PowerBook G3 General Maintenance

Apple's internal hardware locator for the PowerBook (FireWire), keyboard removed (Service Source, PDF p. 21)

Care and disassembly of the three later PowerBook G3 generations: the PowerBook G3 Series of 1998 (Wallstreet and Wallstreet II/PDQ), the PowerBook G3 Series (Bronze Keyboard) of 1999 (Lombard) and the PowerBook (FireWire) of 2000 (Pismo). Apple's Service Source for each is hosted here, and the procedures below are taken from them. The 1997 PowerBook G3 is a PowerBook 3400c inside; see PowerBook 3400c General Maintenance and the PowerBook 3400c and PowerBook G3 Service Source. Fault-finding is on PowerBook G3 Troubleshooting.

Identify the model

How Apple tells the G3 Series models apart

Model	Identifying features
PowerBook G3 Series (1998)	Family number M4753 on the base label; two CardBus slots; ADB and SCSI ports
PowerBook G3 Series (Bronze Keyboard)	Translucent bronze keyboard; small white Apple logo inside the top of the display bezel; one CardBus slot; USB and SCSI
PowerBook (FireWire)	Looks almost the same as the Bronze Keyboard model; FireWire ports in place of SCSI. Apple says to confirm the model before ordering parts, because most parts differ

Expansion bay modules from the Bronze Keyboard and FireWire models are interchangeable with each other, but not with the 1998 G3 Series; nor do the 1998 machine's bays take 3400c or 1997 G3 modules. The same goes for batteries: Bronze Keyboard and FireWire batteries are interchangeable, and fit no earlier PowerBook.

Handling

• The black plastics scratch and mark easily. Apple's technicians wore gloves and no jewellery, and wiped fingerprints off with a damp cloth. On the Bronze Keyboard model Apple forbids cleaning the outside with anything containing isopropyl alcohol, which damages the plastic.
• Do not reseat display cables with a metal screwdriver; Apple specifies a plastic or nylon tool because of the risk of a short.
• Franklinstein on 68kMLA advises keeping something soft between the keyboard and screen of a closed FireWire model, because the keys mark the display.

Keyboard removal

The keyboard is the way in to the memory, hard drive, backup battery, heatsink and processor board on every model.

PowerBook G3 Series (1998)

Apple's procedure:

1. Disconnect the adapter and remove both expansion bay modules.
2. Reach into the expansion bays to find the two ribbed keyboard latches under the front edge of the keyboard, and slide them towards you; the front of the keyboard pops up.
3. Lift the bottom of the keyboard slightly and pull it back to free the five metal tabs. Lift by the keyboard frame, not the keycaps.
4. Turn the keyboard over onto the palm rest, lift the two keyboard connectors at both ends with a nylon tool, and free the two strain-relief cables.

Bronze Keyboard and FireWire models

Apple's procedure:

1. Disconnect the adapter and remove the expansion bay modules.
2. If the keyboard is locked, turn the locking screw anticlockwise (at the back of the computer on the Bronze Keyboard model, in the LED to the left of F5 on the FireWire model). The screw is captive; do not try to remove it.
3. Pull down the release tabs to the left of F1 and F9 until the top of the keyboard pops up, lift it and pull it towards you to free the five tabs.
4. Turn it over onto the palm rest. On refitting, check that the far right tab is in its slot and not sticking into the expansion bay.

Heatsink and processor board

• Bronze Keyboard: three Phillips screws hold the heatsink. The left-hand one presses the heatsink onto the processor; without it the machine overheats.
• FireWire: leave the heat exchanger on the processor board unless the board is being replaced. Separating them may mean renewing the phase-change thermal material over the processor.
• All three: a processor board that is only partly seated still works at first, then loses contact as it heats and causes intermittent faults. Press the board home a second time after fitting it.
• 1998 G3 Series: early and late processor and I/O boards are not compatible; check Apple's table before swapping boards between machines.

