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| upgrading the ibook clamshell's L2 cache to 1MB | |
| Posted by: alectrona6400 on 2026-06-09 09:33:59 hello everyone! i am undertaking a nice little project with an ibook clamshell i just acquired; upgrading the living hell out of it. so far i've done the following: max out the RAM, upgrade the hard drive to a 30GB SSD, and (attempt to) swap the 512KB L2 cache for 1MB. this mainly went smoothly except for one issue. i did not realize the chips i put on got damaged due to excess heat when i was removing them from a powermac G4 CPU card, so the built in cache test failed in OS 9. i have new chips on the way and will update you with the results when i get them in, or if i decide to pull them from another G4 CPU card... also i would install a 7410 if A. i had the chip, and B. if i didn't suck at reballing processors    posting from my phone so sorry if the pictures got flipped. also here is what i plan to do: -overclock the FSB to 100MHz and run the CPU at 400MHz -install an LED backlight into the original display (stock CFL backlight is worn out as you can see) -install OS 9.2.2 and 10.4.11 (with shuriken to optimize performance) -look into bumping up the onboard RAM to 64MB (there are 4 unpopulated pads on the motherboard which are provisions for another 32MB it looks like) thanks for checking out this project. if you have any input please feel free to talk to me here. | |
| Posted by: finkmac on 2026-06-09 09:36:07 10.4.11 gold edition? that poor G3 😆 | |
| Posted by: alectrona6400 on 2026-06-09 09:37:29 someone made a package of optimizations for 10.4.11 that make it run more like panther or jaguar, and ive run it on other G3 macs. it performs quite well. | |
| Posted by: finkmac on 2026-06-09 09:48:54 i would recommend avoiding silly " mac os x gold edition " distributions and sticking to proper OS releases. what do you really need 10.4 for? | |
Posted by: Nixontheknight on 2026-06-09 10:23:46i would recommend avoiding silly " mac os x gold edition " distributions and sticking to proper OS releases.Shuriken is not a "gold edition", it's a bunch of scripts that make 10.4 run better. I've run it on my 2000 iMac DV and 2002 iMac G4, and it runs better | |
| Posted by: finkmac on 2026-06-09 11:06:06 did safari feel snappier? 🤣 | |
| Posted by: davidg5678 on 2026-06-09 18:03:10 Fascinating work! Were you able to run any benchmarks before and after completing the upgrade? Any idea whether some of these Clamshell models already have the upgraded cache from the factory? | |
| Posted by: alectrona6400 on 2026-06-09 18:33:19 sadly the cache is not working due to heat damage, i put my heat gun too close to each chip and heard a pop sound when i was removing them from the G4 CPU card. i am waiting on replacement chips from ebay. also, i have managed to overclock the bus to 100MHz and the CPU to 400MHz (100x4), will test when i get the new chips in. sadly i forgot to run benchmarks before doing the upgrade. | |
| Posted by: obsolete on 2026-06-10 06:26:13 Those TQFP chips are incredibly sensitive. They absorb moisture and pop like popcorn when abruptly heated. You need to bake them to drive the moisture out before heat gunning them. | |
| Posted by: alectrona6400 on 2026-06-10 06:32:42 yeah thats what i figured... | |
| Posted by: croissantking on 2026-06-10 07:33:57 Hmm, I've desoldered a few TQFP cache chips and they seemed to fare OK! | |
| Posted by: alectrona6400 on 2026-06-13 11:20:35 i saw an article on low end mac where someone maxed out the clamshell's onboard memory to 128MB. at first i wasn't gonna do this but then i realized while i'm at it, why not? also bad news... USPS mis-delivered my cache chips to another house apparently so i don't know if or when i'll be getting them... might have to find another G4 card to salvage them from or something | |
Posted by: croissantking on 2026-06-13 11:34:22Hmm, I've desoldered a few TQFP cache chips and they seemed to fare OK! Pff, serves me right for being smug, I might have popped my first BGA chip yesterday. Need to get a reflow oven or just take it really easy with the heat next time. i saw an article on low end mac where someone maxed out the clamshell's onboard memory to 128MB. at first i wasn't gonna do this but then i realized while i'm at it, why not? Didn’t @dosdude1 do this recently? I thought he had to modify the iBooks’ firmware. | |
| Posted by: alectrona6400 on 2026-06-13 14:45:58 i might have to have my firmware modified for both 128MB of RAM and the 1MB of L2 cache. still working on the arduous process of soldering everything especially those damn tiny decoupling capacitors needed for the extra RAM chips | |
| Posted by: croissantking on 2026-06-13 14:51:32 Cache size and ratio is usually programmed in a small serial eeprom, but you can alternatively use XLR8 MACh speed control (or similar) to enable the full size. That was my experience on a trayloader iMac at least. | |
| Posted by: alectrona6400 on 2026-06-13 16:33:54 well... i just tested the motherboard and now it is giving me a rather distorted startup chime with no further activity. i suspect this is a memory issue. might have to use other RAM chips. | |
| Posted by: alectrona6400 on 2026-06-13 17:18:25 decided to just only have the RAM upgraded to 64MB because i can't bother finding the right decoupling caps that are supposed to work. also i installed L2 chips from a powerbook G3 lombard CPU card, and it still fails the cache test... wondering if the ROM just doesn't like 1MB cache configurations... maybe the motherboard doesn't have any address lines on it for the extra cache? i'm starting to give up hope on this project honestly | |
| Posted by: alectrona6400 on 2026-06-14 10:20:10 might need some assistance. @LightBulbFun @dosdude1 have you two ever attempted this before? | |
Posted by: croissantking on 2026-06-14 10:36:40decided to just only have the RAM upgraded to 64MB because i can't bother finding the right decoupling caps that are supposed to work. They should just be 100nf caps? Nothing special. also i installed L2 chips from a powerbook G3 lombard CPU card, and it still fails the cache test... wondering if the ROM just doesn't like 1MB cache configurations... maybe the motherboard doesn't have any address lines on it for the extra cache? i'm starting to give up hope on this project honestly I’d suspect either the cache chips themselves or the solder work 😆 | |
| Posted by: alectrona6400 on 2026-06-14 11:22:49 could be the chips... | |
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