2025 PowerPC Challenge

[iBookSpeedster88]

This is what the retail Leopard DVD sees (or so far anything that ISN'T the USB enclosure):

I plugged the OWC Electra 3G SSD in to the external USB enclosure at the request of @phunguss :

The drive mounts to the desktop, appears in Disk Utility and in System Profiler successfully. There is my 17.4GB partition with Sorbet Leopard installed to it and the remaining disk space. So far, this has been the only way I have seen the PowerMac G5 mount the drive and access its contents:

 

[Arbystpossum]

It shouldn't be a surprise, but the retail Leopard DVD doesn't recognize the SSD either and only gives the option to install itself to the hard drive.

OtherWorldComputing used to have a page recommending the OWC Electra 3G SSD as a great drive with guaranteed compatibility for all models of the PowerMac G5. Here is an archive of the webpage in question from 2023:
https://web.archive.org/web/2023100...ales.com/craftcmspreview/ssd/ssd-power-mac-g5

Curiously, the webpage was removed in 2024, and if you attempt to access it today, you'll get a "page not found" error. The SSD is still sold even now, though.

They may have changed something in the 3Gs that make them incompatible with old SATA1. I've had issues getting many SATA SSDs working in my PCIe G5. I doubt the 6Gs will work either.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

I’d ask them if it’s still guaranteed to work with a pmg5 as to your point it seems they no longer make that claim publicly as of 2024. I can see them updating the SSD for compatibility/performance with newer Intel Macs vs PowermacG5s that are now 20+ years old. Anyhow I’d ask them and see what they say.

good luck

 

[scj312]

I have a 250GB OWC SSD in my 2003 G5 and it works without issue. Certainly seems like something is up with either your drive or the SATA controller. Do you have any other SSDs or Mac-flashed SATA controllers available to test with?

 

[Nycturne]

It shouldn't be a surprise, but the retail Leopard DVD doesn't recognize the SSD either and only gives the option to install itself to the hard drive.

OtherWorldComputing used to have a page recommending the OWC Electra 3G SSD as a great drive with guaranteed compatibility for all models of the PowerMac G5. Here is an archive of the webpage in question from 2023:
https://web.archive.org/web/2023100...ales.com/craftcmspreview/ssd/ssd-power-mac-g5

Curiously, the webpage was removed in 2024, and if you attempt to access it today, you'll get a "page not found" error. The SSD is still sold even now, though.

Yeah, this gets weird, because the SATA card I have in my Quicksilver likes my two OWC SATA SSDs, an Electra 3G and Electra 6G. I really don’t know what’s going on here, but HrutkayMods did mention forward compatibility issues with early SATA I chipsets, which is about the only thing I can think of at play here.

 

[Trash80toG4]

Not a big deal for me, been using PPC for my Graphics work in OS9 all along since its intro. Never switched to OSX because I've got tens of thousands of dollars worth of Graphics and CAD/CAM software/hardware, much of which never made the jump to X before I closed up shop in 2004.

Very nice to never have a worry about the RentWare plague!

Son (finally) gifted me with his first Mac during my Christmas/Hanukkah visit. For some reason or other he thinks I'm a hoarder.

Migrated AI8 and GraphicConverter from the Lombard rig I've been using for quite some time. It's a TiBook/1GHz/512MB (PowerBook3,5) with a clean OS9Lives 9.2.2 install. Maximum memory upgrade and SSD Disk On Module are the only upgrades I'm thinking about. That and a need to lavish some TLC on the damaged right back corner of the case.

Everything looks so much smaller on the displays above, but there are soooo many more pixels on the playing field of the Ti.

Dedicated, quarantined Win10 and Ubuntu Firefox workstations are my only vice. Did some SpreadSheet work in OpenOffice, but that'll probably migrate to AppleWorks ere long. I cannot abide by the overly complicated, shortcut menu infested windows of modern apps.

