With the 14-inch iBook G4 1.44GHz model (assume late 2005) the memory or RAM
can be upgraded by adding a 1024MB chip under the keyboard, for 1.5GB total...
The ATA/PATA 2.5-inch hard disk drive may be upgraded (if available) to a faster
spin rate rotational drive, or to a faster legacy Mercury SSD from owc/macsales.
And the newer SATA ones of course won't work. Some ideas on using an adapter
may not be functional or practical for several reasons. The OWC mercury legacy
SSD may be OK, but you'd have to set perform setup with the unit in an external
housing for a hard drive; perhaps a FireWire400 version with oxford-type chipset
or a newer model available from OWC that can boot a PowerPC system.
The iLife '06 may be suitable for use with Leopard 10.5.8, the unit shipped with an
older version that would have been in its install-restore grey-lable DVDs, with Tiger
10.4(.11) would have seen a few updates to the original via Software Update, then.
A hard disk drive with adequate free or used storage capacity helps since these old
PPC G4 models like others rely on Virtual Memory, or a section of automatically used
hard drive capacity for swap files and temporary memory to supplement physical RAM.
IT is slower than having more chip RAM installed, but both are essential; especially if
you were to find and run Leopard 10.5.8. Tiger used less resources & ran better.
To obtain the correct original install-restore DVDs would be difficult now, but if you had
the correct ones, that will give you original software in addition to the vintage OS X...
And the retail version of the as-shipped OS X won't work, since you'd need to get a
later version; and retail kit did not include the gratis software as shipped with the Mac.
Once the computer is restored and tested OK, you may be able to run some vintage
applications on there and perform useful tasks. For a web browser, you'd have to get
the TenFourFox browser build for PPC Macs; the version would be 7450 ("G4e")
(note that's direct download link.) Details: http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/
You may be able to buy a replacement battery from owc macsales, note there are a
few versions, and one for the 14-inch iBook is different than the one for 12-inch.
You should be able to find info about these older products from LowEndMac.com as well
as everymac.com, and some specs about Macs from mactracker.ca download database.
Hopefully this helps some. I'd noticed your post some time ago, but no takers. While I
have a few portable Macs, and a few PowerPC model computers, some lag due to specs
and internet. A few of mine (PPC) use TenFourFox and some other older applications that
are not available online anymore. Be wary of free-download sites that may provide junk
or adware, etc; a few are notorious and be careful what links you click...
Good luck & happy computing! 🙂
