Breathe new life into an old Mac
Welcome to the site. Our most popular posts are a series of video tutorials on How To Use Your Mac As A Server. We also answer your Mac questions. Just Ask FMB Feel free subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
While it may appear Luddite, I must confess that my Mac is a 3 and a half year old titanium Powerbook. It’s kept up so well that I haven’t felt the need to get a new Mac yet. (I have a beautiful 20-inch iMac at work.)
My biggest complaint about my old Powerbook is how slowly it syncs with my video iPod. My iPod has USB 2.0 but no Firewire, while my Powerbook has Firewire but only USB 1.0. It takes forever to copy new songs to the iPod.
This week I bought a $10 USB 2.0 expansion card off of eBay. It plugs into the PCMCIA Cardbus slot on the side of my Powerbook and provides a USB 2.0 connection for my iPod. It feels like a breath of fresh air! My iPod now synchronizes must faster!
My only complaint is that the iPod battery doesn’t appear to charge through the expansion card. Other than that, this new USB 2.0 card has been great — definitely suggested if you’re in the same situation!
October 21st, 2006 at 7:59 pm
My Mac is a 5 (?) year old 733MHz PowerMac G4. I added Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, 330GB HDD space, a Lacie D2 DVD (dual layer) Writer, and maxed out the ram, so it works perfectly fine… it’s just a little slow with video encoding (!).
However, I do have 1 minor complaint. The onboard FirwWire ports no longer work so I can’t install Tiger (and maybe Leopard?) which limits me when it comes to software updates and compatibility with new devices
Does anyone know how to work around this so I can install Tiger without having FireWire? Will just adding a new FireWire card do the trick?
October 22nd, 2006 at 9:11 pm
I think an iPod Firewire cable will work and will charge the iPod as well.
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:52 am
Levi,
I think you can do one of two things.
Install a DVD player into the Tower itself
or
Install a new Firewire PCI card like you mentioned.
November 2nd, 2006 at 8:35 am
How can I get USB 2.0 to my iMac G4/800 flat planel