Very happy, grateful and proud, daddy here!

 

[HrutkayMods]

Here’s my third project of the month… I made a touchscreen eMac

 

[phunguss]

Day 20

Still trying to piece together more iBooks. I pulled a 1.0GHz motherboard from a 14" iBook and solder swapped the battery terminals so it will fit into a 12" iBook frame.

Seems to work so far. Just have to finish pulling together the rest of the parts.

I stopped by Free Geek Twin CIties and got a bag of misc screws for 25 cents. Lots of iMac hard drive screws, some eMac side screws, and some 2.5 iBook drive screws.

Then I spotted this demon. A 15" PowerBook G4 DLSD 1.67GHz project for $25, listed as a bad screen.

Why not? I could use more projects and troubles...

Day 21

Assessing the damage on the DLSD: funky screen

Mashed up power corner

Bent screen frame

External monitor shows:

If I wiggle the screen, I can get it to clear up, so obviously its an issue with the LVDS cable.

Disassembly of the entire screen to straighten the frame, and I find the right hinge full of crud. Obviously the crud has been damaging the cable.

Back to the 3rd iBook G3 500MHz... I disassembled and reassembled a couple more times, finally stuck some padding under the GPU and was able to get it stable. Hillbilly fix, but it works for now.

 

[PowerRCP-G3]

Just to recap, here's what's been going on within the last couple of days. I am on my final week for this video series.

Day 15

I started processing some clips from Final Cut Express for my upcoming video project and then I started watching King of the Hill on my iMac G4 to pass the time.

Day 16

I got more clips processed and ready to go. This project is time-consuming due to the fact that FCX is a lot different from my main M1 laptop. But, that's what this challenge is all about. Learning new stuff. I also started drawing on the iMac G4.

 

[phunguss]

Day 22/23

I disassembled the PowerBook G4 15" DLSD and pulled out the LVDS cable. Continuity test showed all pins good end to end. Reinstalled the LVDS cable and wiggled it while powered on... no artifacts. I reached up to tilt the screen and got artifacts... further testing shows the left side of the LCD is sensitive to pressure and causes the distortions. I guess it's time to order a replacement screen. I may fiddle with the left side, but I am guessing I will only cause further damage.

While I had it open, the PRAM battery is not the coin type, but a Lithium Polymer battery. It was very swollen, so a replacement is on order.

 

[PowerRCP-G3]

Here we are. Sorry for the wait. But, I managed to get another video done and I'm going to tell you guys what happened on Days 17 and 18.

Day 17

With the Gran Turismo 2 Daihatsu challenge run video nearing completion, it was evident that had a few more clips to process after I got all of the clips in the GT Nationals portion of the video done. Next to go were the league race clips and the GT World Championship. I also started drawing on one of my macs.

Day 18

Ran into a bit of a snag with the final clip as it didn't fully process in HandBrake. So, I had to play the DVD on a DVD player and get a DVD recorder to dub the footage. Eventually, I got all clips finished with no trouble at all. And, I got my drawing finished! All that was left was to finish up on the video itself as it took me days to finish.

 

[phunguss]

Day 24

I went through all the 12" iBook parts again.. I think I can piece together 3 more with some additional parts. Probably won't get those completed for this year's challenge. I had no PPC laptops during last year's challenge, and since then I have purchased about 20 parts machines and I currently have 8 fully working ones plus the additional 3 that I think I can resurrect. Maybe I can sell the leftover parts to recoup some of the monies.

Day 25

I decided to finally dig into the 4x SIL3114 PCI SATA controllers I have (flashing for PPC Mac use). I bought sockets because the EEPROMs on board are not easy to flash from OS9 (12v required) and I thought it would give me a chance to try some hot air reflow tools and micro-soldering. Read all about these cards on the Impossibru! thread.

Having never hot air removed components before, I found a scrap board and removed a chip.

