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Need for speed: Cracking open a PowerBook 17
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February 17, 2004 (Computerworld) -- OK, I admit it. When it comes to computers, I'm pretty much all about speed. If I can get the latest and fastest (insert Apple product here), I will. A year ago, that meant snagging one of the first 1-GHz PowerBook G4 17-in. models. These days, it means buying the updated 1.33-GHz PowerBook 17. Price: $2,999.
I was lucky enough to get one of the first of the first-generation 1-GHz models last March, gladly picking it up at a local Apple store when they finally hit the market (see story). It was and remains an excellent, trouble-free laptop. But after Apple Computer Inc. bumped the processor speed on the PowerBook to 1.33 GHz last fall, it was no longer king of the laptop hill.
So just before Thanksgiving, I moved to the newer model, ordering a stock configuration with the 4,200-rpm 80GB hard drive. Although Apple offers a faster hard drive on its PowerBook (a 60GB 5,400-rpm version), I was already eyeing an even faster 7,200-rpm alternative from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, better known as the Travelstar 7K60. I'd read reports online from owners who had cracked open their PowerBooks and, with the precision of surgeons, replaced the stock hard drive with the faster one from Hitachi. All reported notable speed increases, solid performance, little if any increase in heat and silent performance.
It meant giving up 20GB of storage space, a trade I was willing to make.
Those helpful PowerBook owners pointed to Kodawarisan's Web site (in Japanese), where step-by-step instructions (with pictures) lay out how to do the exchange. Since the operation is no longer considered a user-replaceable move by Apple, you risk voiding your warranty if you cause any damage to the inner workings of your PowerBook while you're under the hood.
Do I read Japanese? No. But you can use AltaVista.com's Babel Fish service to translate the text, and the pictures themselves give you a good idea of what's in store. Most said the job could be done, if you're patient and careful, in 45 minutes to an hour.
To be on the safe side, I also found a service manual online detailing how to open up the PowerBook 17. It came in very handy, since it offered a slightly different method for doing the job. And it had pictures.
The Powerbook 17 before the hard drive replacement. That's the new drive sitting above where the old one is.
Having replaced a couple of hard drives in Apple's previous-generation Titanium PowerBooks, I figured I could handle the job, so after using the PowerBook for about six weeks -- in case any anomalies showed up that might require a trip back to Apple for repairs -- I ordered the Hitachi drive. There are two such drives: one an "enhanced" E7K60 that's meant for round-the-clock operation, the other the standard 7K60. Of course, I ordered the enhanced version, which cost about $20 more.
On the day the drive arrived, I took my PowerBook into a quiet room, away from curious dogs and a cat that thinks he's being helpful by walking on my desk, turned off the laptop, unplugged the AC adapter, removed the battery and took a deep breath.
A reminder: If you don't want to potentially void your warranty on your $2,999 laptop, don't do this at home. Take it to an authorized service center. But if you're going to do the job anyway, make sure you have the right tools on hand. Apple uses teeny-weeny screws in putting together the aluminum case for its PowerBooks. That's not a scientific term. It's my term, because these are really the smallest Phillips-head screws I've seen.
I grabbed my tool kit, specifically designed for computer jobs, and found that even the smallest screwdriver in the case was too big. Off I went to Home Depot for a screwdriver that would work. Just then, a snow squall hit. Undeterred, I found a set of screwdrivers that looked as though they would work and headed home.
Since I'm not recommending that the average PowerBook owner do this modification, I'm not going to explain in excruciating detail how to do it. But in general, you remove screws from the back of the laptop, disconnect a thin cable that connects to the keyboard, lift off the entire top of the PowerBook and then remove the hard drive. I also took a few pictures. Gut-check time: Lifting off the top of my PowerBook was a wrenching experience. Literally. You have to pry it up very gently, because it's connected to the bottom by a series of clips that hold it on very snugly. I can tell you that these laptops are very well put together.
It's amazing how much of a computer can be packed in a small space. Old hard drive is on the left, about to be taken out.
About two hours went by before I was able to get the new hard drive installed. The next steps were essentially the reverse of what I'd done before: reconnect hard drive cable, gently slide keyboard-ribbon cable through a little slot to connect it to the backside of the motherboard, gently push the laptop top back into place -- and take a deep breath.
At this point, I was pretty much done. I rounded up those teeny screws and put them back using my teeny-weeny screwdriver. I replaced the memory modules (two 512MB chips, one of which I had added after I bought the PowerBook), put the battery back in and plugged it in. I pressed the power button and held my breath.
Boing! The traditional Macintosh start-up chime never sounded so good.
Coming next week: Installing Mac OS X and taking the Hitachi drive out for a spin.
Mid-operation: The empty space on the left hand side is where the hard drive goes. The new hard drive is on the left, the old one is on the right. Small screws circled in red.
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