MacUpgrades.co.uk offers a wide range of fixed price upgrades and repairs for your Apple computers. You can drop in to our offices in Sawston, Cambridge or if you are not local you can either have us collect or send in your computer yourself. Sameday fitting is available for most items, contact us for details. We also offer on site installation services and training on your premises.
Macupgrades offers a wide range of on-site services for your Apple equipment. We offer all of our upgrade services, and most of our repair services too.
All our engineers have at least 15 years of experience with Apple hardware and software
Enter your serial number into the box below for specific upgrades for your machine. Each upgrade has been tested in the machine we list it for. Compatability is 100% guaranteed or your money back.
How to find your serial number in software
You can find your Mac's serial number in Apple System Profiler: Select the Apple Menu > About This Mac, then (depending on the version of OSX you are running) click the System Report button or the More Info button. This brings up System Profiler, and on the Hardware Overview that is displayed by default you should see your serial number, and be able to copy/paste it. The procedure does vary slightly between different versions of OSX.
If you can't boot your Mac
If your Mac is not working, the serial number is printed on the computer casing but the location varies. Here are the main locations of serial numbers on Apple computers.
Unibody MacBook Pro - Laser etched onto the base.
MacBook, Early MacBook Pro, PowerBook G4 - Inside the main battery bay. Remove battery to locate.
iBook (White) - Under the keyboard. To lift keyboard, pull back on the release tabs between the F-keys.
Intel iMac, iMac G5 - Underside of the foot/stand.
iMac G4, iMac G3 - Underside of the iMac.
Mac mini - On the underside of the Mac mini.
Mac Pro 2006-2012 - On rear of machine near graphics card ports.
PowerMac G5 - On lower chassis under side panel. To remove side panel, lift lever on rear of Mac.
PowerMac G3, PowerMac G4 - Label on the back of the Mac.
Your Mac's Model Identifier can be found in System Profiler. You can use the drop-down menus above to be taken to a page that displays upgrades specifically for your exact model.
This tool is also available on its own page, with a list of all Model IDs here.
COVID Update: We are still processing and shipping orders placed online, and operating our mail-in repair and upgrade service. But our premises are closed. Phone, email, and chat answered 9am - 5pm, Monday - Friday.
PowerBook G3 Pismo Upgrades
This
page covers all the upgrades we sell for the PowerBook G3 Pismo. Choose
the type of upgrade you are looking for from the tabs below.(Not the
right Mac? See here for
more PowerBooks, or here for
all Macs.)
If you want specific upgrades for your exact model, choose it from the Model ID links below, or enter your serial number here:
The Pismo, the last and the best of Apple's G3 PowerBook line up, drew on the good
progress made with the Lombard and took it a step further.
These PowerBooks
came in 400 and 500MHz configurations, with a whopping 1MB CPU cache, making them
very appealing for on the go video editing. Also the maximum RAM was greatly increased to 1GB.
The Pismo was the first Mac laptop to have built in FireWire - adding to it's video
editing potential. Apple's big surprise was the addition of a wireless network socket,
called "Airport". With this (optional) card installed, it was one of the very first "wireless" laptops released.
The last feature change was an ATI 8MB graphics board,
which was a doubling from the Lombard.
The Pismo was the first Mac Power book with Mac OS 9.0.2 installed. It will also happily run all versions of OSX.
How to Identify these Machines
The G3 Pismo looks very similar to its predecessor the Lombard. These two models can be distinguished from older PowerBooks by the colour of their keyboard, which is a translucent bronze colour.
The Pismo has 2 USB and 2 FireWire ports, the Lombard has 2 USB ports and a HDI-30 SCSI connector instead of the FireWire. The Pismo was released with a 400MHz and 500MHz CPU, the Lombard had 333MHz and 400MHz versions.
If you are still unsure you can contact us on 01223 833 412 or by email for
confirmation. If you want to upgrade but aren't happy to install your upgrades
then we can help. Simply ask our engineers for further details.
Memory Upgrades
The Power book G3 Pismo has two memory sockets. Each of these can take up to a 512MB module, for a maximum of 1GB.
Turn off the machine and remove the power cable and battery.
The hard drive and RAM are
housed below the keyboard. To remove the keyboard release the catches at the top of the keyboard (between ESC & F1 and
F8 & F9). This reveals the internal parts.
There is metal protective plate secured with 2 screws. Remove the plate to reveal
the RAM socket. The top RAM socket is easily reached at this point.