Seemed to work ok, so went to town on 3 of the 4 boards (one is mac flashed already).

I thought I did ok, but after some solder wick cleanup, I discovered I removed a lot of pads on two of the boards. OOPS!

I can't find my Bodge Wire I purchased, so I ordered some more. Meanwhile I used a continuity tester to trace back the pads to the other endpoints on the main SIL3114 chip (numbers are references for me, not the actual pin numbers).

The one board that I did not mangle, I was able to solder a socket onto. I now have to dig out my programmer and flash the EEPROM and snap it in.

 

[PowerRCP-G3]

Day 20

I was getting my final clip for my video project ready and it took awhile to process. This is the last one before it's completely finished. Aside from that, I've also been doing some art and playing more Unreal Tournament 2003 on the iMac G4.

 

[iBookSpeedster88]

This is my iMac G5. It is the late-2005 17-inch "iSight" model with 2.5GB of RAM. Folks on MacRumors got 4.5GB of RAM to be registered on the 20-inch model, but I was unsure whether or not the same 4.5GB RAM mod could be applied to the 17-inch model as I didn't see anyone mention the 17-inch and all the iMacs that were used in their testing were 20-inch models, but I digress. 2.5GB is plenty for my use case.

I initially tried doing Target Disk Mode over FireWire from my iBook G4 to the iMac G5. I chose not to select to transfer user accounts since the user account belonging to the iBook G4 is the literal full name of the previous owner, and I don't want his name and other individual stuff that may still be on the iBook to be transferred over to this iMac out of respect. This is the same iBook G4 mid-2005 model that was used in last year's PowerPC challenge.

Well, Target Disk Mode got botched. It eventually froze and the blue barber pole loading bar stopped moving. After waiting for a few minutes, nothing progressed. The iBook's battery died, too, so Target Disk Mode failed in both ways. I made sure the iBook was at 100% battery before beginning, but maybe the battery degraded in the last year. I wanted to get my software and documents over to the iMac so I wouldn't have to manually do that with each of my PowerPC Macs. Foregoing Target Disk Mode, I just left the two computers alone normally and configured FireWire-over-IP (FireWire/IP) to transfer files between the computers without the use of a flash drive. I was able to copy the files over, but I kept dropping connections, forcing me to terminate the link and restart the link again. Why is my FireWire dropping connections like this?

Here I am installing Leopard-exclusive programs or Leopard-exclusive updates to programs already installed. I think there's about 120 or so PowerPC Leopard exclusive programs or newer versions of programs I have installed that require 10.5 Leopard. Also, since I'm manually moving the programs over to the iMac, certain programs are unable to be deleted because they think they still belong to the user that's on the iBook. The programs get confused because my iMac is under a different user. Naturally, it doesn't know that I am the same person controlling both computers, so it denies me permission to delete certain programs that have this permission block. I tried various methods to restore permissions or "repair permissions" is what I think it's actually called, including using a terminal command. It's not a big deal, I don't think, since it won't be every day that I'm deleting or modifying the files in the Applications folder. It's only for this lengthy process of replacing programs that have newer versions that require Leopard, which the iBook is running Tiger and cannot run those programs, but this iMac can. I have to individually change the "Sharing & Permissions" section when you press Command+I or "Get Info" on a selected file and set the read/write permission to "everyone" so I can delete a program. I also installed a custom black dock and Leopard theme that changes the traffic light window control buttons to a dark blue color and the global menu bar, too. It's called "Soliq" and is available for download on DeviantArt. Unfortunately, DeviantArt for the past few years requires you to log in with an account to download anything and is infested with AI "art" now, unlike the good old days when the colors were muted shades of green instead of a JavaScript-infected unnavigable black void.

After I had finished for the day, I tried emptying the trash. There was 60,000+ files being deleted and it was crawling at a snail's pace, deleting a dozen files every few seconds it felt like.

