Five Ibooks !

[30pin]

I just picked up these ibooks as parts from a local seller. All have issues. Three G4 Ibooks and two G3 Ibooks. No video at all on the 1.33ghz Ibook, it bongs on start up. Damaged screen(1/2 of it works) on the 1ghz G4, boots and runs fine. The third G4 is a 1.2ghz model, it bongs on start up and the screen lights up with nothing on it? The last two are G3's (500mhz & 600mhz) Both have video problems. If you squeeze them the video will stay on. I really want to get the G4's working if possible. Since the G3's have the video chip problem, I am hoping to swap their screens onto the G4's. I am going to start on the 1ghz Ibook as I know everything works on it. The screen is physically damaged, but the video is working fine. It would be nice to get two good working G4's out of this pile! Any thoughts on the G4 that lights up but does nothing??

 

[30pin]

I did a bit of research on the web about swapping LCD's and got busy. It took me an hour to disassemble the two ibooks, swap in the good LCD, close everything up and test. I think I can do a swap in thirty minutes now that I got through it the first time. The now working G4 ibook has 1.07 cpu, 1.25gb of ram, 30gb hardrive. The donor G3/500 had some good parts besides the LCD. It was upgraded somewhere along the line. I got a 70gb hardrive, dvd-rom drive, 256mb ram strip, airport card and a good battery to add to my parts supply! The G4 1.33 is next in line.

 

[Temetka]

Excellent score.

Also I love your user name.

 

[Nathan]

If I recall the video problem was that the gpu /video chip becomes detached from the logic board in come cases. At least for G3s? Possibly this might be of some use to you?

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/06/25/repair-your-ibooks-logic-board-with-a-candle/

 

[Nathan]

Oh and by the way, SCORE! Just one working one is worth all the rest. Try and get them all working if possible, that would be very cool and environmentally friendly.

 

[30pin]

The 1.33ghz ibook is a bit more challenging!! I figured out that the video problem is due to a bad cable. The no start problem was actually a dead hardrive. I swapped in a good one and everything started up as it should. But it also has a faulty dvd-rom drive. So it looks like the third G4 ibook will turn into a donor for its LCD cable and dvd-rom drive. Those parts will not swap from the G3 ibooks. Lots of great fixes for the ibooks on the net. I thought the one brought up on an ealier post was great!! Flames on the motherboard

 

[Nathan]

For curiosity's sake, what ya gonna do with the two that work?

 

[30pin]

My boys will get these two. It is a big step forward from the CF-27 Toughbook they usually share. I will try some of the motherboard fixes and see if I can get one of the other ones going for myself!

 

[Nathan]

Lucky them, hope they appreciate it!