The second slot is below the processor card. This is more difficult to reach, with a much larger danger of damaging your machine if it is done incorrectly. Mac Upgrades does sell RAM for installation in the lower slot, however we cannot provide instructions or support for installation.
We do offer a fitting service, please contact us for details.
CD/DVD/Blu-ray Drive Upgrades
The Power book G3 Pismo came equipped with a DVD-ROM drive in its right-hand drive bay. At present we don't stock internal
CD or DVD writers which fit internally into the machine.
It is possible to use an external device via FireWire or USB. FireWire is a much faster connection so is strongly recommended.
There are no optical drive upgrades available for these Macs
Difficulty 1 / 5 Easy
Install any supplied software. Restart the machine and connect the new device.
Internal Hard Drive & SSD Upgrades
We sell a range of drives that are compatible with the PowerBook Pismo.
If you don't want to fit a new hard drive yourself, you can take advantage of the MacUpgrades Installation Service. Add the installation service from the list below to your cart along with your chosen hard drive. We can also clone your existing hard drive onto the new one, simply add the Clone Original Hard Drive service below to your cart.
Once you have booked the service, send your machine to us, we will carry out the work and return it to you. Alternatively, we do offer a Collection Service with our courier, please see here for details.
Any fitting information below is intended as a guide before purchase ONLY, when fitting these products you should refer to the original manual for your computer, and any instructions that come with the item. Please see this page for more information, or here for information on our fitting service.
Difficulty 3 / 5 - Reasonably easy
Turn off the machine and remove the power cable and battery.
The hard drive and RAM are
housed below the keyboard. To remove the keyboard release the catches at the top of the keyboard (between ESC & F1 and
F8 & F9). This reveals the internal parts.
There is metal protective plate secured with 2 screws. Remove the plate to reveal
the RAM socket. The hard drive is located to the right, housed in a caddy.
Very gently take either side of the caddy and lift up
and out towards the centre of the PowerBook. Don't move it too far as it is connected with an IDE cable.
Gently remove the
cable from the end of the drive and, with a TORX screwdriver, remove the 4 black holding screws at either corner of the drive.
Replace the drive and reassemble the machine in reverse order. Start the computer from CD and initialise the drive.
This laptop can take a secondary graphics card through it's PCMCIA (Cardbus) slot, to allow it to control a wider range
of external displays that it can by default.
There are no graphics card upgrades available for these Macs
Difficulty 1 / 5 - Very Easy.
Install any supplied software, turn off the machine, and insert the PCMCIA card into the socket on the left of the machine.
Connect it to your monitor and your finished.
Expansion Card Upgrades
Your Power book G3 Pismo has one available PCMCIA socket for connectivity expansion. This port is located
to the left of the machine. The credit card sized socket allows users to take advantage of newer connectivity such
as USB 2, FireWire 800 and wireless networking.
Please note that many expansion cards will have a minimum operating system requirement.
Any fitting information below is intended as a guide before purchase ONLY, when fitting these products you should refer to the original manual for your computer, and any instructions that come with the item. Please see this page for more information, or here for information on our fitting service.
Difficulty 1 / 5 - Very Easy
Install any supplied software. Turn off the machine and insert the PCMCIA card into the socket on the left of the PowerBook. Restart the machine and away you go.
Keyboards & Mice
The following keyboards and mice are compatible with this Mac.
Any fitting information below is intended as a guide before purchase ONLY, when fitting these products you should refer to the original manual for your computer, and any instructions that come with the item. Please see this page for more information, or here for information on our fitting service.
Cables & Tools
Listed below are power cables, tools and related products
we supply for this Mac.
Only suitable for this Mac if you have added USB 2.0 or eSATA with an expansion card. Will not boot this Mac.
Complete Machines - Refurbished
Any complete machines of this type or similar that we have for sale are listed here. Please note that these are refurbished models with a 3 month warranty, and that delivery is likely to take 3 - 5 working days. These can be purchased online with the standard website courier delivery charge for the mainland UK only. Please contact us for a quote on shipping to other areas.
Repair Services for this Mac
Here are the various repair services we offer for this Mac. You can have us take the machine in for evaluation, or book a fixed-price repair if you already know what the fault is and the service is listed below (for services without parts, please see the relevant tab on this page for compatible parts that we sell). If you know what the fault is, but we don't have a fixed-price repair listed below, please contact
us for a quote.