I cancelled the operation, restarted the computer, and ordered the trash to be emptied again. This time is zoomed by at a reasonable speed. Interesting setback.

​

WI-FI TROUBLE​

One thing I did not photograph was an issue I have constantly with this iMac. It doesn't remember my network and I must manually connect to it. I'm wondering if anyone knows why this happens. It is the only computer in my room that does this so far. The iMac runs 10.5.8, but I checked the software update prompt and saw that I hadn't downloaded the 2011 security update and Java update among other small post-10.5.8 updates like iTunes 10.6.3. I connected to my Wi-Fi network and allowed the updates to download and restarted the computer, only to be prompted with a warning that said "updates not found", so I redid the process and Software Update had to download the updates again. Well, it turns out that my iMac G5 does NOT ever remember my Wi-Fi network. It has amnesia. After every time the computer is turned on, I must manually add my network again and connect to it, even after selecting the check box "remember this network". No other computer I have does this I noticed. If I select the Wi-Fi symbol in the global menu bar and turn off Wi-Fi, then turn it back on again, the iMac discovers the available networks but doesn't automatically connect to the one I've been connecting to, so it has the same effect as what happens when the computer is turned off and on again. I had to go to the Macintosh Garden and retrieve the post-10.5.8 updates from there and install them individually on this iMac. I actually don't have any ideas to understand this behavior, actually, so I'm throwing the ball into your court to figure this peculiarity out.

 

[phunguss]

This is my iMac G5. It is the late-2005 17-inch "iSight" model with 2.5GB of RAM. Folks on MacRumors got 4.5GB of RAM to be registered on the 20-inch model, but I was unsure whether or not the same 4.5GB RAM mod could be applied to the 17-inch model as I didn't see anyone mention the 17-inch and all the iMacs that were used in their testing were 20-inch models, but I digress. 2.5GB is plenty for my use case.

I initially tried doing Target Disk Mode over FireWire from my iBook G4 to the iMac G5. I chose not to select to transfer user accounts since the user account belonging to the iBook G4 is the literal full name of the previous owner, and I don't want his name and other individual stuff that may still be on the iBook to be transferred over to this iMac out of respect. This is the same iBook G4 mid-2005 model that was used in last year's PowerPC challenge.

View attachment 19759

Well, Target Disk Mode got botched. It eventually froze and the blue barber pole loading bar stopped moving. After waiting for a few minutes, nothing progressed. The iBook's battery died, too, so Target Disk Mode failed in both ways. I made sure the iBook was at 100% battery before beginning, but maybe the battery degraded in the last year. I wanted to get my software and documents over to the iMac so I wouldn't have to manually do that with each of my PowerPC Macs. Foregoing Target Disk Mode, I just left the two computers alone normally and configured FireWire-over-IP (FireWire/IP) to transfer files between the computers without the use of a flash drive. I was able to copy the files over, but I kept dropping connections, forcing me to terminate the link and restart the link again. Why is my FireWire dropping connections like this?

View attachment 19760

Here I am installing Leopard-exclusive programs or Leopard-exclusive updates to programs already installed. I think there's about 120 or so PowerPC Leopard exclusive programs or newer versions of programs I have installed that require 10.5 Leopard. Also, since I'm manually moving the programs over to the iMac, certain programs are unable to be deleted because they think they still belong to the user that's on the iBook. The programs get confused because my iMac is under a different user. Naturally, it doesn't know that I am the same person controlling both computers, so it denies me permission to delete certain programs that have this permission block. I tried various methods to restore permissions or "repair permissions" is what I think it's actually called, including using a terminal command. It's not a big deal, I don't think, since it won't be every day that I'm deleting or modifying the files in the Applications folder. It's only for this lengthy process of replacing programs that have newer versions that require Leopard, which the iBook is running Tiger and cannot run those programs, but this iMac can. I have to individually change the "Sharing & Permissions" section when you press Command+I or "Get Info" on a selected file and set the read/write permission to "everyone" so I can delete a program. I also installed a custom black dock and Leopard theme that changes the traffic light window control buttons to a dark blue color and the global menu bar, too. It's called "Soliq" and is available for download on DeviantArt. Unfortunately, DeviantArt for the past few years requires you to log in with an account to download anything and is infested with AI "art" now, unlike the good old days when the colors were muted shades of green instead of a JavaScript-infected unnavigable black void.

