

Remember BBC's Watchdog programme? There was a broadcast that featured the story of a woman who purchased a PC from PC World and she noticed an oddity that during the start-up process, the name and address of some individual was displayed every time the computer booted up.

Eventually she ascertained that the information was that of someone who'd previously purchased the PC and returned it to the retailer who'd restocked and resold it without even bothering to run the system restore software to rollback the computer to its factory settings.

 

[Amethyst1]

I got contacted by the seller via the eBay message system about three months after buying his Mac. He wanted to know if I had perhaps made a backup of the drive.

To which I’d have replied “What is a hard drive, and why would it back up?”

 

[eyoungren]

To which I’d have replied “What is a hard drive, and why would it back up?”

OMG!

 

[Amethyst1]

OMG!

Sometimes I like to play dumb when faced with questions that make me think “Are they serious?”

 

[weckart]

Remember BBC's Watchdog programme? There was a broadcast that featured the story of a woman who purchased a PC from PC World and she noticed an oddity that during the start-up process, the name and address of some individual was displayed every time the computer booted up.

Eventually she ascertained that the information was that of someone who'd previously purchased the PC and returned it to the retailer who'd restocked and resold it without even bothering to run the system restore software to rollback the computer to its factory settings.

Oh, good grief! Refurbish seems to be little more than rebox or restock these days. We are not only recycling computers but also users' data. Nothing goes to waste.

A minute's silence for the Desktop Bin. We thank it for its service but, clearly, its time has been and gone.

 

[barracuda156]

First is a PowerBook5,8 (M9969LL/A).

This is perhaps the best PowerBook existing.

Keep in mind, that aside of MacOS (10.5.8 / 10.6) you could install OpenBSD there. (FreeBSD and NetBSD should work too, but do not have pre-built packages, AFAIK, and FreeBSD has a broken Perl, which means nothing can be built there.) Unfortunately, OpenBSD has no support for FireWire presently, but you do get some modern software to work which does not [yet] work on MacOS. It may not be a proper replacement for MacOS for a number of reasons, but may be an appealing choice for a second system.

 

[splifingate]

I don't feel good at all about having in my possession a time capsule into someone's complete life without their consent or knowledge.

I incrementally:mentally moved from "Client" to "Advocate", and it's an un-enviable (if there is actually such a thing) Position.

We (tinw!) are not established in any form of relationship beyond what looks good in their yard.

Though I have tacit consent--by-virtue of Mr Client's "Do what you will!"--my occupancy is quite untenable.

Fortunately, MicroCenter is basically giving-away SSD's for ¢ on the $

 

[splifingate]

This is perhaps the best PowerBook existing.

Keep in mind, that aside of MacOS (10.5.8 / 10.6) you could install OpenBSD there. (FreeBSD and NetBSD should work too, but do not have pre-built packages, AFAIK, and FreeBSD has a broken Perl, which means nothing can be built there.) Unfortunately, OpenBSD has no support for FireWire presently, but you do get some modern software to work which does not [yet] work on MacOS. It may not be a proper replacement for MacOS for a number of reasons, but may be an appealing choice for a second system.

I have not snapped photos (per TheShortTimer's request), but those will be in-coming.

As-yet, I do not have a power-source.

Apart from a few dings&chips, the units appear intact.

I hope to get up to speed on these in the next month (all pending power, etc., &c., et al.).

Only one, old FW device with which I can test; but that's how it goes, I guess

Thank you.