Apostrophe
Well-known member
Hi,
My dad has a platinum PowerBook G4 laptop that has been acting strange lately. When you hit the power button, a gray screen comes up and the little wheel made up of lines facing the center starts spinning, which is normal. But it keeps spinning...and spinning...and spinning...in fact, Dad left it on for several hours once, just to see if it would ever boot up. But the wheel kept spinning...and spinning... and spinning...
Obviously, he wants it fixed. Looking through these forums, at various computer failures, my hypothesis is that a capacitor is leaking. Is this the case? Anyway, acting on this theory, I opened the laptop (which was quite a hassle, believe me. It'll take a while to figure out where all the screws go to close it up :-/ ) I looked at the circuit board, which had no visible capacitors. I can only assume that any existing capacitors are on the other side. Now, I have never in my life opened a laptop before, so I am a complete newbie at this. I know that to some of you, this will be a stupid question, but do G4 laptops even have capacitors?
Assuming they do (I think they do, but as I said, I've never opened a laptop, so I have to be sure, right?) how do I go about taking off the circuit board?
To clear things up, I have no intention whatsoever of fixing anything unless it's something I know I'll be able to do. My goal for now is just pinpointing the problem.
Any helpful comments or suggestions are welcome!
-Apostrophe
My dad has a platinum PowerBook G4 laptop that has been acting strange lately. When you hit the power button, a gray screen comes up and the little wheel made up of lines facing the center starts spinning, which is normal. But it keeps spinning...and spinning...and spinning...in fact, Dad left it on for several hours once, just to see if it would ever boot up. But the wheel kept spinning...and spinning... and spinning...
Obviously, he wants it fixed. Looking through these forums, at various computer failures, my hypothesis is that a capacitor is leaking. Is this the case? Anyway, acting on this theory, I opened the laptop (which was quite a hassle, believe me. It'll take a while to figure out where all the screws go to close it up :-/ ) I looked at the circuit board, which had no visible capacitors. I can only assume that any existing capacitors are on the other side. Now, I have never in my life opened a laptop before, so I am a complete newbie at this. I know that to some of you, this will be a stupid question, but do G4 laptops even have capacitors?
Assuming they do (I think they do, but as I said, I've never opened a laptop, so I have to be sure, right?) how do I go about taking off the circuit board?
To clear things up, I have no intention whatsoever of fixing anything unless it's something I know I'll be able to do. My goal for now is just pinpointing the problem.
Any helpful comments or suggestions are welcome!
-Apostrophe