View attachment 19761

After I had finished for the day, I tried emptying the trash. There was 60,000+ files being deleted and it was crawling at a snail's pace, deleting a dozen files every few seconds it felt like.

View attachment 19762


I cancelled the operation, restarted the computer, and ordered the trash to be emptied again. This time is zoomed by at a reasonable speed. Interesting setback.

View attachment 19763

​

WI-FI TROUBLE​

One thing I did not photograph was an issue I have constantly with this iMac. It doesn't remember my network and I must manually connect to it. I'm wondering if anyone knows why this happens. It is the only computer in my room that does this so far. The iMac runs 10.5.8, but I checked the software update prompt and saw that I hadn't downloaded the 2011 security update and Java update among other small post-10.5.8 updates like iTunes 10.6.3. I connected to my Wi-Fi network and allowed the updates to download and restarted the computer, only to be prompted with a warning that said "updates not found", so I redid the process and Software Update had to download the updates again. Well, it turns out that my iMac G5 does NOT ever remember my Wi-Fi network. It has amnesia. After every time the computer is turned on, I must manually add my network again and connect to it, even after selecting the check box "remember this network". No other computer I have does this I noticed. If I select the Wi-Fi symbol in the global menu bar and turn off Wi-Fi, then turn it back on again, the iMac discovers the available networks but doesn't automatically connect to the one I've been connecting to, so it has the same effect as what happens when the computer is turned off and on again. I had to go to the Macintosh Garden and retrieve the post-10.5.8 updates from there and install them individually on this iMac. I actually don't have any ideas to understand this behavior, actually, so I'm throwing the ball into your court to figure this peculiarity out.

Wifi Issues: Just throwing some wild guesses out there.
-Did you check the G5 PRAM battery?
-Is your time/date set correctly?
-Did you create a new account on the G5 or are you using an account from elsewhere that was transferred (maybe permissions or preferences are set incorrectly)?
-What type of wifi are you running (a/b/g/n/ac and is the G5 fully compatible)?

 

[phunguss]

Day 26

I found a different power plug for my Apple Pro Speakers mini amp, so I modified my files and started printing 3 more cases in white.

And I will likely print the 5th one in Gray. The White PLA seems to be softer than black, and the layers are quite a bit more visible in the white. This is likely due to my printer needing some tuning as well as the old slicer I am using under High Sierra.

 

[PowerRCP-G3]

Just to recap, here's what happened on the last day of Three Weeks of PowerPC. The Gran Turismo 2 Daihatsu challenge run video is finished and I continued work on my SketchUp model. On the iMac G4 side, I played ClassiCube and Unreal Tournament 2003 on it for the last time this year. And in order to celebrate, I watched Deadpool and Wolverine on the iBook G4 before it's back to normal. It's been fun doing this challenge and I hope to do it again next year.

 

[iBookSpeedster88]

Wifi Issues: Just throwing some wild guesses out there.
-Did you check the G5 PRAM battery?
-Is your time/date set correctly?
-Did you create a new account on the G5 or are you using an account from elsewhere that was transferred (maybe permissions or preferences are set incorrectly)?
-What type of wifi are you running (a/b/g/n/ac and is the G5 fully compatible)?

Thanks for responding,

The internal clock is operating normally. I don't get the typical message that goes something along the lines of, "the internal clock battery is not set. Date and time may not be accurate" disclaimer at startup. It remembers my date, time, and time zone. I checked within System Preferences to confirm that the iMac's time is the time that is reflected on my other clocks.