Memory

Memory

Model	Slots	Type	Maximum	Notes
PowerBook G3 Series (1998)	Two on the processor board, one used by the factory underneath	144-pin SDRAM SO-DIMM	192 MB	A 128 MB card fits the top slot only
Bronze Keyboard	Two on the processor board	144-pin SDRAM SO-DIMM	384 MB	Underside slot up to 128 MB and 1.5 in tall; top slot up to 256 MB and 2.0 in; EDO modules cause death chimes
FireWire	Two on the processor board, none on the logic board	PC100 SDRAM SO-DIMM	512 MB	PC-66 modules from earlier G3 Series machines may not work

Batteries

All three models use lithium-ion main batteries with four charge-level lights and a test button. Apple's guidance:

• Press the button to read the charge. If the lights blink there is a fault; one blinking light on the later models just means the pack is flat.
• If the lights do not report correctly, fully discharge and recharge the pack to recalibrate it.
• Do not leave a pack in the computer for more than a week without the adapter, or in storage for more than six months without recharging.
• On the 1998 Series, the battery shims keep the pack in contact; Apple's charts check them when the machine will not run on battery.

Replacement packs are rare. ktkm had the cells in a FireWire pack replaced by an electric-bicycle battery shop with a spot welder, and the pack then needed calibrating before it would charge. See Battery Refurbishment.

PowerBook (FireWire) battery half out of the left expansion bay (Raimond Spekking, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Backup battery

Each model has a rechargeable backup battery that keeps PRAM and the power manager's state while the main battery is out. Apple's test is to set the date and time, shut down, remove the main battery and adapter for ten minutes, and check whether the clock kept time; a flat backup battery recharges in about 48 hours on the adapter. The FireWire model's backup battery is lithium, and Apple warns that a wrong replacement type can explode. On the Bronze Keyboard model a shim stops the cell moving in its case.

Two community findings matter here. Franklinstein reports that the power manager will not charge the backup battery until the main battery reports full, so a machine without a working main battery never recharges it; and that a dead backup battery stops most NewWorld PowerBooks starting at all, while a missing one does not. beachycove, by contrast, reported recharging a FireWire model's backup cells by leaving it on the adapter without a main battery, and quinterro found the same worked on a Wallstreet II; the two accounts conflict, so try the adapter alone before buying a main battery. beachycove also found that dead Wallstreet backup batteries do not recover whatever is done.

Hinges and case

The display hinges of the 1998 G3 Series break. Galgot on 68kMLA calls it a design fault in the soft metal part of the hinge; the hinge assembly differs for each of the three display sizes, and a right hinge cannot replace a left one. Unknown_K notes that the LCD cable wraps round one of the hinges, so a broken hinge can damage it, and MacJunky describes the splines on the hardened clutch pins stripping the cast splines in the upper hinge piece. Open a stiff lid slowly and do not force it.

On the Bronze Keyboard model, Apple's own procedures cover an expansion bay release lever that has slipped out of alignment (loosen the stiffener screw beside it, move the lever until the lockpawl teeth engage the gears, retighten) and an I/O door that has come off its spring (pull the door straight out 5 to 10 mm until it pops, then rotate it closed until it pops again). Franklinstein reports FireWire cases cracking near the trackpad button.

Display backlight

Byrd and Franklinstein on 68kMLA report that FireWire backlights dim with age and take minutes to reach full brightness, and that the cold-cathode lamp can be replaced or converted to LED. The Bronze Keyboard and FireWire LCD assemblies are not interchangeable: DistantStar001 found the Lombard inverter uses a six-pin connector and the Pismo a five-pin one, and a Lombard panel on a Pismo inverter lit briefly and then went dark.

Hard drive

All three use 2.5-inch IDE drives. When mitchW bought a Bronze Keyboard model that booted only to a question mark, a previous owner had fitted an SSD with its IDE connector a whole row of pins out. On the Bronze Keyboard model Apple's chart says to pull the hard drive cable up evenly to avoid bending its pins. See Hard Drive Maintenance and Repair.

Preventive checklist

1. Check the backup battery with Apple's ten-minute test, and unplug it if the machine will not start.
2. Recalibrate the main batteries by a full discharge and recharge.
3. Check that all heatsink screws are fitted and the processor board is fully seated.
4. On a 1998 G3 Series, check the hinges before opening the lid fully.

Related pages

• PowerBook G3
• PowerBook G3 Troubleshooting
• Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage