Chosen Solution

Another day, another disaster. Husband bought this for me to fix for him. (says I hog the Mac..don’t know why he thinks that) Advertised as not powering on. Opened the box, pressed the power button and you can hear the hard drive/fans/chime but the LCD is black…no faint images/no cracks etc that I could see. Decided to try the cheap route first and bought the LCD data cable. Opened the iBook up and discovered someone has been here before…some screws missing, Looks like they have done the same repair I planned. Unfortunately there are about 6 stripped screws(+ the missing ones) I planned to just use only the essentials when I put it back together. So the point here is..are any screws a ground etc or vital to the original location? part 2 of the question..Would you suspect the LCD if it is entirely black? I went for the connection idea because the wires go through the hinge…are these ibooks plagued with graphics card problems and would it give a black screen?

Update This isjust in case anyone ever wants to know which screw goes where…right toward the end of this document is a screw guide and location guide..all free. Update ok..have had time to consider options and am going with oldturkeys brilliant suggestion of glue. I didn’t think I had enough to make a connection but I don’t think size matters here…just need a connection! I have tried soldering what I have, cleaned, fluxed.. solder seems frightened of the board! so have ordered something like this I’ll let you know when I get the glue and the “bodge” done. Thanks to all who have tried to help :-) Update right have received glue (£5 for 9ml..looks to be enough to glue 300 boards, a real bargain!)..all the way from the USA! waiting for it to cure before I try the start up, but thankyou so much oldturkey for reminding me of this product. Must remember to use brain more often and think outside the box!

I don’t think that the solder pads under the board are related to the power switch. To restore the two solder pads of the power switch you need to apply flux to the two circuits then just a small drop of solder at the end of each circuit. Flux will clean the area where you want to restore the solder pads and using it gives a better chance to obtain solder pads that will stay on board and make a good connection. When your solder pads are restored just solder your two power switch cables to them. Good luck…

If you thinks it’s booting up, hook it up to an external monitor to see if it is a video problem. Meanwhile boot it into Target mode via a firewire cable and run disk utilities on the hard drive. Let us know your results and we can go from there.

As mentioned before on this thread, use an external monitor. Here’s a very common issue with the iBook (G3&G4). All laptops have a wire bundle leading from the Motherboard to the Display, via the inverter. Most techs quickly assume one of two things, either the inverer is bad (most common display issue in all model laptops, not sure why). Or, the systemboard, daughterboard or GPU has overheated and failed. Both are fixable in many cases, requiring something as simple as replacing the inverter to something as complex and time consuming as a GPU “Reflow”. And, yes, this does apply to Apple Tech’s as well. The true issue, is a bit more illusive, but, quite easily fixed. Provided you can find a “Display Wiring Harness/Bundle” that has NOT come from an already effected unit. Here in Lies the Rub… The “Display Wiring Harness” is positioned in such a way that after many open’s and closes, wriggles it’s way loose and becomes pressed against the corner of the hinge (Left Hand Side). This is just enough to cause the wires inside the bundle to rub against one and other causing the outer Teflon coating to become bare in this spot. This is pretty easy to identify, since the outer covering of this harness will be worn or abraded at that pinch point. Although this doesn’t always happen, it is often visible. Now hear’s the Rub of the Rub, once these wires have made contact, they often cause a “Dead Short” or “Dead Ground” either of these allow the circuit to complete prior to reaching the display/inverter. If this is a “Dead Ground”, it most likely has not caused any permanent damage to the board or inverter. However, if this is a “Dead Short” it has completed the circuit without resistance and will most likely result in a fried circuit path on the board or inverter. So, quick identification of the issue is key in making a proper diagnosis, and not just the immediate “Hands in the Air”, “It’s dead” conclusion offered by way too many techs. Quickest solution, with minimal cost, replace the “Display Wiring Bundle/Harness” first (since this will almost always be bad, and if not, you can use it as a diagnositic tool on the next machine). Then the inverter. If the display has not lit up, then you’ve most likely been left with a bad board. But, at least you have properly diagnosed the issue and are the customers new TECH Hero, or if it’s bad news, at least YOU know that you’ve done this the right way! Hope this helps, Good Luck