I did create a new (admin) account for this challenge. If I recall correctly, I might have chosen to select to transfer Network settings during the botched Migration Assistant over FireWire setup and that might have done something wonky. I have a picture of the transfer prompt with everything selected but I know I de-selected at least one item, that one being the user personal information settings.

My Wi-Fi router is quite new and offers Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) speeds and is capable of down throttling its connection down to the 802.11g Wi-Fi ("AirPort Extreme") that my PowerPC Macs utilize. My iBook G4 (mid-2005) has no issues connecting to the network via this Wi-Fi 6 router and always remembers to connect to it automatically after originally authenticating with the WPA password only once when I first connected it to the network. This iMac G5 has no issues getting online once it is online, but it's just an inconvenience for me to have to manually connect it to the network each time I choose to terminate its wireless connection or turn the computer on again. Here I have System Preferences open to the Network tab and the rightmost window is what pops up when I turn on the Wi-Fi. I've selected my network and authenticated with the WPA password and selected "Remember this network", but this particular Mac neglects all that for some reason I have yet to find an explanation to:

Having to manually set read/write permissions for applications in the Applications folder is the only other gripe, but after all my Leopard-specific versions of software get copied over to the Applications folder when replacing the old Tiger-specific versions of said software, then I won't have to bother with the folder anymore. This possibly could have inadvertently been all my fault trying to rush things but choosing saving hours of time with Migration Assistant over manually getting my iMac up to speed with the modifications and program installations and System Settings Preferences panes is understandably much more preferable. I could wipe the iMac's drive and start again by doing a clean install of Leopard but it's also at the point where I've got almost everything set up the way I want it to anyways that starting over just for the possibility of having Wi-Fi connectivity issues solved might be asking too much in my mind. I could still do it just for the sake of this challenge since nothing valuable data-wise is exclusive to my iMac and I could have a go at installing w1ckn1x's Lubuntu Remix operating system, but I like Leopard on this iMac and I plan on getting Linux on the PowerMac G5 after I hopefully get a working SSD. Still waiting on the two I ordered! They are almost here as of this writing! I plan to set everything up manually on the PowerMac G5 once Sorbet Leopard gets installed to a compatible SSD, if that happens. Speaking of which, the user "Project Alice" on the MacRumors forum also purchased an OWC Electra 3G SSD under the promise that it had PowerPC compatibility, but discovered that it now does not because OWC manufactures them differently. "Project Alice" tried using it in an iMac G5 iSight model, which is much more difficult to disassembly than its direct predecessor. Well, looks like we both learned our lesson through trial and error, haha.

You can view the thread here at this link: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...o-work-in-imac-g5s-and-power-mac-g5s.2375683/

Oh, I forgot to mention that, while unrelated, this iMac uses a 3rd party black plug. When connected to any outlet, like in my power surge protector I plug it in to, it makes a high-pitched noise. I don't know whether to describe it as a whistling or buzzing sound or not. It's reminiscent of fluorescent lightbulbs humming but obviously on a much lesser scale. It's not noticeable when operating the iMac since music and/or the fans whirring drowns it out completely. In fact, now that I've turned off the iMac, I think the outlet sound might only occur until after the computer is turned off, but it sure is audible throughout the whole room when it happens. I chalk it up to it being a 3rd party plug. I once thought that it might be that too much power is being drawn from the outlet, since a television and another iMac is connected to the same surge protector, but perished the thought once I unplugged everything else but the iMac and noticed that the sound is still there. My solution is that I just unplug the iMac once I'm done using it. Problem solved.

 

[phunguss]

Day 27

I received some "for parts only" iBook batteries. A couple charged up, but I am sure have no holding power. One actually had screws, so it was easy to disassemble. The others are likely hours of glue busting work. I will have to order about 24 cells and see what happens.

Day 28

Dug out an Intel NUC with Windows 10 to run the EEPROM programming software on. Flashed the SIL3114-MAC rom and installed it in the socket I added to my card (the good one... two others need some bodge work). Boots off all 4 ports in OS X (no os9 support, but I have ATA-SATA adapters for that).

 

[iBookSpeedster88]

As I waited for my two SSDs to arrive for my PowerMac G5, I decided to take a detour. This is my PowerBook G4 5,8, the late-2005 15-inch model with 2GB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive ... and a non-functioning F7 key and a dead battery, the latter of which you can tell from the photograph. Naturally, the time is off and must be set manually.

I'm planning to make this my first dedicated MorphOS machine. I don't know why everyone is obsessed with flashing Linux, Mac OS X, or MorphOS to a USB thumb drive and doing OpenFirmware hackery to get a PowerPC Mac to boot from the thumb drive when just burning the operating system's disk image to a CD or DVD and booting from that is much easier and hassle-free. I get it if your optical drive is dead, but otherwise this is just simpler. I have a stack of CD-R discs and I used one to burn the MorphOS installer to the disc. The burn was successful, despite my PowerBook's optical drive first rejecting the CD and spitting it out after making strained sputtering noises at first. After putting the CD in the second time, the PowerBook accepted the disc and Mac OS X asked what I wanted to do with it, signifying that the CD was accepted. I used an open source program called "SimplyBurns" that's hosted on SourceForge. It works with Tiger and Leopard. A few short minutes later and the burn was successful. The MorphOS installer is just above 400MB in size, so a 700MB CD is more than adequate to store it as a bootable medium. Disk Utility shows that the CD is now mountable and has the MorphOS installer burned to it, so it's time to eject the CD-R and turn the PowerBook off, holding the C key and inserting the CD as the machine turns on.

Ah, here awaits a beautiful Amiga-like experience! Let's just hope my optical drive doesn't conk out one day.

I didn't want to install MorphOS just yet. I want an SSD in this once top-of-the-line laptop. 120GB is not plenty, and at a speed of 5400rpm, it's not speedy, either. I have one of those generic IDE-to-mSATA adapters with a 256GB mSATA SSD mounted to it. Here is a photograph of the assembly in progress:

After removing the battery, the RAM door, and plenty of different length philips screws, plus the two (I think) T6 torx screws above the keyboard, I opened the laptop body to reveal the rather clean innards. There are three screws remaining; the ones on the metal bracket between the hard drive and the optical drive.

The final screw stripped ... Lovely....​

My current situation is eerily the exact same as this individual on the MacRumors forum: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/help-i-stripped-a-screw.2250987/. It's my last screw and I need to get this bracket off. I believe after I get the hard drive out, the bracket itself is not needed for my SSD. Hard drives move and vibrate and are susceptible to shock damage, hence the retaining bracket. I could just discard the bracket altogether if and when I get the SSD in there. I've tried the rubber band method, a bigger screw bit, the tape method, and I tried pliers but it was too tight a squeeze to get anything plus the screw is still flush with the bracket. I tried superglue but this glue is at least 15 years old at this point. If I get new superglue, I'll probably retry that method. The last resort I know of is to drill into the screw to destroy it, but that's risky in this example, don't you think? Well, in any case, I am at yet another impediment with my PowerPC Macs. Can't something good happen to me for a change? Also, the PowerBook did not survive the disassembly unscathed. A little bit of plastic perimeter broke off. Observe:

I stored the different screws into plastic bags and segregated them based on screw location. Screws belonging to the RAM door go in a separate bag and screws belonging to the battery compartment go in a separate bag, and so on. I was tempted to reassemble the PowerBook and call it quits on the SSD upgrade, but I did not. The PowerBook is still sitting lonely (somewhere else not on my dining room table). Here is my current situation with various tools and other mess strung about:

Any help on getting this stripped screw removed is welcomed, please. Thanks in advance.