I just bought this ibook (2001) model,and it is just a big mess i wish i could get my hands on some type of restore disk or figure out a way to fix the computer so it starts up like when it was new.

you can try checking your local mac user group.

If there isn't anything on the iBook that you care about, just reinstall the OS. If you have any of the OSX install disks, reinstall and enjoy. I just backed up all my important data and then reinstalled Panther on my iBook, downloaded the updates from Apple, and now the iBook is happy and so am I. If you don't have OSX, Panther is a good buy right now as Tiger is due to be released soon. If you are a student, you can get it even cheaper! Enjoy you iBook. Mike@Multipleplatforms.com

thanks for the advice,but i dont have any of the old software disk,thinking about buying panther,not sure if it will work on my computer ,my computer is g3 with 128 mb not sure if that meets the requirments i would appreciate the feedback.

hi panther runs well on the old clam ibooks apparently. You need more ram though - mine has 320mb and jaguar is really very good and i've heard panther is faster. the more ram the better !

Unfortunately I've read quite a few bad storys about the G3 ibooks, there are quite a few of them with logic board problems. Macintosh will probably be able to fix yours for free, including shipping you'll need the serial number. I"m using a aG3 ibook I upgraded to panther and then upgraded online from there. I'm not sure what the system requirements are, but from this site http: //www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/ you'll be able to find out everything you need to know. there's an 800 number and they seem pretty helpful. Your computer has to have specific symptoms in order for them to replace the logic board. and your serial number has to match one of the batches that they identified as recalls. I've been to a few macintosh discussion boards and read some pretty discouraging things about this ibook G3. We just got the eMac G4 1.25 Ghz computer. For 800.00 bux it's the best value I've been able to find anywhere. So far I'm convinced I'm not going back to windows. Maybe a cheap backup machine. But not something I'd be willing to depend on. I'm not willing to depend on this ibook from what I've read though. My experience with it has been very excellent. I'm only passing on what I've read. Maybe because this one's only about 16 or 18 months old it doesn't have all the problems the older ones do. I've also upgraded every critical program I possibly can. I'm running 10.4.3. Read the messages on the Mac message boards, good luck to you. I don't know what percentage of ibooks the discussion boards at the Mac site represent. It could be a very small minority of unlucky people. I hope so. Robert PS you can find out exactly what hardware you have by clicking on the blue apple in the top left corner then "about this mac it tells you which version, serial number(you'll need that when you call macintosh tech support, RAM amount, Processor kind (G3 or G4) and speed, etc click "software update" just incase you have any free software updates available. . I've been totally amazed. Get a free trial membership of Dotmac Internet essentials. When you're traveling at the speed of light, don't trip