iBook firmware hack
Author: Anonymous
Hey all!
G-town Monkey invited me to join ya'll.
Some of you I know from way back...back from the wild waters of "Monsoon" season... and some of you I know vicariously through the Monkey. Well...hello to all!
I wanted to share with you a little ibook/iMac/eMac firmware hack that really came in handy last night.
My wife has an iBook G4 (circa 2004), and I have a Powerbook G4 1Ghz and an iMac G5 20". When I hook up my Powerbook to an external monitor, I always enjoy the "clamshell" function of the laptop, or the ability to close my laptop lid, thus saving the 12" lcd life, using a massive 20" CRT Sony monitor to display the Powerbook's desktop.
Now I always knew that my wife's iBook was limited to desktop mirroring when connecting to an external monitor. But I must have forgotten over the years (or just did not realize) that the iBook did not have the ability to operate in clamshell mode, nor did it have the ability to change the external monitor's screen aspect in the same way my Powerbook G4 can (The Powerbook G4, by the way, is a year older than the iBook!)
So when I ordered my wife a beautiful new Samsung 906BW 19" widescreen lcd, I was very disappointed to find out that the maximum resolution that I could achieve was a 4:3 stretched, blurry, 1024x768 crappy image! I was pissed! I tried out my Powerbook, and alas...I was able to get a sweet 1440x900 image...of course.
Frustrated, and feeling like I was going to spend more money in shipping the monitor back to Newegg for a replacement, and thus actually spending more than if I had simply gone to Staples and purchased a Staples brand standard 4:3 aspect lcd, I decided to see if anyone else had had a similar problem.
So I went to the mac discussion board and on my first search found someone who had purchased a Samsung widescreen, and was having the same problem with the iBook external monitor connection. The posted solution was a link to a German website where this dude has posted his firmware hack FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS! His firmware patch (which he warns TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK) will allow the video card and PRAM to do what it was engineered to do (and what Apple programmed it not to do)....handle higher resolutions, operate in dual-screen mode (like a Powerbook) and operate in the clamshell mode!
It is called "Screen Spanning Doctor" and the newest release is v0.3.3. You can find it at http://macparts.de/ibook.
Last night I decided that it was worth risking blowing out my firmware and thus voiding my applecare to try this hack. So I held my breath and went for it.....and success!
The install went without a hitch and now my wife's iBook is operating in dual-screen mode with a resolution of 1024x768 on her iBook screen and a resolution of 1440x900 on her beautiful new 19" widescreen lcd!
So far so good!
However be sure to READ ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY prior to installing!
Happy computing!
welcome!
incidentally, i'll be purchasing my first mac EVAR this month.
what are you gonna get?
pimped-out macbook with the 2gig ram, 160 5400rpm drive.
it's my serato/cross platform web developer joint (and trusty travel companion).
man, that comment made me think of the vaio wasteland i have laying around. 2 desktops and a laptop. the laptop is literally falling apart. it uses these teeny tiny screws and they all fell out. it's a very old machine.
my original vaio from 97 or so is at my mom's. it's a mini tower, among the first of its kind. it was also one of the first vaios, and the first pc with firewire. i did so much crazy shit on that box, i just cant get rid of it.
that little droid and i have been through a lot together
monkey, you see the 2-part dr who where he turns human to hide from some pheromone-sniffing aliens? it was pretty nutso. the wrath of the time lord was definitely unleashed.
getting a black or white Macbook?
Do yourself a favor and get the Applecare.
I feel your computer museum / graveyard vibe...
remember my collection at the 3rd St. Loft?
It was hard parting with those old friends.
It's nice to see that Apple is finally offering a reasonable amount of RAM in their base machines.
I got a little saved, so we're gonna replace Weasel's aging 12"PB with a superdrive macbook and I'm either getting a new base intel iMac or intel Superdrive Mini, keeping my 2 year old g4 15" PB for the runaround shitte- since I work alot
with P2 card digital video cameras, the G4 PB's PCMCIA slot comes in handy.
* * * *
I DL'd almost all the 3rd season Doctor Who a few months back (they aired in UK earlier this year),
I just haven't gotten to peep them yet.
yo whats up with applecare? i had no intention on buying it?
Extends Apple's warranty to 3 years and
increases the long term value of your
Mac as a later trade. You also get some
additional diagnostic software.
I would usually never recommend extended warranties on electronics, but I think Applecare is worth it.